Festbier BierMuncher's OktoberFAST Ale (AG)

[CrookedTail]

I plan to use this recipe using the US-05 as you suggested. Thanks for giving us your results!

No problem! I've brewed a few batches since (with some minor modifications.) One was served at my friend's wedding last weekend. It was a huge hit.

I have two more batches aging right now. I plan on having them in a few weeks. It's a great recipe.

One thing though, you can stick with the S-04. When I gave the initial review of it, the beer was still a little green. Another week or two worked wonders on it. I know Biermuncher says to age it at least 6 weeks. And while the result after that time is quite good, I'd personally recommend 8 weeks. It really was excellent after that point.

 

[Steelers77]

I just brewed this yesterday, hit 1.052. Wort tasted malty and wonderful. I did make a few minor adjustments, I used Saphir hops because we just got them and I really wanted to try them and I added .25lb of special roast to increase the bready/biscuiut flavor. A minor adjustment but I think it added just a little something extra. It is fermenting nicely at 60 with S-04. Will update in the future.

 

[imrook]

Go get a voile curtain and look up brew in a bag (BIAB) if you only have a 15 gallon pot you can't do a full volume mash or boil so you will have to adjust your hop schedule for a partial boil.

In addition to the lower hop utilization, you won't get very good efficiency as a conventional batch sparged mash would use somewhere around 23-24 gallons of water. If you want to get near your targets, check with the BIAB folks about the efficiency you can expect with that volume of grain and water.

Another option you have is to mix the grains throughly and do 2 7.5 gallon batches. This would allow you to use the correct mash/sparge volumes and get full hop utilization, but of course would require twice the amount of work.

 

[imrook]

I brewed 6.5 gallons of this yesterday. Subbed Carvienne for the Crystal 20L as my LHBS didn't have Crystal 20. Mashed at 156. Repitched 2 cups of S-04 from a previous batch. I put my fermenter in a cooler of cold water to keep the temp under control, but when I checked on it last night, The cooler was leaking water all over the floor. I didn't have time to find out where the leak was. It's now fermenting at 74 F, so we'll see how well it turns out.

 

[imrook]

I think I have come up with a solution for my temperature problem: I put my fermenter inside my brew kettle and filled it with cold water and a bit of ice. That should allow me to get and keep the temp down in the low 60s.

 

[ila970josh]

Hello All, I just placed an order for the ingredients for this beer, I was wondering if it would be ok to dump this on top of a yeast cake of us-05 from a Amarillo and Centennial IPA, Thanks

 

[jww9618]

Hello All, I just placed an order for the ingredients for this beer, I was wondering if it would be ok to dump this on top of a yeast cake of us-05 from a Amarillo and Centennial IPA, Thanks

I would wash that yeast instead of pitching on the cake. You're going to have a bunch of hop trub that you don't really want getting in this beer.

 

[ila970josh]

I was thinking that and I've never washed yeast before, I've got a pack of us-05 and us-04 coming with my order, I'll just pitch one of those. Thanks for the reply

 

[txcop]

I brewed this back on August 30 and my OG was spot on. It was in the first fermenter for 5 day before the wild fires in Texas made me evacuate my house. We lost power on that day and not sure how hot my house got but we were out of power till the Sept 12. I racked into the secoundary on Sept 17 and FG was at 1.008, will that mess with the beer too much.

thanks, txcop

 

[cadarnell]

i just bottled this and man it tasted great going in .. OG was 1052 FG was 1018 ... my IBUs were 28 and i think it's really going to offset the high FG sweetness ... will be hard to wait a few weeks to crack on open ... i probably wont .. haha .. thanks for the recipe !!

 

[CorneliusAlphonse]

brewed this aug 25th, i want to have it on tap in 2 weeks (total of 7 weeks grain-to-glass). It's been in a carboy primary for the first 5 weeks, and I need to keg and carbonate it. that leaves me about 1.5 weeks to make it as good as i can. should I:
1. leave it be until i transfer to keg, or
2. transfer to secondary with gelatin for a week, then keg

would using the gelatin (besides clarifying it) have any effect? specifically, would the taste change at all?

