Festbier Bee Cave Brewery Oktoberfest Ale

[stevenryals]

will brew this on sunday.. went with the original.. no 2row..

 

[EdWort]

Brewed 15 gallons of this stuff this morning. Had awesome efficicney as the O.G. was 1.071 with all German malts. My Blingmann boils off 3 gallons in 90 minutes. That may had something to do with it.

Pitched it on three separate WLP029 yeast cakes and they are fermenting away at 60 degrees. I will leave it at 60 for a month then drop it to 35 for a month, then keg it for serving October 24th.

 

[c0bra]

I've been looking for a "fest-ish" sort of beer to brew for this fall and came cross this recipe. However I'm in the same boat as a few previous posters in that I'm only doing extract currently.

Is this not an advisable recipe to attempt with extracts? Any suggestions on another direction to go for a similar sort of beer in extract form?

TIA

 

[gwalt]

What does everyone thing about this converstion? I've never done AG before but figured a mini-mash of a couple of pounds would be a good way to ease in...

4.13 lb Pale Liquid Extract
4.13 lb Pilsner Liquid Extract
2.00 lb Munich Malt
0.50 lb Caramunich Malt
0.50 lb Caravienne Malt

Not changing anything on the hops bill.

Anybody second the Jedi's recommendation? I would like to brew this obviously highly recommended brew this weekend.

What are the ramifications if I have to ferment this baby in the 65-70 range?

 

[dontman]

Brewed 15 gallons of this stuff this morning. Had awesome efficicney as the O.G. was 1.071 with all German malts. My Blingmann boils off 3 gallons in 90 minutes. That may had something to do with it.

Pitched it on three separate WLP029 yeast cakes and they are fermenting away at 60 degrees. I will leave it at 60 for a month then drop it to 35 for a month, then keg it for serving October 24th.

I did mine about 10 days ago. I am at 64 degrees and will be there for another couple weeks. Then into the keg/secondary and the fridge at 35 until the beginning of October when I will carb it.

 

[Morrison]

about to flame out 5.5 gallons of bee cave oktoberfest ale....

hit an o.g. of 1.064.

looks like a great beer, always wanted to brew an oktoberfest yet switching my fermentation fridge to lager temps would suck.

I also pulled 4 pints of mash for a decoction to go from 154 to mashout, should be interesting!:rockin:

 

[JediJoel]

Anybody second the Jedi's recommendation? I would like to brew this obviously highly recommended brew this weekend.

What are the ramifications if I have to ferment this baby in the 65-70 range?

Just a follow up. I brewed a partial that I converted on Friday. Will post below. I did 4# on the partial with 6# DME to make up the difference but I was lucky and got 92% efficiency bumping my OG up to 1.072 all said and done. I think this will be a good beer!

On the ramifications, earlier in the thread I read the WLP029 will give off more fruity esters if fermented in the high range (above 65). EdWort said he dropped it to 60 and removed a lot of the fruitiness. Currently I am at 65 with the "bucket in the cooler" method. I iced the water before putting the bucket in and am changing ice containers (frozen water bottle for me) every 10-12 hours but I live in SoCal. Looks and smells good so far!

Bee Cave Oktoberfest Partial

3# Pilsen or Light DME
3# Vienna or Golden DME
2# Munich
.5# Pilsen
.5# Vienna
.5# Caramunich
.5# Caravienne

I adjusted the hop weight because my Alphas were higher for my hops.

 

[wedward]

I made my second attempt at this baby last night and it went well. My first shot two weeks ago ended with me dumping it before the boil, since I had a stuck sparge and the bill was just too much for my 5 gallon MLT. Now a new 52 qt cooler and setup (driven by thirst for this brew) - here's my adaptation of the recipe - LHBS specific grains as available + my learning of grains (e.g. no 10L Munch) ..:

Amount Item
6.00 lb Vienna Malt (Weyermann) (3.0 SRM)
4.50 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM)
1.50 lb Munich I (Weyermann) (5.0 SRM)
1.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.60 lb Munich Malt (30.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramunich Malt (60.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)

-10 min 2.00 oz Saaz [2.60 %] (First Wort Hop)
60 min 2.00 oz Saaz [2.60 %]
40 min 0.50 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %]
25 min 0.50 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %]

OG - 1.080

It looks as smells heavenly! Four weeks to go...

 

[uabericm]

I did mine about 10 days ago. I am at 64 degrees and will be there for another couple weeks. Then into the keg/secondary and the fridge at 35 until the beginning of October when I will carb it.

When you put it in the keg/secondary, do you have a modified lid to accommodate an airlock? Or do you just fill the keg, put the lid on, and place it in the fridge (no CO2)?

 

[DubbelDach]

Did a close approximation of this today... Oktoberfest_Brew pictures by shiplax27 - Photobucket

Oktoberfest Ale

5.5 lbs. German 2-row Pils
4 lbs. German Vienna
1 lbs. German Light Munich
.5 lbs. Dingeman's CaraMunich

.75 oz. Tettnanger (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 60 min.
.5 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 30 min.
.5 oz. Hallertau Mittelfruh (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 15 min.

White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kölsch

Original Gravity 1.053
Terminal Gravity 1.013
Color 9.92 °SRM
Bitterness 23.6 IBU
Alcohol (%volume) 5.1 %

 

[uabericm]

Brewed this last night and hit on OG of 1.069 for an efficiency of only 71%.

This brew is going to be awesome.

Efficiency could be better, but only my 2nd AG and I need to hurry up and get another few kegs so I can condition.

