Festbier Bee Cave Brewery Oktoberfest Ale

[johnnybrew]

It wouldn't fit to style to dry hop but if you think it would help the beer, go for it. If I were you, I wouldn't judge the beer until it's been bottled for a few weeks and carbonated.

Thanks, agreed. But, the fruity nose is way out of character for the style, as would be a hoppy one.

It's in the keg now for a little over a week at 45F. I plan to keep it there for a month or two to see if it changes. Will let folks know. Thanks for all of the feedback. Cheers, Jbrew

 

[johnnybrew]

Oh, one more thing. I sent a note to Wyeast with a description of my mash, hop and fermentation schedules. Below is the response I got back (quickly too).

I think the fermentation temp should be lowered. I think this was the main reason for the beer being more fruity that you wanted. Also, I would look in the future at making a larger starter (~2 L) and fermenting around 55oF if you brew this beer again with that strain.

Let me know if you have other questions.

The lower temp, in retrospect, makes a lot of sense. As does the larger starter since we're basically brewing it like a lager. If you recall, my starter was 1 liter.

Live, learn and brew on!

Cheers, Jbrew.

 

[mikeosoft]

I brewed this, bottled and served at a party last night. It was malty and delicious, everyone loved it. Thank you!

 

[Moose777]

Brewing second time today...Halloween 2011.

Wooooooooooooo scary 90m boil

 

[heliumbro]

5.5 gallons brewed up and in the primary! Can't wait for the yeasties to do their thang.

 

[Lazarous]

Sorry if I'm missing it, but is this a 60 or 90 minute boil?

 

[heliumbro]

Lazarous -

It's a 90 minute mash and a 70 minute boil.

 

[skippyf16]

If I brew this this weekend, ferment it out, and rack it to kegs onto corn sugar and stick the kegs in a closet till Oct will it be okay?

 

[cbehr]

Excited to give this a try for this year's party!! This will be my second AG BIAG batch, Bee Cave Kolsch was #1 so I'm happy I can use the yeast I washed from that batch. I'm a little nervous as my first batch efficiency was only in the 65% neighborhood.

 

[ddlr25]

So what is the general consensus on the fermentation temp for WLP029? Is fermenting at 60 for the entire time the best method or at 65 for a week and then 60 for the rest of the ferment?

I will be brewing this in 1 week and will be making a 2 liter starter and just trying to nail down what temp I'm going to set it to. Thanks!

 

[alowell]

So what is the general consensus on the fermentation temp for WLP029? Is fermenting at 60 for the entire time the best method or at 65 for a week and then 60 for the rest of the ferment?

I will be brewing this in 1 week and will be making a 2 liter starter and just trying to nail down what temp I'm going to set it to. Thanks!

Ditto. I'm brewing this next weekend! I'll probably prep a 1.5x normal starter and start fermentation at 60F and hold for 3 weeks. If I notice a lag in the first 2-3 days, I'll pump up the temp a bit. I will then lager for 2 months and that shoudl put me right at the end of September.

I'm excited and finally planned an Oktoberfest...usually I think of it in the fall..too late

 

[cbehr]

Neither of my closest LHBS's have these grains in German, will this alter the beer significantly?

 

[Badger462]

I have the same probablem with the high temps, I put my carboy in a cooler lid open of cource Tshirt, (heavy cotton not sure it matters), and every day I put two frozen water bottles in it. It seemed to work but it was hard to tell if the temp was constant. I made a hefe that time. If someones knows of a way to keep the temp constant or close to it I would be greatful. My basment will fluctuate it the heat of the day it is about 76 at night it drops to as low as 68, as soon as the son goes down the ambient dropps quick here in CO.

 

[stalewater]

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.

How did they compare, im ready to brew one of these and i dont know which one to brew!!

 

[rwagner23]

I might be pushing my luck on this, but I'm hoping to brew a double batch this weekend with the hopes one might be in a keg and ready by the 22nd of September. The other would be for a wedding in Nov so that should be good.

 

[scratchex]

I really want to brew this but the issue I have is with the fermentation temps. The room where I typically ferment my brews is around 65-67F. The other option I have would be to store/ferment in our Keezer which is set to 40F. I'm assuming 40F would be too cold?

Another route I could go would be to buy a small fridge & put a Johnson Control on it to set a specific temps for fermenting.

Thoughts?

 

[graybeard]

I love this recipe, and many/most of the people I share it with have said this is the best beer I've made. (Below are the 3rd and 4th batches I've made. That's not counting the 2 batches where I've used it as a base for pumpkin ale in past years.)

