marzen style ale

10# pils
4# munich
12 oz caramunich

3/4 oz tettnanger @ 60
1/2 oz tettnanger @ 30
1/2 oz tettnanger @ 10

mashed @ 156-155
US-05

OG 1065 SG 1016 ABV 6.4% IBU 23
eff 78%

nice malty flavor from the munich. will probably use some aromatic malt next time for more malt aroma. hops are hardly present if at all. fermented in the upper 60's and may have touched 70, leaving some fruity notes that i'm not very happy about but that should be able to be fixed with a lower temp next time. this was kegged @ 2 1/2 weeks, and it was a little cloudy-this crystal clear picture was after about a month in the keg. next time around i will ferment lower, mash a touch lower to 154 ( i over shot this time), drop the pils down a lb or so and cold crash prior to kegging. it is still pretty yummy though

Coincidentally, I was thinking of how best to do a Maerzen as as ale. I think the Safale 05 fermented cold is a good choice. What about using all Vienna malt rather than Pilsener + Munich?

Dos_Locos_Brewery said:

Coincidentally, I was thinking of how best to do a Maerzen as as ale. I think the Safale 05 fermented cold is a good choice. What about using all Vienna malt rather than Pilsener + Munich?

Click to expand...

that would probably give the same effect, as long as you had some type of cara-malt for the style. as well i would think. i've never used a full bill of vienna, i just thought using pils and munich would give it a really crisp lager-ish taste. plus the recipes i saw used this combo.... but vienna should work.

maybe 12# vienna, 1 lb caravienna, 8 oz aromatic fermented low 60's. tasty.

I would advise against the aromatic malt. It's just not the same aroma as what you get from Munich malt and a decoction. What I would recommend is do a single decoction to get to your mash-out temp, make sure you do a 90-minute boil, and ditch the 10-minute hop addition. My Oktoberfest this year was a simple 50% Pils/50% Munich grain bill with a mash temp of 157°F where I did a 15-minute decoction to get it to 168°F. The aroma is awesome. And it looks pretty too!

Windigstadt said:

I would advise against the aromatic malt. It's just not the same aroma as what you get from Munich malt and a decoction. What I would recommend is do a single decoction to get to your mash-out temp, make sure you do a 90-minute boil, and ditch the 10-minute hop addition. My Oktoberfest this year was a simple 50% Pils/50% Munich grain bill with a mash temp of 157°F where I did a 15-minute decoction to get it to 168°F. The aroma is awesome. And it looks pretty too!

Click to expand...

point taken, thanks. by 15 min decoction do you mean a 15 boil? also did you stop at any temps and hold, or just straight from 157 to boiling and back to the mash?