 

[CrookedTail]

This intrigues me. I feel that in cooking, simpler recipes often produce the best results. Why should brewing be any different?

Using the percentages you've used above, I tried to build a 5 gallon PM recipe that I'd like to get your opinion on. The percentages aren't spot on, but they are very close.

Fermentables
3lbs Light DME
2lbs Vienna
1.5lbs Munich 20L
1lb Caramunich II
.25lb Carapils

Hops
1oz Tettnang @ 60min
.5oz Tettnang @ 45min
.5oz Tettnang @ 30min

Yeast
S-04 (although I'm strongly considering US-05)

OG: 1.052
IBU: 21.5
SRM: 12

What do you think?

I brewed two 5 gallon batches of this in late July for an Oktoberfest party that we're having in two weeks. I made a few modifications to the recipe though. I upped the Munich malt to two pounds. I used regular Munich instead of 20L because that's all I could find at LHBS. I also added a little bit of honey malt. Halfway through the mash I took two cups of the grains from the mash and boiled them to caramelize a bit, then added them back to the mash. I've read that this can lend an added richness to the beer, almost like what a decoction mash would do.

Finally I added two teaspoons of Irish Moss with 20 minutes left in the boil, then added gelatine when I racked this to the secondary fermenter (I want it to look as much like a lager as I can.)

I kegged the first batch last night. The picture isn't great, but it is super clear. The gravity sample tasted amazing! Even better than previous batches of this recipe that I've done. I can't wait to drink this.

 

[MasterColin]

Put in an order to AHB to make this.. not a super cheap brew but not too bad. About $40 before shipping for a 5gal batch.

Prob won't brew for a week or 3 though

Brewed about 3 weeks ago. I always prefer a stronger beer than a light one so I upped all the grains a bit to account for my bad efficiency .

Ended up at 1.059 or so.

Fermented for a few weeks and made the mistake of moving it to secondary at 1.022. I realized this mistake about halfway through the transfer so I sucked up some extra yeast to keep it moving.

Checked yesterday and I'm sitting about 1.016-1.018. Tastes pretty good flat/warm

 

[BierMuncher]

...Checked yesterday and I'm sitting about 1.016-1.018. Tastes pretty good flat/warm

Mid teens is a good finishing point for this beer.

 

[johnodon]

I am slowly making my way through all of BM's recipes. HUGE FAN!!! Currently cold crashing his Black Pearl Porter and the Aberdeen Brown is fermenting.

 

[fowlplay]

Decided to brew this recipe. Sounds amazing, but I took the name too seriously. In all my excitment I got in a rush and didn't put any sparge water in. I bottle this weekend so I will know soon if this is a batch of toliet cleaner. OktoberFAST was too fast for me!

 

[cadarnell]

enjoying one of these now ... it's just 3 weeks old and it's already a very good beer ... I'm saving a case for a party in late oct. .. It should be even better then ... thx again for the recipe

 

[evohokie7]

Brewed this one two weeks + two days ago. Kegged and carbed last night and let me tell you, it was fantastic. This was the fastest I've gone from grain to keg. Not sure if this made the difference, but I fermented with Wyeast 1768 at low temps (finished at 1.016-1.017). I am going to try, keyword try, and let this sit for another week or two so that it clears up a bit more. This will be a regular brew for me, thanks BierMuncher

 

[Steelers77]

Just transfered this to my keg where it will condition for a couple weeks. Mine ended up at 1.020, a bit higher than I'd like. I've suspected for some time that my thermometer may be reading a bit lower than actual temps, this may have confirmed it. I mashed at 158.

That being said, the beer is really good. It may be a bit sweet but still delicious.

Thanks for the great recipe; I will be brewing this again sooner than later.

 

[BierMuncher]

Just transfered this to my keg where it will condition for a couple weeks. Mine ended up at 1.020, a bit higher than I'd like. I've suspected for some time that my thermometer may be reading a bit lower than actual temps, this may have confirmed it. I mashed at 158.

