Festbier BierMuncher's OktoberFAST Ale (AG)

[Chriso]

Done and done. As soon as I can free up one more fermenter (or buy another), then I think it's time. I've got my Dusseldorf Alt in a starter right now. Guess I'll have to wedge that lil guy into the fridge for a couple days, then pull it out and step it up a little further.

 

[Festivus]

For the extract recipe posted earlier, what are thoughts on replacing either the amber LME or the pale LME with munich LME? I have some munich from AHS that lists it as 20% munich malt, 80% 2-row. Is this a possible substitution for one of these, or should I stick with the pale/amber? BeerSmith doesnt have munich extract as an ingredient (atleast that I can find) so it wouldnt put it in the recipe by itself on the conversion. Im hoping the munich LME will provide some more maltiness that the extract recipe is going to lose from missing out on the grains.

 

[karbinator]

BM,

Did you mash for 60, or 90min?
The grain bill is in the Tun now, and
realized no time was mentioned other than
a 90 boil.

Thanks for the great recipe!!

 

[Chriso]

I split the difference on mine, and mashed for 75". At long as your starches are converted (iodine test), it should be fine at either time interval.

I really hope they came out ok. I think they both stayed at about 79F for the first 24 hours of fermentation... ice bath only barely helped... A/C unit was pumping out as much as it could, but it was just too damn hot outside... :-/ I'm scared they're both gonna have fusels all over the place.

 

[Displaced MassHole]

UPS guy showed up yesterday with all my grain for this one, cant wait for the Saturday brew. I plan on letting this one sit in primary for 3 weeks as per BM and then I'm gonna use the yeast cake for my 9-9-9 barley wine.

 

[Matt_D]

BM,

Did you mash for 60, or 90min?
The grain bill is in the Tun now, and
realized no time was mentioned other than
a 90 boil.

Thanks for the great recipe!!

45 min mash

 

[Displaced MassHole]

So I brewed this on Sat. first time brewing with out drinking!?!? Think I may just have to continue this process, I didnt mess anything up or forget any hop additions My question to those of you that have brewed this is how quick was your primary fermentation? Ive got it sitting in the fridge at 68F and primary was cruising up until this morning, the krausen appears to already have fallen and it looks like the yeast is settling out. Is this normal? I'm just gonna let it sit in there like that for atleast another two weeks, im just a little nervous that my FG might be a lil high.

 

[BrewDog760]

Shooting from the hip, step one should be cutting everything in half (please correct me if my head's up my a**).

For a 5 gal PM batch (full boil), I figure:

Steep:
1 lb. Aromatic/Honey Malt
1 lb. C20
0.5 lb. C40
0.5 lb. Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt

Mash:
2 lbs. Munich (20 SRM)
2 lbs. Vienna (3.5 SRM)

Boil:
4 lbs. Light DME
1/2 Posted Hop Schedule

I was thinking of giving this a shot within the next few weeks, so please speak up if I'm off base here!

Cheers!

I'm not a super-experienced brewer but I ran this through the tastybrew.com calculator and it came out dead-on with the style. It looks good to me in fact, I think I'm going to do this instead of the arrogant bastard clone. It will be first true "seasonal" beer. I should be brewing again in the next few weeks and will post the results.

Cheers!

 

[Displaced MassHole]

So I over shot my FG by .006 with a 5 day primary? Any tips on how to fix that......bring the gravity/maltiness back?

 

[Chriso]

When you prime (for keg or for bottling, whichever) just boil a larger am't of water and add in 8oz of maltodextrine. Let cool as usual, rack into keg/bottling bucket, and proceed as usual.

 

[Displaced MassHole]

Never tried it but sounds good to me.....thanks

 

[mmb]

I'm going to do this one but I wanted to sub 5.5% Vanguard, a Hallertau clone, as I have a pound of it just kicking back in the freezer that I've not broken into.

I'm thinking that would make a good sub, except that it is supposed to have a strong aroma. If I go with the 60 and 30 minute additions of .75 oz each for 21 IBUs most of the aroma should be boiled off, right?

 

[BierMuncher]

I'm going to do this one but I wanted to sub 5.5% Vanguard, a Hallertau clone, as I have a pound of it just kicking back in the freezer that I've not broken into.

