Festbier BierMuncher's OktoberFAST Ale (AG)

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I brewed this Wednesday night and today (Saturday) my gravity is 1.011 with no krausen and limited airlock bubbling! Has anyone seen it ferment this quickly? I did my best to keep it cool but could only get it to 70 during fermentation and now it's at 68. The sample didn't taste as fruity as I expected.
 
Turfmanbrad said:
I brewed this Wednesday night and today (Saturday) my gravity is 1.011 with no krausen and limited airlock bubbling! Has anyone seen it ferment this quickly? I did my best to keep it cool but could only get it to 70 during fermentation and now it's at 68. The sample didn't taste as fruity as I expected.

If it tastes good and is near FG, let her free rise up a tad and finish out, then bulk age it cold to drop clear.
 
Rise up to 70 or more you mean? In my 22 batches, I've never cold crashed. If I stick it in a bucket of ice, how long does it take?
 
Turfmanbrad said:
Rise up to 70 or more you mean? In my 22 batches, I've never cold crashed. If I stick it in a bucket of ice, how long does it take?

I throw in fridge for two days or so

Also, not necessary, just makes for clearer beer.
 
Hmm, BierMuncher's or EdWort's for a first time Oktoberfest beer? Any opinions?

I've made them both. I give the nod to BierMuncher. I wasn't a big fan of the Kolsch yeast in Ed's though his Plisner Kolsch is great. Octoberfast gives a Big Malty taste when served around 50 degrees. I've got 10 Gallons in the primary with WLP830 lager yeast. Since its target is mid December, I've got time & I'm looking for that malty flavor with a bit less of the esters that come from the 05.
 
So I'm brewing this tomorrow morning and have a quick question. The hops I got were 4.8% alpha instead of the 3.2 listed in the recipe. This throws the IBUs up to 30.6. I normally wouldn't worry about this since I'm a hop head but this style should focus on the malt. Can I scale back all three additions by the same percentage? Or should I leave the later ones high and only move the early addition to keep more hop flavor?
 
So I'm brewing this tomorrow morning and have a quick question. The hops I got were 4.8% alpha instead of the 3.2 listed in the recipe. This throws the IBUs up to 30.6. I normally wouldn't worry about this since I'm a hop head but this style should focus on the malt. Can I scale back all three additions by the same percentage? Or should I leave the later ones high and only move the early addition to keep more hop flavor?

IMO...I would scale them back. But that's just me and I am not a HopHead. You might want to take the remaining balance of the hops and toss them in at Flame-out around 180 degrees and let them steep for 15 minutes before chilling. It should give a nice noble hop aroma with almost no bitterness added. I do it every now and then just so I don't have that extra stray 3/4 oz of hops laying around.
 
So I'm brewing this tomorrow morning and have a quick question. The hops I got were 4.8% alpha instead of the 3.2 listed in the recipe. This throws the IBUs up to 30.6. I normally wouldn't worry about this since I'm a hop head but this style should focus on the malt. Can I scale back all three additions by the same percentage? Or should I leave the later ones high and only move the early addition to keep more hop flavor?

Just scale back the bittering hops until you hit the IBU's you want.
 
I just wanted to thank Biermuncher for this recipe and to show off my brew. I have lagered before, but this recipe with S-04 and a 62˚F fermentation temp, has me wondering why I would EVER want to for an O'fest. I will be making this again with pumpkin in the secondary.

ofest.jpg
 
Picked up the grain bill today, brewing tomorrow. Will be the initial run of my new keggle setup (no more coolers for this guy, yay!). If all goes well, should be dispensing this out of an old Heineken keg the middle of next month.
 
Brewed 5 gallons of this up last night and came out a little hi on og 1.064. Had to scale back the hop additions because of 4.9 alpha. Cooled it down to 62 and it starting to bubble this morning. Looking forward to this one.
 
I made this beer Iast month. I have it in two carboys in my basement waiting for our Oktoberfest party. I changed up the recipe a little and did two lbs of crystal. When I transferred to the glass I wanted to just dunk my head into the fermenters and pull a Strang brew. The aroma was off the charts. I did get a small taste and it was amazing. Thanks for sharing. I will let you know what people say about it after our party.
 
Brewed this up this morning. Small issues. LHBS only gave me half of my hops. So I used the tettnang hops in the 30 and 45 min hop additions and threw some northern brewer in at 60 that I had laying around for buttering. Ibu's are at 20.

Anyone see any issue with doing this ??
 
Turfmanbrad said:
I've never been a fan of buttering ibu's.
$0.02

Ha. Darn autocorrect. Bittering.
I ran my numbers at it looks like I was at 84% efficiency and not the 70% I had assumed. Still trying to dial in my setup but I guess a few points high will just make a little stronger beer.
 
Its sitting in secondary growing some mold right now. Looks like there is an infection. I will wait another few days until kegging time and taste, then determine if its ruined. It looks really good though.
 
I have about .50 lb. of Aromatic. Any recommended alternative? Either instead of the 1 lb. Of aromatic, or in addition to the .5 lb I have? I have Melanoidin? Victory? Special B (about .5 lbs), Belgian biscuit?
 
