A good Partial OKTOBERFEST!

I need a recipe for a good partial Oktoberfest. I do not have my mash tun set up yet and want to try a half batch soon. Any suggestions?

Look up Biermuncher's Oktoberfast Ale. It has full AG and PM versions.

I brewed my recipe a week ago, and now that the yeast has stopped throwing off SO2 the malty smells are really good.

If you're looking to have something done for this fall, you could use a kolsch or alt yeast, or the San Francisco/California Lager yeast like I am.

The decoction mash isn't really necessary, though it will enhance the malt character a bit. If you skip the decoction, I'd mash at 152F for 75 to 90 minutes.

I can not find the Biermuncher's oktoberfast ale in the recipes. I did a search under spiced ale then under specialty beers then even epa's what are in the recipes is it in??

I think if you mashed 3 lbs. Vienna, 1 lb. dark munich (or light Munich if you like), maybe some caramunich for color, you could probably top it off with some pilsner or pale extract. Hop it with hallertau or tettnang (1.5-2 oz for bittering, .25-.5 oz with 30 min left., .25-.5 oz. with 15 min left). Drop some kolsch yeast on it, you'd probably end up in O-fest town.

Thanks guys! So Oktoberfest is a lager and not an ale? How bad off will i be if I use an Ale yeast? Im still kinda new to this so Im not sure yet.

Robsbrew said:

Thanks guys! So Oktoberfest is a lager and not an ale? How bad off will i be if I use an Ale yeast? Im still kinda new to this so Im not sure yet.

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Yep, Oktoberfest is a classic German lager.

It won't be bad if you make an ale with the same ingredients. It won't be an Oktoberfest, but you could make a very nice facsimile. The key would be to ferment in the low 60s if you can with a clean well attenuating ale yeast. I like nottingham at 60-62 degrees for this, but you could use other ale yeast strains. You want to avoid fruity esters that take away from the malt flavor, and you want to avoid too much crystal malt that might make it cloying instead of quaffable.

Okay, so what is cloying and quaffable?

Robsbrew said:

Okay, so what is cloying and quaffable?

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Well, "cloying" is too sweet. So that it takes effort to actually drink the beer. Quaffable is just the opposite- Oktoberfest style beers should be beers that you want to drink by the gallon.

To me, an oktoberfest style beer is a beer that is rich, malty, and quaffable. It should have a rich malt character without being sweet. I'm not a fan of crystal malts (or at least, there should be just a tiny bit) in an Oktoberfest style beer.

+1 on BM's Octoberfast Ale

But I guess what I'm asking is what is the definitions of cloying and quaffable?