Greetings,
I'm planning my first batch of beer, and purchased a True Brew Oktoberfest kit. Well, after awhile I recalled that Oktoberfest is traditionally a lager. Of course, the kit instructions outline steps that are more for ales than for lagers. I searched the forums, and found that Oktoberfest-style ales are not that uncommon for folks to don't have a lagering setup.
So, I broke out my kit and immediately analyzed everything to death. I just finished ordering my equipment, and decided to go with an 8gal pot so I could do full boils and all-grains down the road. Therein lies one change from the kit, which outlines steps for partial boil. I've read so much in the forums on the benefits of full-boils, so I'm definitely sticking with that. Also on order is a wort chiller, as I found one on the cheap and should help things quite a bit as well.
I also downloaded Beersmith, which has proved quite valuable. I plugged in the details of the kit recipe, and found a couple of things that may improve the outcome...
#1 - Since I'm doing full-boil, looks like I can take the (Liberty) hops from 2 oz (kit-supplied) down to 1.5 oz to get it into the proper range for Oktoberfest. (from 33.6 down to 25.2 IBU). I'm not crazy for high-hop flavor, so I'm thinking this is ok.
#2 - I plan to steep the 8 oz of grains (Melanoidin) in 1.5-2 qts of heated water first, then add to the boil.
Here's really my concern...as I plugged everything into Beersmith, I noticed that if I use the kit's "target estimate" OG of 1.042 and FG of 1.012, it only comes in at 4.1% ABV. This seems rather low for the style...I was expecting around 4.8-5.8.
So, I'm thinking I have some options to address my concern:
A) Don't worry about it, follow the kit instructions (with the exceptions of #'s 1 and 2 above). Could be that by doing full-boil the OG will come out different from the kit's target OG anyway.
B) Increase Light DME from 2.0 lbs to 3.0 or 3.5 lbs (which, according to Beersmith increases ABV to 4.99% and 5.43% respectively - yay!). Also, by doing this, it drops IBU with 1.5 oz hops from the 25.2 mentioned above to 23.6 and 22.8 respectively). This lowered hops still appears to be in the correct range (although low, which is certainly fine with me).
I read in the forums and in one of my books to use DME instead of sugar if possible for upping ABV. That's why I listed DME in option B. For the Oktoberfest style, would that be appropriate? I wasn't absolutely certain, but seemed like the right way to go. Any thoughts/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
So, with my first HBT forum novella behind me, are there any recommendations to the adventure on which I am about to embark?
I'm planning my first batch of beer, and purchased a True Brew Oktoberfest kit. Well, after awhile I recalled that Oktoberfest is traditionally a lager. Of course, the kit instructions outline steps that are more for ales than for lagers. I searched the forums, and found that Oktoberfest-style ales are not that uncommon for folks to don't have a lagering setup.
So, I broke out my kit and immediately analyzed everything to death. I just finished ordering my equipment, and decided to go with an 8gal pot so I could do full boils and all-grains down the road. Therein lies one change from the kit, which outlines steps for partial boil. I've read so much in the forums on the benefits of full-boils, so I'm definitely sticking with that. Also on order is a wort chiller, as I found one on the cheap and should help things quite a bit as well.
I also downloaded Beersmith, which has proved quite valuable. I plugged in the details of the kit recipe, and found a couple of things that may improve the outcome...
#1 - Since I'm doing full-boil, looks like I can take the (Liberty) hops from 2 oz (kit-supplied) down to 1.5 oz to get it into the proper range for Oktoberfest. (from 33.6 down to 25.2 IBU). I'm not crazy for high-hop flavor, so I'm thinking this is ok.
#2 - I plan to steep the 8 oz of grains (Melanoidin) in 1.5-2 qts of heated water first, then add to the boil.
Here's really my concern...as I plugged everything into Beersmith, I noticed that if I use the kit's "target estimate" OG of 1.042 and FG of 1.012, it only comes in at 4.1% ABV. This seems rather low for the style...I was expecting around 4.8-5.8.
So, I'm thinking I have some options to address my concern:
A) Don't worry about it, follow the kit instructions (with the exceptions of #'s 1 and 2 above). Could be that by doing full-boil the OG will come out different from the kit's target OG anyway.
B) Increase Light DME from 2.0 lbs to 3.0 or 3.5 lbs (which, according to Beersmith increases ABV to 4.99% and 5.43% respectively - yay!). Also, by doing this, it drops IBU with 1.5 oz hops from the 25.2 mentioned above to 23.6 and 22.8 respectively). This lowered hops still appears to be in the correct range (although low, which is certainly fine with me).
I read in the forums and in one of my books to use DME instead of sugar if possible for upping ABV. That's why I listed DME in option B. For the Oktoberfest style, would that be appropriate? I wasn't absolutely certain, but seemed like the right way to go. Any thoughts/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
So, with my first HBT forum novella behind me, are there any recommendations to the adventure on which I am about to embark?