Festbier Oktoberfest (1st place, scored 42)

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I am looking to brew this for my first AG brewing in the next couple of weeks. I was wondering how much water you end up mashing with and sparging with? Did you do the 1.25 quarts to lbs for mash then sparge with 1/2 gal per lb? That is what I read on some other threads water requirements for recipes.

Sorry it took so ling to get to this. I typically Mash at 1.5 Q to Lbs ratio for this beer. The sparge water is the amount needed to get to my boil volume. For me that's about 7.5 gal (batch sparge) for an 11 gal batch. I always go high on the final volume to account for system loss. The sparge volume will be dependent on your system boil off and losses.
 
Brewed this yesterday. Love the idea of a nice, simple recipe to create a great drinking experience. My OG was slightly lower but I'm only a dozen or so brews in after moving from BIAB to some coolers.
 
I plan on brewing this beer and it will be my first Octoberfest. I just built my temperature control and fermenting chamber. I plan on using Wyeat Octoberfest lager blend. When would I brew this beer so it can be ready for Sept/Oct? What would be the fermenting schedule and temperatures using this lagering yeast? I'm really excited about doing my first Octoberfest and lagering procedure! Thanks! Cheers!![emoji482]
 
I have brewed it as early as April and as late as June. Both turned out great. If you use the Brulosophy Fast Lagering method you could get away with serving it in a couple of months. My go to schedule right now is brewing it early June.
 
What Munich do you use? I have best malz regular and dark. Have a lager going now and will probably use that yeast to good use!
 
Thanks for the recipe. Decided to give this a try. Brewed mid August. Looking for a quick 4-6 week lagering. Bring it out around Halloween.
 
Thanks for the recipe. Decided to give this a try. Brewed mid August. Looking for a quick 4-6 week lagering. Bring it out around Halloween.


Hope it works out for you. It's a staple for my Oktoberfest party. Actually on tap now, quality control after all.....
 
Recipe looks great. Punching it into beer smith. Just checking to see if there have been any changes to recipe since the last one done. Will brew this in a couple weeks this is my first lager. Thanks!
 
Recipe looks great. Punching it into beer smith. Just checking to see if there have been any changes to recipe since the last one done. Will brew this in a couple weeks this is my first lager. Thanks!

Other than adjusting the Hops based on the AA's to get to 24 ibu. It's been a solid recipe for me, in fact I took 1st again in the 2017 Novembeerfest. I have a keg on hond now to bottle entries for the NHC Comp. PROST!
 
Recipe looks great. Punching it into beer smith. Just checking to see if there have been any changes to recipe since the last one done. Will brew this in a couple weeks this is my first lager. Thanks!
Can you share the Beersmith file for this recipe? I just started brewing via BIAB and would like to try this.

Cheers!
 
Can you share the Beersmith file for this recipe? I just started brewing via BIAB and would like to try this.

Cheers!
I wish I could! My beer smith app was on my phone (Not backed up) and it died and will not turn back on. Lost all my recipes. I just followed the OP recipe. It turned out great from the samples. We aren't tapping until october.
 
Can you share the Beersmith file for this recipe? I just started brewing via BIAB and would like to try this.

Cheers!
I need some help uploading a .bsmx file I keep getting an error that it is not an alowwed extension.

I really need to update this post, it actually is a Marzen under the 2015 BJCP guidelines. The latest iteration of this recipe took a 1st in the 2017 Novembeerfest and a Gold medal at the recent Cascade Cup with a 46!
 
I wish that I could help with the .bsmx file. I’ll just enter your recipe and have Beersmith adjust what is needed for my setup. Thanks for posting the recipe!
 
Another update: Took 1st in the Novembeerfest comp last year for this again and it was selected for the Pro-Am brew this time. I have updated the recipe a bit.

50% German Pils
40.1 Munich
9.1% Caramunich

24 ibu Hallertau (adjust for your AA) all at 60min
I tend to go to the high end of the style.

152f mash
90 min boil

Prost!

I'm attempting to enter the percentages of grain in Beersmith but they aren't coming up to 100%, it's more like 99.2% or am I missing something?

Prost!
 
I made this beer this morning. Slight variation, Im doing a 10 gallon batch so I used 11 lbs German Pilsner, 10 lbs Munich malt light, 2 lbs Caramunich. After sparge I had almost 14 gallons. My grain is all 2 years old so when I took a gravity at the pre-boil and it was 1.02 I almost quit. That worked out to about 35% efficiancy. I figured though what the hell and did the boil. At the end, at 10 gallons I took a gravity and it was 1.07! That works out to about 70% efficiancy so there I am. Anyway Ill report how it comes out. Using wlp 838 stepped up. Never used this yeast before.
 
After sparge I had almost 14 gallons. My grain is all 2 years old so when I took a gravity at the pre-boil and it was 1.02 I almost quit. That worked out to about 35% efficiancy. I figured though what the hell and did the boil. At the end, at 10 gallons I took a gravity and it was 1.07! That works out to about 70% efficiancy so there I am.

One of your readings is suspect. I'd wager it was the first one. The boil-off calculation from 14 to 10 gal with a starting gravity of 1.020 is 1.028. That doesn't seem like a lot until you realize it is a 40% increase.

To end up at 1.070 you would have had to start at 1.050.
 
I made a variation of this but substituted the caramel malt with melanoidin malt

48 percent dark Munich
48 percent pils
4 percent melanoidin malt

Og 1.056
Fg 1.012

Yeast 34/70


Turned out great ! Next time I’ll use regular Munich vs the 15srm munich I used this time as I feel mine is a little too “roasty” and mine feels more like a Dunkel vs a marzen .