I'm thinking that would make a good sub, except that it is supposed to have a strong aroma. If I go with the 60 and 30 minute additions of .75 oz each for 21 IBUs most of the aroma should be boiled off, right?

That would be my guess. Though you'll get the specific flavoring profile of those hops...but that could be a good thing.

The high malt flavor of this beer will mask some of the hop nuances.

 

[Grinder12000]

Anyone have suggestions for a good Wyeast for this recipe??

 

[mmb]

That would be my guess. Though you'll get the specific flavoring profile of those hops...but that could be a good thing.

The high malt flavor of this beer will mask some of the hop nuances.

It's either that or some 13% Galena at 60 minutes. Bulk buying is nice, but kinda limiting I'm finding.

I'm going to have to do some SMaSH batches to see what I'm going to like.

 

[Chriso]

Disclaimer: Mine is still in primary, so I don't "know" this beer yet. Soon, OHHHH soon. But I would think, judging from the style, that 20IBUs of Galena at 60" could be "safer" than the Vanguard. Or you could also just use Vanguard at 60" bittering, and skip the flavor addition. Like BM said, the malty backbone is the real star.

As for Grinder, sorry I use White Labs for everything. Glancing at their webpage, I'd say 2565 Kolsch yeast would be good, or 1007 German Ale or 1338 European Ale.

 

[98EXL]

we used the 1007 German Ale for ours this year, should be fine

 

[eulipion2]

I just brewed this one today. Here are my results:

a.) I either mis-ordered or they mis-shipped Safale S-05 instead of S-04, so this might get a bit dry. Oh well. At least it's still a clean-fermenting yeast that won't give me too much ester.

b.) I did a 5.5-gallon batch (5 after losses and shrinkage). I chopped everything in half, except I used 5 lb. of Pilsner malt instead of 4.25 because I didn't know the next time I'd need the extra .75 lb. of crushed pils malt.

c.) The person who suggested using a corny keg as a pre-chiller is a genius!!! Filled the keg with a 22 lb. "Big Bag" of ice, hooked the "in" connect to my hose spigot, and the "out" to my immersion chiller. Cooled my wort to under 90˚ in about 20 minutes.

d.) I may have contaminated my wort. The "Two dollar auto-siphon replacement" or whatever it is (use the search tool) just doesn't work for me. At all. Three brews with the damn thing, and the siphon fails every time. I lost a lot of wort and got a lot of trub this way, plus a possible contamination. I'm investing in an Auto-Siphon.

e.) Five gallon batch, O.G. 1.060, batch sparge efficiency 74% niiiiiiiice

 

[GunnerMan]

For the extract recipe posted earlier, what are thoughts on replacing either the amber LME or the pale LME with munich LME?

Im not surre how it would turn out honestly. BierMuncher mentioned he used Potassium sorbate to stop fermentaion. Im not sure if this is an option when bottling or not. Might take a look and find a lower attenuating yeast with the same charachteristics. I think im going to try and brew this recipe tomorrow or monday except I will try and replace most of my LME with DME.

You could probably add some 2row to your steep as well to end up with a half assed PM.

 

[ISUBrew79]

I plan on brewing this tomorrow. I'm making half of Muncher's original recipe (5.75 gallons) I purchased my specialty grains at the LHBS and when I got home I realized the store owner gave me an extra 0.5 lb of Carapils. Unfortunately, all the grains are mixed together so I'll have to use it as is. I plan on using Safale US-05 yeast for this, and I know this yeast will have a tendency to really dry out the beer. I'm wondering how the extra Carapils will affect the attenuation. The additional grain should only up my SG about 2 points. I was thinking about lowering the mash temp a bit to negate the effect of the additional carapils on the wort fermentability. Should I keep the mash temp high (156-158*F) to try to keep my FG in the 1.014 range, despite the extra Carapils?

