Festbier Oktoberfest (1st place, scored 42)

[CTS]

I brewed this a few weeks ago. However, I had a mishap at the LHBS and accidently put in .47lb of Special B. Hydrometer sample was promising however!! It's been lagering now for 2 weeks and It's so damn hard not to tap it and see how it's coming out!

I hear ya! Mine has been lagering for a week now and going to be hard to wait. Fined with gelatin and going to lager for 6 weeks....or that's the plan.

 

[lstrowge]

Just brewed this again 4weeks ago and sampled it lagering. Almost kegged it last night but decided to wait 2 more weeks. Super clear and tasty now but a little more time and it’ll be just right!

 

[Genuine]

I also fined With gelatin today. I hope I can hold off till at least The end of September which will make it 6 weeks lagering.

 

[lstrowge]

I also fined With gelatin today. I hope I can hold off till at least The end of September which will make it 6 weeks lagering.

Mine has to be ready for my annual Oktoberfest party the end of Sept. Normally the longer lagering helps accentuate the malt character but with a shortened time frame I adjust the ibu's to try and account for the shorter lagering time. Think I got lucky and nailed it. We'll see when everyone tastes it at the party. Just wished I would have done a 10 gal batch as it usually gets drained the same night.

 

[awesome.goodtimes]

Took 1st place in the 2012 Novembeerfest competition held at Larry's Brewing Supply, Kent Wa. This was my second competition entered (got two 2nd places out of three entries for the first comp), 1st entry for this beer.

Brewed it in early April 2012 and tapped it Mid Sept, bottled 3 12oz bottles after my 2nd Annual Oktoberfest Party. I actually had two versions of this beer, one with Bavarian Lager yeast and the second with the Octoberfest Lager Blend yeast.


Grain Bill (90 min mash @ 152 deg)

5.5 lbs Munich
5.5lbs Pilsner
1lbs, 4 oz. Caramunich
3 oz Hallertaur (2.5%) - Boil 6o min

I would have added the Beersmith file but not sure how to do so.

Do you transfer to a new carboy/fermenter when going from primary to secondary? What about from secondary to lagering?

 

[lstrowge]

Do you transfer to a new carboy/fermenter when going from primary to secondary? What about from secondary to lagering?

I transfer from Primary to another Carboy (5Gal) and it goes in my Upright Keezer for the bulk of the lagering time. I will usually then transfer to a keg and let it sit another week or so before I carbonate it. Timing really depends on wether I did it erly in the year or like this year waited until the last minute.

 

[Ki-ri-n]

Thanks for this, definitely a solid recipe!
One of the better beers I've done to date. I followed the Brulosophy lagering method. Can't complain what so ever.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I transfer from Primary to another Carboy (5Gal) and it goes in my Upright Keezer for the bulk of the lagering time. I will usually then transfer to a keg and let it sit another week or so before I carbonate it. Timing really depends on wether I did it erly in the year or like this year waited until the last minute.

Due to the change in the 2015 BJCP style guide lines which category do you enter it in now days, European Amber Lager?

 

[CTS]

Due to the change in the 2015 BJCP style guide lines which category do you enter it in now days, European Amber Lager?

It will be 6A - Marzen.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

It will be 6A - Marzen.

Yeah, the Festbier they serve in Munich at the Oktoberfest now is light in color and tastes more like a Hellas. We were there in 2014 and I was surprised when I was not served a Marzen. Good though!

 

[surgical_ass]

I brewed this in March of this year for a party we had 2 weeks ago. We brewed 10 gallons . kegs were gone within a couple of hours ..mega hit! Diehard bmc drinkers loved it. Next March were doing 20 gallons .This is an excellent recipe and ages extremely well. I've entered many beers into competition and I know this beer would have no problem seriously competing at a national level .

 

[lstrowge]

Due to the change in the 2015 BJCP style guide lines which category do you enter it in now days, European Amber Lager?

Marzen, I've won 3 more golds as a Marzen since the switch.

 

[lstrowge]

I brewed this in March of this year for a party we had 2 weeks ago. We brewed 10 gallons . kegs were gone within a couple of hours ..mega hit! Diehard bmc drinkers loved it. Next March were doing 20 gallons .This is an excellent recipe and ages extremely well. I've entered many beers into competition and I know this beer would have no problem seriously competing at a national level .

Great to hear it worked out for you. I'm still trying to crak the NHC with this one. Last year was the closest by far.

 

[surgical_ass]

Great to hear it worked out for you. I'm still trying to crak the NHC with this one. Last year was the closest by far.

I'd say if you brewed for it now it would be prime by the time it was judged for nationals. I sampled along the way for the 7 months I lagered .Id say around 5 months it peaked and held its quality from then on

 

[XPLSV]

Yeah, the Festbier they serve in Munich at the Oktoberfest now is light in color and tastes more like a Hellas. We were there in 2014 and I was surprised when I was not served a Marzen. Good though!

Munich made the change in the late 1980's. I don't know that I saw any Maerzen by '89...certainly not '90.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

Munich made the change in the late 1980's. I don't know that I saw any Maerzen by '89...certainly not '90.

