Oktoberfest lagering time?

How long should I keep my Oktoberfest lagering? I'm gettin' anxious.

1.068 Oktoberfest - WYEAST 2633 big starter.

Fermentation was complete on 9/24/2013 which included a dicetyl rest of a three days. It’s been at lagering temps (34°f) since then. (Tuesday 10/29/2013 will make 5 weeks at lager temp).

Do you think it’s ready for kegging and carbing now or should I wait longer?

 

Oktoberfest bier is "Märzen" i.e. made during March. It's usually pulled out of the lager cellars end of September.

 

how does it taste?

 

5 weeks should be fine. You could wait a couple weeks more if you wanted to but you really won't see much, if any, change between now and then.

 

I know the history.... Just looking for some folks that have done these beers and tried different lagering times to see what their results were.

As far as tasting.... I don't open my fermenters unless it is absolutely neccesary. It tasted good 6 weeks ago going into secondary, so I can only assume it tastes better now.

 

I gel'd and lagered my Ofest for 3.5 weeks this year. they are bottle conditioning now and will have had three weeks in the bottle on 10/30.

To me, tasting is so important. I don't know how to know when my beer is ready otherwise. I would guess that 5 weeks is enough, however, especially since you did a d-rest.

 

I don't bottle condition, so I could actually keg & carb it and see how it ages by taking samples for several more weeks. Then when I brew a 10g batch in March I will know how long it should take given this same recipe and conditions.

 

My procedure is to keg it up once fermentation is over and move it to my lagering fridge. I'll let it age there for two weeks and then hook my CO2 up to the keg. 2 weeks later (4 total) I'll start tastings. I find that 8-10 weeks total (including fermentation) is about ideal. If your OG was over 1.060, then a little more time might be a good idea.

 

This is pretty much what I do, except I can never wait 10 weeks. Too impatient I guess. Usually I lager somewhere between the 4-8 weeks time frame. Not that much different.

 

I would definitely keg and carb now, because in two weeks when it it's carbed, that will be 7 weeks lagering, which is sufficient.