Keep brewing and have a home brew !
 
I brewed this today as my first lager. 5 (yes, 5) freezers in the garage and never done a lager. Go figure.

I modified a little bit, tettnang hops instead of the hallertauer in the recipe. 1.25oz to get to the IBU mark.

I also did a 3 stage decoction on this one, not because it was necessary, but because I have also never done one of those. This led to an OG of 1.060. I didn't take a gravity before starting the decoction so not really sure how much of that is ferment-able and how much is not.

Planning to to follow the same fermentation schedule. See ya in a couple months
 
My Marzen took first place in it's category at the Bluebonnet Brew-off this year out of 32 entries and 3rd place Best Of Show. Third best beer out of 1300 beers. I'll try to upload the BS file later.
 

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I'm thinking I'll try my hand at this style and do my first step mash. First lager too! This looks to be a solid recipe! Anyone have any photos of theirs?
 
Gla
Born and raised in Fort Worth up to highschool then to Lorena, graduated in 1980 joined the Navy and moved around since.
Glad to hear you're brewing and thank you for your service sir. I'm from the Dallas area, Carrollton to be exact. It's hotter than hell here.
 
We brewed the original recipe in march. We made 10 gallons. I have it keged in the fridge waiting for our octoberfest party. Doing out first whole smoked pig. I've kept it under co2 and tried samples along the way. It really turned out great. It has a beautiful malt profile. Its the first time I've used the Oktoberfest blend I think it has a wonderful profile its hard to just stop at 1/2 a sample glass. I don't see this lasting very long. I think it will really appeal to all beer drinkers.

*side note
I ferment in kegs and close system transfer. I didn't clean out one of the kegs and used the whole yeast slurry and pitched a robust porter on it. Its by far the best porter I have made. Love that yeast. Still have the slurry from the porter and am planning to do a final pitch with a big stout soon for Xmas.
 
Looking to brew this in a couple weeks, little late in the year but never to late to drink!!

Anyone have a water profile in ppm they would want to share.

Thanks!
 
Looking to brew this in a couple weeks, little late in the year but never to late to drink!!

Anyone have a water profile in ppm they would want to share.

Thanks!
Since I'm hoping to brew this tomorrow, I've been doing a bunch of research on this. From What I've been reading, a low concentration of minerals is desirable in this style. Originally I was going to use the Amber Full Profile on Bru'n Water but decided it may be a bit too much for an Oktoberfest. Here's the tread I found about water profile for this style:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/oktoberfest-water-numbers.338600/
 
Since I'm hoping to brew this tomorrow, I've been doing a bunch of research on this. From What I've been reading, a low concentration of minerals is desirable in this style. Originally I was going to use the Amber Full Profile on Bru'n Water but decided it may be a bit too much for an Oktoberfest. Here's the tread I found about water profile for this style:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/oktoberfest-water-numbers.338600/
How did the brew day go? Thanks for the link, some good reading.

What did you end up going with for a water profile? I think I still might go with the amber malty profile for the first go with this brew, but not sure yet.
 
How did the brew day go? Thanks for the link, some good reading.

What did you end up going with for a water profile? I think I still might go with the amber malty profile for the first go with this brew, but not sure yet.
My day off yesterday consisted more of running around than having time to brew. I'll be picking up supplies for it this week. I'll be building a profile from DI I think I'll just be adding CalCl to around 50ppm and no or low gypsum. Can't wait to do my first step mash as well.
 
My day off yesterday consisted more of running around than having time to brew. I'll be picking up supplies for it this week. I'll be building a profile from DI I think I'll just be adding CalCl to around 50ppm and no or low gypsum. Can't wait to do my first step mash as well.
What kind of step mash are you planning? I was just going to do the 152 for the full 60 min.
 
Going to be attempting my first lager soon and I may give this a go. Am I correct in assuming Dark Munich (Weyermann II) and CaraMunich I?

Also, anyone have any experience using Wyeast 2308, Munich Lager? I was torn between that and 2206 and I'm not sure I made the right decision when I decided to give the lager thing a go.
 
Going to be attempting my first lager soon and I may give this a go. Am I correct in assuming Dark Munich (Weyermann II) and CaraMunich I?

Also, anyone have any experience using Wyeast 2308, Munich Lager? I was torn between that and 2206 and I'm not sure I made the right decision when I decided to give the lager thing a go.
I do believe it's just the regular Munich malt and not the 2, as the later is a bit darker from what I remember. Caramunich 1 is also what you want.

As for the yeast I'm sure you will be fine, might end up with a little less malty finish but I'm sure it will make a fine beer non the less.
 
Going to be attempting my first lager soon and I may give this a go. Am I correct in assuming Dark Munich (Weyermann II) and CaraMunich I?

Also, anyone have any experience using Wyeast 2308, Munich Lager? I was torn between that and 2206 and I'm not sure I made the right decision when I decided to give the lager thing a go.

It was Regular Munic (9 srm) and Caramunich I, I did use Munich Lager the first version and it was maltier, the Oktoberfest blend was by far the best for me and won the most awards. This years version is with Bavarian Lager WY2206. Started it very late this year and couldn't get the 2206 quick enough. We'll see how it turns out.
 
It was Regular Munic (9 srm) and Caramunich I, I did use Munich Lager the first version and it was maltier, the Oktoberfest blend was by far the best for me and won the most awards. This years version is with Bavarian Lager WY2206. Started it very late this year and couldn't get the 2206 quick enough. We'll see how it turns out.

I figured it would be maltier... Looking forward to it. Let me know how they compare.
 
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!
 
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