EdWort (and some others) make reference to "pitching this on a yeast cake from another batch of beer". I confess I don't know if this is a colloquial expression that means "reused the washed yeast from a prior batch," or, "I dumped the new wort into the just-vacated fermenter from a prior batch, literally on top of the yeast left in the bottom of the fermenter."

I brewed up a batch of the O-fest on 8/12 using a new smack pack of WY2565 and a 1L starter. This was the first time I've had to use a blow-off tube for any of my beers. Nice yeasties.

On Sat 8/28, I racked this to secondary, and was going to brew another O-fest to dump in the fermenter (literal interpretation), but I chickened out. Instead, I harvested and washed the yeast, letting it settle overnight. I put the clean stuff in another 1L starter, and brewed the new batch on Sunday. Had to install a blow-off tube on Monday. Heh heh.

The washed yeast thing seems to have worked out OK, but I was wondering if I could have saved some time by fermenting the new wort on the old (unwashed) yeast.

Thanks.

 

[Mysticmead]

The washed yeast thing seems to have worked out OK, but I was wondering if I could have saved some time by fermenting the new wort on the old (unwashed) yeast.

Thanks.

pitching on the yeast cake means exactly what you thought it meant. rack a beer to secondary or to keg and put a new batch right on top. I've done this when making a BIG beer.

 

[Mysticmead]

I was thinking of giving this one a shot and doing a double decoction mash just to keep it a litle more traditional. plus I find that a decoction mash imparts a flavor that is difficult to reproduce any other way. think it'd be worth it?

 

[milldoggy]

So last year I made a 10 gallon batch. Drank one keg and put one away, well I forgot about it(the problem with 40 kegs). Tapped it for this year and it is good, different from what I remember. Actually taste a bit maltier ans sweeter, not sure if it was different yeast or what.

 

[Joe-Santo]

Thanks ed!

 

[Joe-Santo]

Pics alittle blurry but it came out great. Brewed june 9 and after primary had in my chest freezer for 2 months on gas. Its delicious! Nobody can tell its an ale as well. Repitched kolsch cake like you did and worked like a charm. Thanks for the reciepe.

 

[elproducto]

Brewed 10 gallons of this, and split it between Wyeast 2565 and S04. The S04 finished at 1.017, and the 2565 finished at just a hair above 1.010!!! Is that going to be too dry?

 

[chrislehr]

Just finished kegging this. Split 10 gallons into 65/60F fermentation and 8 gallons at TX room temp 72-75.

I kegged:
5g of cold ferm
5g of warm ferm
3g of cold ferm

I oaked 4g of warm ferm + 1g of cold ferm blended
Ill keg the oak barrelled one in a week. This will net me three beers for our oktoberfest, and I plan on getting a 1/6 of live oak's oaktoberfest too

 

[slawre5]

This is beer after being brewed 12 days ago. I whipped it up quick for an octoberfest party. I used a big starter of wyeast american ale II that I got from a local micro-brewery. Just thought I would share. Thanks ed for the great beer!

 

[bdub03]

I'm planning on hosting a Post-Oktoberfest the first weekend of November. Slawre5, and anyone who's fermented for around 2 weeks have any recommendations or changes in yeast to speed up the process?

I'm a little late to the game but ready to play!
Thx

 

[18DPA]

Quick question. Any idea how this would go as a pumpkin beer? I got all the ingredients, started my yeast starter last night and am brewing this Saturday. Now I'm thinking I want a pumpkin ale for thanksgiving. Heaven forbid I brew 2 batches just have time limits.

 

[slawre5]

I'm planning on hosting a Post-Oktoberfest the first weekend of November. Slawre5, and anyone who's fermented for around 2 weeks have any recommendations or changes in yeast to speed up the process?

I'm a little late to the game but ready to play!
Thx

Just use a high flocculating ale yeast with good attenuation. S-05, wlp001, 1056, etc. and make a BIG starter. Aerate well after cooling and you should be set.

 

[-MG-]

Just about to ferment my batch of this. Decided to make this a lager and altered the recipe just slightly to get into a Oktoberfest profile, same grains though just different weights slightly.

Using Wyeast 2633 and going to ferment around 50-52 F.

 

[GreenDragon]

Thanks for the killer recipe!! I was checking the carbonation last night for our Halloween party this coming Saturday and it was amazing! I'd put it up against the mass-produced stuff any day. I dropped the fermenting temp by 5 degrees a week for 4 weeks, then cold crashed it for a few days before kegging and it's crazy clear. It's been keg conditioning for about 4 weeks now.

I took some advise from another post and shook the carboys after about 10 days to try to get that krausen to fall, that did help a lot. Due to a bad thermometer I missed my OG by a bit (mash temp was way too low) but it finished nice at 1.013.

I'll have feedback from lots of friends after next weekend.