That being said, the beer is really good. It may be a bit sweet but still delicious.

Thanks for the great recipe; I will be brewing this again sooner than later.

The cold and carbonation will offset some of that sweetness. Should taste just perfect for a cool fall day.

 

[Steelers77]

The cold and carbonation will offset some of that sweetness. Should taste just perfect for a cool fall day.

I was thinking the same thing. It does tastes good just really wish I could have shaved another couple points off off the final gravity to increase the alcohol a bit. Oh well, like I said will have to brew this again sooner than later

 

[Stevo2569]

Been drinking this for about a week. Really good. But I sense a little butterscotch flavor. Isn't that diacetale? Or maybe just the style. I did sense the same flavor in yuenglings October.

 

[Dhack61]

This was our 2nd brew and first 5 gal AG batch. I would say that overall the process and recipe was a sucess. With all new homebuilt equipment and Beersmith we hit 1.053 og and finished out at 1.012. Hit somewere around 65% eff. from what we now know was pretty good for a 1st AG try. We hit all the temp. mark we shot for. but lost a bit do to trub and kettle evap loss. Every sample taken was tasty, both malty and sweet. After 10 days in the primary, 2 weeks in secondary and 3 weeks in the bottle, we were dying to crack this open.
I must say this is a really good beer. First pours were from the fridg into a freshly frosted glass. Beer had a bit of chill haze, but WTH, it was our first. It poured a nice amber color with a nice toasted cream colored head, just like something you would see in a magazine. The smell was nice, a bit on the yeasty side but after a few seconds that was gone and little bit more of the malt came through. The first taste took me back. It was smooth, sweet & creamy with great mouth feel, a little dry carbonation tang at the finsh, but no malt. I realized with the frosted glasses and it being right out of the fridg the beer was too cold. We let it sit for about 2 minutes and tried again. Wow there it was, it was a totally different beer at around 40 degrees. All the malt smells and flavors we tasted in the samples and were looking for were there. It was great. The creamy head lasted untill the last swallow. A very pleasing experience.

I would put this recipe up against or above any of the commercial O-fest ales and most lagers I have tried. Definitly needs to be served above 40 degrees. I am glad this was our first AG recipe. A great incentive to Brew onward. At this time we don't keg but when I start this will probably be the first.
Thanks BM for the recipe and All others who posted to this thread... I read every single post before starting and got great answers to my questions. Y'all were a great help.

 

[CorneliusAlphonse]

just kegged this after 5 weeks in primary, it's cooling now... sample tasted delicious. Dropped from 1064 to 1013 with nottingham, should be about 6.5 %. can't wait til it's carbonated!!

 

[cg17]

Brewed this yesterday. Ended up with a higher OG at 1.058. Nice color. Looking forward to drinking

 

[JRems]

Wow is all I have to say. Made this about 5 days ago and just tasted the hydrometer sample. It tastes great! it's already down to 1.018( mashed at 158) started at 1.053. Not sure if it's done yet but I'm sure it will only get better leaving it a couple weeks longer.
Thanks again biermuncher

 

[toolboxdiver]

just sampled a pint and this one is a winner Thanks Biermuncher your recipies Rock :rockin:

 

[bgburdman9]

I just put this in the fermenter with a slightly modified recipe. I had 10L munich so i used about 12 ounces each of 20l and 80l crystal to get my color up a little bit for 5 gallons. I also had tettnang that were like 5.5 instead of 3.2 so i used 1 ounce at 60 min and 1/2 at 30 min,.

 

[rwagner23]

Brewed this for an annual crab feast at my parents house. Needless to say, it was a HUGE hit!

I also took it too my lhbs, because I thought I was tasting a bit of off-flavor (something I think I've had in two other beers). They couldn't detect any off-flavors, but gave me a full break down. Said it was a good beer, nice balance, good aroma. They thought it was a bit thin and suggested adding more malt and a bit more of hops to balance it out. So that makes me happy. Overall a good beer though.