 

[wedward]

I checked my gravity tonight and am down to 1.028 (1.034 4-5 days ago) from an OG of 1.080. According to BeerSmith, that's 6.81% (targets were 1.076 -> 1.018 for 7.61%). I think I need to scale back on the grain as I must be getting higher than 75% eff. (new MLT I thought would be worse).

Should I let it ride or pitch more yeast to finish lower? It tastes great, but I'm not in too much of a hurry. I plan to crash cool it and lager for another 2-3 weeks at 35F.
Any suggestions welcome...

 

[sjlammer]

Ed,

is 5.5 gallons your volume in the fermenter, or in the bk prior to transfer. I do not have vienna malt, but do have 55 pounds of maris otter. do you think i could substitute this?

maybe 4.5 pounds of maris otter, 1 pound of vienna? Just trying to limit the amount of grain i have to pay $2.00 a pound for at the LHBS.

Thanks

 

[Coastarine]

I'd have to say that the munich and vienna are crucial to this recipe. I don't think marris otter can substitute. It wouldn't ruin the beer, for sure, but it won't be what it could be IMO.

 

[toddrod]

I am cooking up this recipe Saturday. Have alrready done BierMuncher's one and will be nice to compare this 2. also doing Haus Pale Ale again.

 

[ekjohns]

help with the brew. I got the stuff to do it and wanted to double check some things with it.

1st. for the single infusion am I adding the rec. amount of water letting it sit for 90 min. Do i need to do a protein rest or ascid rest?

2. I do not have the capability to cold crash but I will be adding irish moss near end of boil will this be okay for the flavor?

thanks in advance

 

[EdWort]

Ed,

is 5.5 gallons your volume in the fermenter, or in the bk prior to transfer. I do not have vienna malt, but do have 55 pounds of maris otter. do you think i could substitute this?

maybe 4.5 pounds of maris otter, 1 pound of vienna? Just trying to limit the amount of grain i have to pay $2.00 a pound for at the LHBS.

Thanks

An English Malt for a German beer???? If that is all you have, then go for it, otherwise I would use Munich malt.

 

[Coastarine]

I am now enjoying my second go at this one (this time I hit my OG dead on instead of being so high). The color is just awesome.

In the spirit of experimentation I think I will try using nottingham at 60*F next time. I am trying to cut back on using liquid yeast whenever I can and I'm not sure how much I love this kolsch yeast. Only way to know is to try it out.

 

[ekjohns]

i brewed this beer a coupe months and with kolsch yeast and hit the final gravity on the dot. After a little over 2 weeks in the primary i took a gravity reading after the airlock bubbled once every 50 sec and it read 1.014 and fig it was good enought as i had a friend over to help bottle. So i went ahead and bottled and let it sit for 2 weeks and tried my "2 week" beer. It cardinated fine but had this awful rotten egg smell but didnt taste bad. So I fig i would wait and try it again after a few more weeks. Its now been in the bottles for a little over a month and it still has that nasty smell. It isnt as bad but still to the point where its strong enough its hard to drink. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts? I am afraid that since its in the bottles the smell is trapped in! Is there anyway this smell will go away. I just got a keg system can i transfer to a keg? I really would like to have some tasty oktoberfest so I am all ears for a way to save this brew (kolsh was ferm. at 66F)

 

[midfielder5]

the german ale/kolsch yeast tends to put out a strong sulphur smell. Your beer might have reached terminal gravity, but it is possible the little yeast guys were not finished cleaning up their mess (the smell).
if it were me, i'd put a bunch of bottles in the 'fridge and let it cold condition for a few more weeks. the OP does this w/ the kegs (see the fermentation notes on the 1st page).

 

[Surly]

If I wanted to gain a taste of biscuit in this beer, how much biscuit malt might I add?

 

[cheesecake]

Has anyone used notty yeast to make this. i really dont have the room to cold crash and have quite a bitt of notty to use

 

[Robsbrew]

Can anyone post a picture of the finished product? I for some reason really enjoy looking at pictures of beer! That helps me decide on my next brew.

 

[nootay]

id also like some comments from anyone that used notti. I cant keep my buckets at 60, but should be able to do 65. I would like to keep from getting the fruity flavors. Hopefully by this time next year ill have a fermentation chamber

 

[haplo]

Bump to see if anybody has tried with Nottingham. If not, I'm going to brew this in a few weeks and will most likely use it and can report back.

 

[EdWort]

id also like some comments from anyone that used notti. I cant keep my buckets at 60, but should be able to do 65. I would like to keep from getting the fruity flavors. Hopefully by this time next year ill have a fermentation chamber

It would be a totally different beer with Nottingham. If you must use a dry yeast, try Safale-05 which ferments much cleaner than Notty.

 

[Bmorebrew]

Just brewed this up today using the Safale-05. Also, my EdWort's Haus Pale Ale is now one week into fermentation.

 

[CA-LT1]

OK, took the plunge and brewed a 12 gal batch today. My mash tun cooler was filled to the brim! Hit a OG of 1.066. If all goes well, should have quite the party in a few months

 

[user 21663]

Brewed this on Saturday and everything went great. Funny thing though...when I was heating my sparge water, I looked away and when I looked back, there was a bee floating in the water. Good sign ( Bee Cave Oktoberfest )? I think so. I didn't leave him in there for the sparge but I did let him steep a bit.

 

[shanecb]

I'm thinking of brewing this up for a party on October 3rd. When bottle conditioning, how far in advance do you feel would be appropriate to start it (to give it time to hit a nice peak around then)?