I have about .50 lb. of Aromatic. Any recommended alternative? Either instead of the 1 lb. Of aromatic, or in addition to the .5 lb I have? I have Melanoidin? Victory? Special B (about .5 lbs), Belgian biscuit?

I would do .5 lb of the Melaniodin along with the Aromatic. Should give you that big Malty, Decocted flavor
 
I've brewed this a few times, loved it every time. We created a local homebrewers club and this weekend was our OctoberFAST Big Brew. When it's all wrapped up, we did 3 partial mashes and 2 all grains. It's a great way to compare processes and results using the same recipe ( I ordered them for consistency). Our only variations were some on-hand hops and 4 of us split up a nice Kolsch starter. Really looking forward to the tastings.
 
Brewed this up yesterday in the 5 gal AG variation. OG of 1.061 -- hope that isn't too high. The LHBS didn't have the full 2.8 lbs of Vienna, so I just subbed more Munich (1.6 lbs of extra Munich, 1.2 lbs of Vienna.)

Beautiful dark autumn orange color and is fermenting at 61 degrees at the moment.
 
Just tapped the keg on a batch of this I brewed about a month ago...I say this recipe, but I buggered it up a bit. When I purchased the grain bill for this one, I was also purchasing a bill for another beer, and forgot to divide the crystal for the other batch, so it had a half pound or so more crystal in it. This was my seventh batch, and I must say, WOW. My best so far. Thank biermuncher!
 
Okay, I'm brewing this tomorrow. My yeast choices are Nottingham or Wyeast Irish Ale yeast.

comments?

Also, I have about 1/3 lb. crystal 10, and tons of crystal 40. Should I just make up the weight difference with the 40, and expect it to be darker? Or stick to the .5 of the 40 and add some additional munich or pilsner? I just don't want to do anything that will screw it up.

thanks!
 
Too late. Here's the final recipe.

4.25 lb. Pilsener
2.5 lb. Vienna
2.00 lb. Munich
.50 lb. Aromatic
.50 lb. Melanoidin
.75 lb. Cara-pils
.50 lb. Crystal 40
.30 lb. Crystal 10

90 min. Mash (BIAB for me)@ 156

Hops
.70 oz. Willamette (4.7AA) @ 60 min.
.35 oz. Willamette (4.7AA) @ 45 min.
.35 oz. Willamette (4.7AA) @ 30 min.

1 Whirlfloc tablet @ 20 min.
Sa-04 yeast

Primary @ 68 for 1 week
Secondary @ 68 for 3 weeks
Bottle condition for 3weeks

I've been drooling over this thread for awhile. Really looking forward to it.
 
Just ordered my ingredients for this from Austin Homebrew. Looking forward to brewing it next weekend!
 
I brewed my second all grain batch last weekend based off a scaled 5 gallon recipe by wscott823 (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f63/biermunchers-oktoberfast-ale-ag-39021/index11.html) with some minor modifications due LHBS grain availability. This was my most relaxed brew date so far as I finally upgraded from a 7.5 gallon brew kettle to a 10 gallon one and didn't have to fight any boil overs. Wort looked/tasted very good, can't wait to see how this will turn out when it's done.

Thanks for the recipe BierMuncher & wscott823! :mug:

Recipe: Based on BierMuncher's OktoberFAST Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.15 gal
Starting OG: 1.049 SG
Boil Time: 80 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type
4 lbs Weyermann Pilsner (2 Row) UK Grain
2 lbs 8.0 oz Weyermann Vienna Malt Grain
2 lbs Weyermann Dark Munich Malt Grain
1 lbs Castle Aromatic Malt Grain
1 lbs Weyermann CaraRed - 20L Grain
8.0 oz Weyermann CaraRed/Dextrine Grain
8.0 oz Weyermann CaraMunich I Grain
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (80 min) Hops
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (45 min) Hops
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (30 min) Hops
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 11.50 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 3.595 gallons of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 6.13 gallons of water at 180 F
 
Well, I'm getting a late start on this. I'm planning on brewing this weekend, but wanting to have it ready for our Halloween party on Oct 27th. I'll be kegging... Can anyone weigh in on if it is likely to be ready by then, and any tips to help it so??

Thanks!

Kosch
 
Well, I'm getting a late start on this. I'm planning on brewing this weekend, but wanting to have it ready for our Halloween party on Oct 27th. I'll be kegging... Can anyone weigh in on if it is likely to be ready by then, and any tips to help it so??

Thanks!

Kosch

5 weeks... It is possible... If you end up force carbing it, I think it is doable although I think that you will notice it will get a little better as it sits a few more weeks.
 
Hal-lup.. Pleeezzzze.. Not doing this for October.. But, I'd like to do it as my next batch in a few weeks.

If I want to do this as a 2.5 G batch.. do I just cut everything in half? It will be my 2nd AG.. and I'm not doing my first until next week.. so.... Need da hal-lup

Thanks, Bill
 
Yah, and what the hey is Pleeezzze? Clearly, I need hal-lup. Now back on topic.. if anyone can hellup me with this recipe conversion.

Maybe once I learn my BeerSmith and get equipment plugged in.. I might be able to do it on my own.. but...... :confused:
 
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