You have to go into a beer garten in town. They only serve one Bier at the fest.
Prost

 

[XPLSV]

You have to go into a beer garten in town. They only serve one Bier at the fest.
Prost

They serve one official style (the Festbier), but it is brewed by the various Munich breweries, so it varies a bit from tent to tent.

 

[akpingel]

Im looking forward to making this, this upcoming weekend! Wont get but a couple months of lager time before Oktoberfest but it'll be better than none.

 

[TheMadKing]

So I'm brewing a similar beer to this on Saturday, but I'm curious if you entered it into your competitions as a 4B festbier (as you have it listed in the recipe) or a 6A Marzen?

Edit Nevermind I saw the answer higher up in the thread

Looking forward to making this! I'm going to use a little melanoidin and pull off a small but thick decoction and bake it in the oven just to get some good maillard reactions

 

[Brewbuzzard]

So I'm brewing a similar beer to this on Saturday, but I'm curious if you entered it into your competitions as a 4B festbier (as you have it listed in the recipe) or a 6A Marz
Edit Nevermind I saw the answer higher up in the thread

Looking forward to making this! I'm going to use a little melanoidin and pull off a small but thick decoction and bake it in the oven just to get some good maillard reactions

That should work just fine.

 

[breweer]

Love this recipe. Brewed a 10 gallon batch. Just tapped one keg and saving the other for September. Been lagering since March.

 

[Arbe0]

a couple of questions: first what was your existing and desired water profile and what salts did you use. Can you tell me what the SRM of the malts are, I ran across several caramunich malts with different SRMs.

 

[Genuine]

Usually you want to have a restrained mineral profile. I do about 50ppm of Chlorides and 17ppm sulfate. At these levels, they're not going to make a dramatic impact. Here's mine in slight modifications for my system:

https://share.brewfather.app/ENfurZVUbJ9sxh

 

[Arbe0]

sounds good, your picture made me thirsty... thank you

 

[Genuine]

Here’s this year’s batch At kegging! Hydrometer sample tastes amazing and decently clear after 2 weeks of primary. Cold conditioning and carbing now.

 

[Chorgey]

I finally got around to brewing this today. 30 minutes left to boil and the propane ran out. Fortunately, I had some left in another tank. 15 minutes later, that tank ran out.
I had about 10-15 minutes left in the boil, just tossed in the whirlfloc and when I checked, there was no boil.

How much is this going to have an affect? Or should I just relax and have a homebrew?

 

[JohnDBrewer]

45 minutes of boiling you'll be fine. Did you hit your OG?

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I agree all should be fine. Did you Whirlpool? The would disperse the whirlflock and create a good hot break.

 

[Chorgey]

Thanks for the input guys and putting my mind at ease! My OG came in at 1.059.... success! I did whirlpool and got a good hot break. Looking forward to enjoying this! Thanks for the recipe!

 

[TheMadKing]

So just an update on my experience.

I wanted to brew a fairly traditional märzen so I brewed a very similar recipe in May of this year and lagered it all summer, finally tapping the keg in September. I thought it was fantastic with some tiny hints of oxidative notes but I was very careful with oxygen ingress. It was also the first keg to blow at my clubs oktoberfest party and was highly praised.

I entered it in 2 competitions and scored a 23 in one saying it was very musty, estery, and carmelly and then scored a 35 in the other the next week and a bronze medal, but also got a comment on the inappropriate caramel aroma.

I used 8oz of Caramunich III in mine, So next time I'm going to reduce the amount to 6oz and go with caramunich I. I'm also not going to lager it so long because I think the flavor really peaked at about 2 months in.

 

[LokiM4]

Well all this talk and October being right around the corner when I brewed-has me trying a Marzen.

I tweaked LostTexan (lsteowge) recipe here for my equipment and process/preferences so I used some acid malt and malanoidan.

With rehydrated S34/70 and using a variation of brulosophy’s methodhttp://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/ to make an OctoberFest in time for October.

Sunday (9/22) I mashed in a 5 gal (at kegging time) batch with 2 pack of rehydrated yeast and fermented in a swamp cooler @62 in my Anvil SS fermenter. Once I closed in on 80-90% attenuation I ramped up to a d rest @68 or so for 4 days and kegged on 9/30 with gelatin. It finished out at 1.010 and 5.3%

Took a while but this lager did finally drop clear, sometime around 2 weeks in the keg-just after that time it really came into its own as far as flavor and maturity. Die hard BMC drinkers I have try it finish the glass. Other craft/homebrew drinkers really think the October character is there and compare it very favorably to Sam Adams October and other commercial examples.

 

[akpingel]

Yep, Ive decided I am doing this one now and see if I can hold one to a keg till September. Question for all, I see folks doing 10 gallon batches, any adjustments or simply double everything?

 

[Chorgey]

Yep, Ive decided I am doing this one now and see if I can hold one to a keg till September. Question for all, I see folks doing 10 gallon batches, any adjustments or simply double everything?

I don't see why doubling everything would be an issue. I use the Brewfather app and it easily adjusts items when you scale the recipe. I imagine any other brewing software would do the same thing.

This is a solid recipe and I brew this at least once a year.