Thanks for the recipe!

 

[jamesseth]

Just transferred to my keg. Initial tasting was cold and flat, but was just what I was looking for in malt and balance. It was a little sweet, but I am assuming carbonation will take that away. My OG= 1.057 and FG= 1.015, so I'm right around 5.5%. Another great brew Beirmeister! Thank You!!! As of now I have a chocolate milk stout and cider on tap alongside Beirmeister's Newcastle clone and Oktoberfast.

 

[imrook]

Mine turned out quite a bit lighter than expected. After reviewing my receipt and the recipe here, I found out that I used Munich 10L instead of 20L. Even with that mistake, it is still a tasty beer. I would definitely brew this again.

 

[sjjn]

Crookedtail, How did your batches turn out? I brewed a slightly bigger version of this last week... hit my 1.058 and it's sitting at 67 for a few more weeks. I guess it'll be a DecemberFAST...

 

[sjjn]

finished up at 1.014...smells and tastes fabulous...

 

[CrookedTail]

Crookedtail, How did your batches turn out? I brewed a slightly bigger version of this last week... hit my 1.058 and it's sitting at 67 for a few more weeks. I guess it'll be a DecemberFAST...

They came out great! I'd like to try it with US-05 because the S-04 produced some esters, and I'd like to try a cleaner yeast strain. But regardless the recipe is awesome.

 

[sjjn]

They came out great! I'd like to try it with US-05 because the S-04 produced some esters, and I'd like to try a cleaner yeast strain. But regardless the recipe is awesome.

Great. Do you know what your FG was, and how did the one with the "decoction" compare?

 

[cg17]

Success!

 

[bucfanmike]

my only problem with this recipe is that I did it with a friend on my system. He is still an extract brewer, and I can do 10 gal all grain. So this and the LHMS clone rounded out a 20 gal brew day. Well now my wifes book club drained the last of the keg and I really wish i had back the 5 gals my buddy took home. He bottled his and has not even started drinking it yet. Great recipe and i think this may make a spring comeback on my taps.

 

[psutimmah]

First and foremost cg17 you have a great glassware.

Second, BierMan ...you have always proven to be a brewmaster! For my brew buddies and I have often tried your recipes and always am happy with results. I took this recipe and put my breweries twist on it.

The name comes because I maxed out my mash tun with this brew. I have a coleman extreme 52 qt and had 24 lbs of grain and 10 gallons of water in it. I lifted it onto a table and threw out my back ...again (i have 2 herniated discs in lower back and just came out of physical therapy a month ago). My brew buddy was like "why didn't you just ask for help?" ..you all know how that goes, but come on he was brewing and working on his stuff, so I say let the man brew! Anyway, I finished the brew day with some ibuprofen and a few beers and was feeling okay. Next morning gf woke up for work and found me unable to move laying on the floor. She brought me to ER and they gave me script for percocets and valium for a week, and sent me on my way. Had to have the gf unload my brew equipment for me from my car because I couldn't lift or for that matter feel. So that night I thought of the name for this hopefully delicious ale

.....hence the name

Perk Valley Chamomile Ale

1 lb Cara-Pils/ Dextrine
2 lbs Aromatic Malt
3 lbs Caramel 40L
3 lbs Munich
5 lbs Vienna
10 lbs Pilsner 2row
2 oz Tettnang @ 90
1 oz Hallertauer @ 15
1 oz Chamomile @ 5
1 oz Hallertauer @ 5
Yeast Starter of American Wheat Ale from Wyeast

mashed @ 147 for 60 minutes.


If interested I will keep y'all posted...

Just wanted to finally say thank Bier for the beer

Tim
Blue Waffle Brewing

 

[sjjn]

Young but delicious. Have to figure out why it got so dark but the flavours are all there. Thanks BM.

 

[agentEhrman]

Doh, bought my ingredients and completely forgot to get hops. I was planning to brew this up tomorrow and won't be able to pick them up. I have willemette, mt hood, and glacier on hand for low alpha... Can anyone tell me if one of these would be a good sub?