Festbier BierMuncher's OktoberFAST Ale (AG)

Unless pilsner malts have changed, the 90 minute boil is needed to drive off the DMS precursor, which is not as abundant in darker kilned malts.

 

I know the 90 min boil for Pilsner is a topic like using secondary's or not.
I used Marris Otter in this because I had the grain around and wanted to use it up.

 

With MO I would have done the same as you.

 

Yea, I should have specified that I didn't use Pilsner in my original reply.

 

I just did two batches using pilsner malt as my base grain, and I did NOT do a 90 minute boil. I have yet to tap the first one, but it did just carb up in the keg and I just slid it in the fridge to chill off. I would guess it would not come as clean tasting as it could or would have been.


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I just brewed a 5 gallon batch of this yesterday and it would seem that I've broken the rules of Pilsner malt. I only did a 60 minute boil and I had trouble chilling as fast as I would like. My wort chiller got me down to around 90* pretty quickly but on a hot day that's as low as I could get it quickly. I sat my fermenter in the fridge for a couple hours while I worked on the honey do list and had to give an ice bath to get to down to 68 before I pitched.

 

Off topic for the thread, but I did three 2 batches one day and a third the following day a couple weeks ago, trying to get my brewing for the year done up so I don't have to brew when it's 20 degress in the morning.

Anyways I have the same problem as you, get down to 90 within 10 min then takes another 20 -30 to get it to drop to 65 -70, mainly because my tap water this time of year isn't much cooler than 60. What I did on these three batches was got it down to 90, closed up the fermenter, put airlock on, and let it sit in closed up garage on the floor for the night.

Luckily night time temps those two nights got down to upper 40, abnormal for this time of year but it worked for me. Got up in the morning and temp on the sticker on the fermenter was 65 +/- a degree or two on each one, perfect pitching temps for what I need, so aerated the wort and pitched the yeast. In the end it may not give the clearest beer, might get small amount of chill haze, but for the most part I drink 98% of the beer I make. I understand where the flaws in my system are and what would be needed to correct them, just don't have the time to correct some things, or don't want to invest the money for some of the others.

While appearance is part of making great beer, taste is ultimately the main thing, just like cooking great food. If I have to lack in one thing appearance or taste, I'll take lacking in appearance every day of the week.

 

This sounds great. Gunna brew this one within the next couple weeks for sure!

 

Brewed this today, but that 90 min boil threw me off, I only got 5 gallons, but did get a higher OG of 1.056

 

Thanks for the recipe, BierMuncher! Obviously a crowd favorite, since this thread is still active 7 years later!

I plan to brew this in the next few weeks. I'll be doing with the 5 gallon extract conversion shown on page 2 of this thread.

I am unable to get Vienna LME and plan to substitute all Munich LME. Anyone see any issues with this? Thanks in advance!

 

10gal in the fermenter, smells awesome!

 

Oh holy hell, I need to sober up and try to figure out what kind of brew system I'm even LOOKING at!

 

What is the concensus on yeast? Is everyone pretty much using 04?

 

Brew up this recipe on Monday. Had to sub crystal 20 for crystal 10 but the rest was spot on. Went with Wyeast 1968 for my yeast since I had some on hand. Can't wait for this to finish fermenting and drop into a keg. Yummy!

 

I'm brewing this end of next week and plan on using Wyeast #1007, German Ale yeast for mine.

 

Does anyone think that if I brew this this week and bottle it...I won't hit my due date for a family Octoberfest party on October 11th? If I can hit that mark date can someone help me scale the recipe down to do an AG BIAB batch. Lookin to bottle 5 gallons-ish would be great. Side message me if u want. Thanks!

 

Looking at initial post. I think I'll just cut it in half and call it a day

 

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 at 68 degrees
Additional Fermentation: Keg conditioned
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 at 68 degrees

Question about this- does that mean only 7 days in primary then keg it? Im going to bottle so does that mean 7 days in primary then 21 days in the bottle and then enjoy? Or 7 days in primary, 21 days in secondary, then bottle (wait a few more week) then enjoy?

 

If you're bottling, I'd give it at least 3 weeks in the fermenter, maybe even four. I'm planning to hold it at 62 F for 3 and see if it needs more time, then keg and let it condition for another week or two.

