First AG Oktoberfest

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Slowfro

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Hey I'm looking at doing an Oktoberfest soon to have it ready for fall, and need some help. I'm wondering what anyone thinks of the recipe, and also what people's thoughts are on constant-temp fermentation and aging, without doing the full lagering of dropping the temps down. Here's what I'm thinking for recipe....

6.25# pilsner malt
2# dark munich malt
1# vienna
0.5# medium crystal malt
0.5# biscuit

Mash 30 mins at 135° with 9qts water. Add 5qts at 180° to bring temp to 150° and hold for 60 minutes. Sparge to get pre-boil volume of 6.5gallons, 1 hour boil for 5.5 gallon batch.

1.5 oz. Tettnang 4% alpha acid 60 minutes
1 oz. Spalt 3% alpha acid 30 minutes
Bavarian or Munich lager yeast(Wyeast 2308 or WLP-820)
1 cup Briess amber DME (for priming)

I found this in one of my BYO magazines, and was wondering what dry yeast might work well, and also what people thought of using regular priming sugar rather than the DME.

The recipe says to ferment 1 week between 50 and 55°, then rack to secondary for 4 weeks at 45°, bottle and age 6 weeks at 40°. What are results like if you just ferment and condition/age in the low 60's?

Thanks for the Tips!
 
I personally would not use crystal or biscuit in a German beer, but I have never tried it so maybe it will be a winner. The hops look good to me.

As for the yeast, I would avoid a lager strain if you can't control the temps. Do you have a big cooler you could sit the fermenter in? You can use a water bath and ice to maintain lager temps.

If you will have a ferment temp of 60 (not ambient temp) then any Koelsch yeast will give you an OK psuedo lager. I would suggest that if you can't control the temps.

Regular sugar is just fine.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/oktoberfestbier-lager-brouwerij-boerderij-kabouter-122076/
 
I have a 2nd fridge (already full of beer of course) I can try to clean up to get a fermenter in there, and try to calibrate it for the temps, I just wasn't sure how things might go if those steps were bypassed.

I checked the link you posted and it sounds like you were very happy with the batch you made. I might have to modify it for a 5.5 gallon batch.

Any special notes or advice from your brew day that you'd care to share? How were your temps for the protein and sacc rests?

Thanks - I've only done 1 AG batch so far (actually bottling it tonight...ESB) so any tips you have would be great.

Cheers!
 
That Oktoberfest I brewed last year is the best beer I have brewed. The brewday was perfect, ferm temps locked in, and the finished beer was perfect. I almost never toot my own horn, but that beer was damn good.

I would try to get the fridge thing going.

If you are going to dot he decos, watch the decoction videos at braukaiser.com and make sure you pull more deco volume than your calcs call for, I always need it.
 
Ha, I was gonna say I sometimes use a little Aromatic and IF I use any crystal-type malts then I use Caramunich (more malty/less caramelly than most crystal malts) and not too much...then I clicked on BK's linked recipe. That looks really good imo.

I decent dry lager yeast is the W34/70, it's allegedly the same strain as the Wyeast Bohemian Pils #2124 and White Labs German Lager WLP830. That's IF you get the temp under control.
 
The W34/70 dry is a good option. Sorry I missed that. I had good results with it last year, but preferred the Wyeast 2007 (Pilsen Lager). It finished a touch drier and had a much cleaner profile.
 
That looks like a very american-style recipe, it's going to taste like a microbrewery's attempt at oktoberfest rather than the real thing. If that's what you're looking for then you're going to love it.

The germans just use a mixture of pilsner/vienna/munich, and it MUST be german malt, and maybe a hint of carapils (although i think that's more of a helles thing). I think your hop level is a bit high as well, I haven't tasted any hop flavor or aroma in a german oktoberfest.

boil pilsner malt beers 90 minutes, and i recommend 'saflager weihenstephan lager' yeast for german styles. hope it helps and good luck, this is a tough to get to taste right.
 
boil pilsner malt beers 90 minutes, and i recommend 'saflager weihenstephan lager' yeast for german styles. hope it helps and good luck, this is a tough to get to taste right.

I've done two batches of my Kolsch with over 80% Pilsner malt and only did 60 minute boils, what's the difference there?
 
I've done two batches of my Kolsch with over 80% Pilsner malt and only did 60 minute boils, what's the difference there?

Since pilsner malt is kilned at a lower temperature, there are more DMS precursors that need to be boiled off, so a 90 minute boil is typical for recipes with pilsner malt. I know many people have successfully done 60 minute boils with pilsner malt, but I just always go with a 90 minute boil anytime I use pilsner malt.
 
pilsner malt contains a lot of S-Methylmethionine (SMM) which is a DMS precursor. Long boil ensures you drive them all away.

keep it simple for oktoberfests. mine is 80% vienna, 20% munich 20L
 
And.....a "real" Oktoberfest must be done with lager yeast, and fermented at 50 degrees, followed by about 8 weeks at 34 degrees.

If you can't do that, it's probably better to use a "clean" well attenuating ale yeast, to mimic a lager. It will not be the same as an Oktoberfest, but it will be a nice beer. I wouldn't use a lager yeast in the 60s, as it will produce tons of sulfur and other not-nice flavors and aromas.
 
Thanks for the tips everyone. I put a thermometer inside my 2nd fridge to calibrate the temps for lagering so I can try to do it right the first time.

Other than modifying the malts (say 80 Vienna 20 munich) does the hop schedule/selection look ok?

Thanks!
 
i think the germans just do bittering hops and let the malt do all the talking for this style. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am :D.
 
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