BTW, thanks in large part to this forum I am completely addicted to brewing

 

[BierMuncher]

I plan on brewing this tomorrow. I'm making half of Muncher's original recipe (5.75 gallons) I purchased my specialty grains at the LHBS and when I got home I realized the store owner gave me an extra 0.5 lb of Carapils. Unfortunately, all the grains are mixed together so I'll have to use it as is. I plan on using Safale US-05 yeast for this, and I know this yeast will have a tendency to really dry out the beer. I'm wondering how the extra Carapils will affect the attenuation. The additional grain should only up my SG about 2 points. I was thinking about lowering the mash temp a bit to negate the effect of the additional carapils on the wort fermentability. Should I keep the mash temp high (156-158*F) to try to keep my FG in the 1.014 range, despite the extra Carapils?

BTW, thanks in large part to this forum I am completely addicted to brewing

With a full pound of Cara in a five gallon batch, I'd mash at around 152-153 for a full 60 minutes. There's enough specialty grain in that recipe that the 05 will do just fine.

 

[mmb]

Brewed 8/23/08 with Vanguard 5.5% substitution with 1/2 oz additions at 60 minute, 45, and 30 minutes for 23 IBUs.

Ended up getting 79% Brewhouse efficiency into the carboy at 1.061 when I planned for 70% @ 1.054. I have been getting 74% but this brew I swapped out the toilet braid for a false bottom and tightened up the BC for a better crush. Figured I'd take a hit until I got used to lautering the false bottom. Guess not.

Smelled wonderful in the boiler and it was a good night for brewing.

 

[karbinator]

BM,
My batch just went to keg about 5 days ago, and this is some fabulous tasting
stuff !
I boiled too hard and lost about half a gallon, so the alc. content is a little higher,
but nontheless, I'm very gracious for your recipe.

Thanks again.
Karb

 

[waterse]

Anyone tried that partial mash recipe? How did it turn out?

 

[Amiaji]

I have this in secondary now. The SG has been 1.023 for 2 weeks now. Should I try to get the fermentation restarted or is that close enough to the predicted FG?

 

[jfrizzell]

I'm about 20 minutes into the boil on this as we speak. I'm getting a late start for my Octoberfest, but hey, that's why this is OctoberFAST.

Pushed the limits on my 5 gallon MLT with this one. It was pretty full with 1.25q/lb and 14.5 qts of strike water. First runnings came out fine, but my second running were pretty slow and I thought I was getting a stuck sparge. I wasn't having any of that so I blew back through the hose, stired and vorlaufed again and things started flowing much better.

I'm still trying to get a handle on my volumes since it seems like the grain absorption calcs from BeerSmith are a bit off - I didn't quite get the amount of runnings I was expecting. I'm also still trying to get a handle on boiloff so this will be a good exercise. This is my 3rd all grain so I'm still trying to get my system figured out.

Looking forward to getting this one in the keg!

 

[IllusionOfTime]

Since there are two extract recipes on here...has anyone tried either of them...? Which would be more true to the original recipe? I'm going to pick up the ingredients for this, extract unfortunately, haven't gotten all the equip for the AG yet, and i'd also like to know if there's a Wyeast (LHBS doesn't sell Safale)

 

[waterse]

I've ordered the ingredients to do a modified version of southwoods recipe. Modified because I want to mash that aromatic malt, not steep it. Since I can only mash 4 lbs with my PM setup I cut down a pound of the munich and ordered munich LME from AHB (it has 20% munich 80% 2-row). Looking foreard to brewing this one next week. Will be a little late in the season when this is ready to drink but I'm hoping to have it ready in time for a Halloween party.

 

[ISUBrew79]

I finally got around to brewing this last Tuesday. As I stated in a previous post to this thread, my LHBS put an extra 0.5 lb of CaraPils into the grist. I'm still dialing in my efficiency, which has greatly improved since I started using the Barley Crusher. My OG came out to be 1.056. I used White Labs WLP-001 yeast. The gravity today was down to 1.013, and I'm hoping it will finish around 1.012 or so. This was the first brew I used Whirlfloc in, and this was by far the clearest wort I've gotten post-boil. I can't wait to get this brew in the keg and on tap for autumn festivities!

 

[jfrizzell]

Transfered mine to the secondary tonight. The sample was fantastic! I'm at 1.020 right now so hopefully it will drop another 2-3 points in the secondary and finish up about right. The color is beautiful and the maltiness is perfect. I think I'm going to do 2 weeks in the secondary and then keg this, so I should be drinking it in 3 weeks or so.

Thanks BM!