 

Mine has been in the fermenter for about 4 weeks, still sweeter than I'd expect. I haven't checked the gravity yet, but does some of the sweetness fade with time in this? I have get to experience this after over 20 brews now.

 

Well..... Just finished brewing this one guys doing BIAB. to make the batch size I wanted I just cut it right in half and started with 7.75 gal so I didn't have to sparge and only squeezed the bag. A few things:

1. Preboil gravity was about 1.031 after my sample finally cooled... Why?
2. OG was only 1.044-ish. Why?
3. I gave up on cooling it down and put in primary after it got down to about 88-90 degrees and it is now in my cool dry basement which is at a steady 65-ish. I'm just gone pitch my yeast (s-04). In the morn. (About 6 hours from now) when my kids wake up. Anyone see any potential probs with that?

4. And how do I calc my efficiency?
5. This brew has a strong malty smell to it. Smells good! But it's my very first time brewing. Is this normal? Didn't seem like hops added any aroma what so ever.

 

Pitched at 6am and it's already activating the air lock so that's a good sign! But does this stuff look normal?

I think I'm off on my color a lot too. Not sure why

 

Kinda looks like you got transferred some break material. I've certainly never seen S-04 do that in four hours! Assuming that's what it is, it'll either blow off or settle out over the course of fermentation.

 

Looking better today. No more large chunks churning around anymore. Airlock is busy and smells pretty awesome. I think I should be pretty good on this even with a low 51-51% mash efficiency. Color has turned lighter too. Ugh! Common taste day! Already can't wait since it's my very first brew ever!

 

I had a batch of pale ale I made with US05 that looked just like that for the whole fermentation. Came out great.

 

it's lighter right now because of all the yeast. When the yeast settles out after fermentation, it will appear to darken considerably.

 

I've brewed this a couple times now, including just yesterday. Recently I've been judging smoked beers in a couple different competitions and now have the bug to brew a classic rauchbier. Does anyone think replacing the pilsner malt in this recipe with rauchmalt would give it enough smoke flavor to be stylistically appropriate? Has anyone done it?

 

Brewed 10 gallons of this yesterday. I brew this every year for a big party my wife and I have in October. Comes out solid, and even the BMC drinkers are happy to have a few pints of this.

 

Are all of us invited?

 

You close to northern NJ? There'll be 40 gallons of homebrew. The more the merrier.

 

sorely tempted - only about 35 mins west of you lol

 

brewed this up this morning, missed my mash temp hit just over 155 was going for 157 and OG clocked in at 1.056, looking forward to this one in a few weeks!

 

How many packages of Safale 04 should I pitch? I got two but putting the recipe in Beer Smith it tells me to pitch 3. This is going to be a 10 gallon batch.

 

Kegged my 5 gal batch today. FG came out at 1.012, had a beautiful orange hue with a malty aroma. Hydrometer sample was malty with strong hint of Munich and Vienna. Can't wait for this one to get carbed up. Not sure if I can wait

 

1 packet of Safale-04 is plenty. I always hydrate the yeast in a cup+ ofwam water for several hours (usually during the brew process) and then split the slurry between two five gallon buckets.

It's plenty of yeast to get the job done.

 

Thanks for the reply, but I already pitched 2 dehydrated packs, 1 to each 5.5 gallon fermentor.

So you only pitch one rehydrated pack for a 10 gallon batch?

 

I will be bottling my 4 gallons of this on the 19th. Exactly three weeks before my Oktoberfest party: A: will that be plenty of time for bottle conditioning. And B: how much priming sugar (corn sugar) should I use? Thanks.

 

Should be enough time. I'm hoping to get my 4 gal batch bottles this weekend. I have 3.1 oz of table sugar measured out already. That should get me 2.5 vol of CO2

 

Just brewed up a 3 gallon batch of this tonight. Looking forward popping the cap for a party in a few months.


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Bottles my 4 gal batch last night. Ended up with 36 bottles. Lost a few because I forgot to dump some sanitizer out of my bottling before I started racking so I had to dump at least 2 or 3 bottles worth out.