BREWER'S BEST Oktoberfest Question

I have made about 3 "from scratch" batches, with various levels of success. I decided that I wanted to try out a kit to see how good it would be, and so I chose the Oktoberfest kit from Brewer's Best.

I've read through the instructions, and from what I know, the Oktoberfest is a lager, but it has it pretty much listed as fermenting around 70 degrees, which leads me to believe this is an ale type.

Questions is... has anyone tried this? Is it very good if followed by the instructions? Would anyone who has made this make any modifications (fermenting time, temp, etc) that would make it better?

Thanks again.

What type of yeast is included with it? Chances are it is an ale, and therefore, technically not an Oktoberfest. A real Oktoberfest (lager) would be fermented at ~50°F and then lagered for a couple months at ~33°F. It may or may not turn out to be a good beer, but it won't be an Oktoberfest.

I'm sure that uses an ale yeast. An Oktoberfest isn't a bad lager to do as an ale. You could buy lager yeast and lager it if you wanted to. Or you could use an ale yeast like Nottingham and ferment around 60 degrees, which is sort of a middle ground position.

Nottingham dry is the yeast. Will be hard to maintain it at 60 as it is getting warmer where I live. Has anyone actually tried this kit and can give feedback?

I'm interested to see what all ends up happening if you ferment it with that ale yeast... I mean, I know what I think will happen, but just genuinely interested...

I'll be watching this thread...

I'll report back. I have a crawl space that stays a little cooler. I'll put it in there and let it go for a couple weeks

alternativly, you could put your fermenter in a disposable turkey pan, fill with water cover with wet towels and rotate ice packs in and out, that should lower your temp by 8-10 degrees.

I did that kit about 4 years or so ago. I used the ale yeast, and fermented it at 60-62 degrees. I measure the temperature of the fermenting beer, not the air temperature, so the room temperature was probably a bit less. It came out really good! Not exactly "oktoberfest" to style, but it was a good drinkable beer.

This kit was my first brew about 4 months ago, it turned out good. I will say it had a bit of an aftertaste after 3 weeks in the bottle, almost salty, but that faded as the beer aged a few more weeks. Definitely one I would do again.
Cheers,
Brian

I brewed this kit in January. It is a very drinkable beer. It doesn't really taste like an oktoberfest. However, it was only my second batch and I fermented it on the high end (around 70 degrees) of the temp scale. I recommend what troutab81 said about fermenting it at around 60 degrees.

To to awaken an old thread, but since the question was more related to here than any other post figured better here than start a new thread.

I am also doing an Brewer's Best Oktoberfest

I have it currently fermenting away in my garage, in an insulated storage room.. where the temps TEND to stay a stable 55 degree..

Well.. that was until the last two days when temps go into the 60s-70s.. now my beer has gone from stable 55-58 to 61-64

Is this a problem for a few days..? or will I just get a bit more attenuation and then when it cools down outside and gets back to the 50s.. I should be good ? I mean just how "stable" do I need to be.. and am I fine ?

BTW it did this on day 5, I had fermentation at about 36 hours, and since the last few days I have had a 1/4" - 3/8" krausen. Which up until today was pure white.. now it has a lot of brown yeastys on the top of the foam.

I want to say I am ok.. as I didn't go to warm and it was only for a few days in the middle of the primary, and it will be getting colder soon.

Here is what Brewers Best said about temps for this recipe

1) Move the fermenter to a cool, lager-specific, temperature-stable area (approx. 53º - 59ºF).

2) Alternatively the recipe notes: Brewer’s Best® recommends lagering this recipe to achieve the true lager character of
this beer style. However, if you are not properly equipped to lager your beer, the included yeast will perform well when fermented as an ale. When fermenting as an ale (between 64º - 72ºF) try to keep the beer on the cooler end
of the temperature range and allow for some additional time for the lager yeast to ferment down to the FG.

So that said.. I'm guessing a Ale yeast and not a Lager yeast was in the kit..?

Hmm.. err..

The darn temp rise seemed to have gotten into my storage room and got it a bit warmer in there.

This caused the yeast to get all happy, and between that and the higher temps today the fermenter got to 67. Fortunately its cooler now and raining.. so leaving the doors open to drop it back into the 50s'.

That said, the yeast are HAPPY.. its bubbling like crazy and if you look in the fermenter, the yeast are circulating in there like there is no tommorrow.

Will this little burst of energy cause the beer to develop any sour or off flavors? or am I to expect this will be more a ale now and less a lager ? Anyone know the exact yeast that is in this brewers best kit..?

At this point I've RDWHAHBed a little too much and can't add a lot about the temp swings etc etc. I DID brew this beer a while back and it was very nice. I DID lager it, so I might really not be able to add anything, but my BB Oktoberfest was good.

Yep.. I know I should RDWHA*C*B (No home brew to drink yet)

As busy as the Stout I first did was, it was done in 4 days.

This has taken a lot longer, and as mentioned I am on day 8, and yesterday the yeast got BUSY.. much more active than I ever saw in the stout. That said, I did add 2 lbs of honey to the recipe to boost ABV and sweetness. As I am not a fan of sour ales.. I am hoping the sour notes emanating from the airlock are just off gases and the beer doesn't come out sour.

I will still lager it no matter what, just wondering if the initial fermentation (or should say the second stage of fermentation) at higher ale temps will cause that.

This morning the room was down to the 55 range again.. but the fermenter was still going nuts and down to 61. I will say its clearing up nicely..

Should be getting my DeepWoods 7gallon Cavern soon and will secondary to that once its calmed down some.

Went to secondary today (FG 1.013) - FG was right in spec.

So doing the math.. since I added the 2lbs of honey I boosted the ABV from 5.5% to 6.75%

Anyway. I think the short warm spell I mentioned did a bit of bad things to the beer. Now I know it was only a hydrometer sampler.. but the sour notes that I have noticed from the air lock have not gone away and they showed up in the final test. Not over powering, but noticeable. Also when I went to clean the fermenter, I noticed the leftovers in the fermenter was also quite sour smelling.

That said, overall flavor is good, and the sour is in the back and not up front in your face.

Question, will the sourness soften as I lager it..?

Will the hops come out as it lagers or mellow.. ? ( I ask as there was a definite hit of that piney/IPA in the flavors and I am not a big fan of IPA)