Oktoberfest Ale Recipe???

[ohiodad]

Hi folks.. Still relatively new to brewing and could use a little help here..

Not set up for lagering but looking to brew an Oktoberfest Ale..

Found this recipe on BYO -
My Favorite Märzen
(5 gallons)

"This is an Oktoberfest-style ale with a lovely, toasty flavor underlying the hops and the
rich maltiness. I know it is not quite authentic, but boy is it nice!"

Ingredients:

1 lb. toasted and cracked lager malt
0.5 lb. Munich malt
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
3 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt extract
6 lbs. unhopped amber extract syrup
2 oz. Hallertauer hop pellets
1 oz. Spalter pellets
1 oz. Mt. Hood pellets
11.5 g. Edme ale yeast

Step by Step:
Toast lager malt in a 350° F oven for 10 minutes. Crack all three malts and add them to 2.5
gallons cold water (in grain bags), steeping while bringing the water to 170° F. Remove
grains to a colander suspended over your fermenter, and sparge with 2 quarts preboiled 170°
F water. Add unhopped amber dry malt extract (reserving 1 cup for priming) and unhopped
amber extract syrup to the kettle, stirring to avoid scorching.

Bring up to a full boil and add Hallertauer pellets. Boil for 30 minutes. Add Spalter pellets
and boil an additional 15. Remove from heat. Pour into sanitized fermenter, add 3 gallons
cold water and Mt. Hood pellets. Let cool. Pitch the yeast. When wort hits 75° F, seal and
ferment as usual. Rack after five days, let settle six more. Bottle, priming with reserved dry
malt extract. Age cool (45° to 50° F) for four weeks or more.

OG = 1.055 to 1.058
FG = 1.012 to 1.015

Now I don't know what lager malt is.. Any suggestions for a substitute? Also if i wanted to use Wyeast instead of Edme would you all have a recommendation there as well? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Cheers!

 

[Iordz]

Lager malt is usually used in European beer and, of course lagers. You can use pale ale malt as a substitute. It looks like you have to toast the pale malt in the oven for 10 minutes, what you could do is use a biscuit/victory malt to give you that toasty flavor. So, in my opinion, skip the "1 lb. toasted and cracked lager malt” and go with biscuit malt instead.
You can use Wyeast. Which strain are you thinking of going with?

 

[ohiodad]

Lager malt is usually used in European beer and, of course lagers. You can use pale ale malt as a substitute. It looks like you have to toast the pale malt in the oven for 10 minutes, what you could do is use a biscuit/victory malt to give you that toasty flavor. So, in my opinion, skip the "1 lb. toasted and cracked lager malt” and go with biscuit malt instead.
You can use Wyeast. Which strain are you thinking of going with?

Hmm well the choice that seems best to me would be 1007 German Ale Yeast but maybe I should just brew a straight up Altbier instead.. Looking for something German for October... If anyone has a good Altbier Extract recipe I'm game for that too...

 

[taydawg197]

I just brewed an Oktoberfest Ale.

2 cans of muntons light
1/2 lb crystal
1/2 lb munich
1/2 lb pale
1/4 chocolate
2.5 oz Hallertau
1 tsp irish moss
Whitelabs european ale yeast (liquid)

Toast pale malt 10min at 350
crack all grain

steep all grain 30min at 154

rinse grain bag with 1/2 gal water

add malt extract and 1oz of hops

boil for 60 min

add 1oz of hops boil for 15 min

add irish moss -> boil 15 min

last 5 min of boil add last 1/2 oz of hops.

Cool, bring up to 5.5 gal pitch yeast.

Now for my questions (sorry to jack you thread) My boil only consited of 1 gal of water from the time steeping started to finish, by the time i ended it was significantly less and very thick and syrupy. Is this normal. I did take a SG and it was 1.047 at 60deg. Recipe said between 1.044 and 1.050 so im happy with that. How long should i ferment. I was thinking 2 weeks primary 2-3 weeks secondary. Is this okay?

Thanks. I hope my recipe will also help OP.

 

[taydawg197]

Is a 90 min boil too long for this? Especially in 1 gal of water. Should i expect any issues?

 

[Trencher]

...make for lots of caramelized (unfermentable) sugars. Depending on the style this may or may not be good, but I would recommend using as much water in the boil as possible. Start looking for propane turkey fryer kits...

 

[taydawg197]

...make for lots of caramelized (unfermentable) sugars. Depending on the style this may or may not be good, but I would recommend using as much water in the boil as possible. Start looking for propane turkey fryer kits...

The recipe from my LHBS (where the kit is from) Said only a gallon of water. I really hope the batch isnt ruined because of this.

 

[Trencher]

After all, you made it!
Constantly stirring the pot will help you avoid caramelization, and the hops provided were probably tailored to 1 gallon of water. Using more water would have gotten more from the hops and changed the character of the beer.

RDWHAHB

 

[taydawg197]

Well after about 48 hrs, i have rapid bubbling in the airlock. GOOD NEWS

 

[Brewing Clamper]

The recipe from my LHBS (where the kit is from) Said only a gallon of water. I really hope the batch isnt ruined because of this.

I would be wary of a LHBS that would recommend a 1gl boil of 6+lbs of LME! I'm not saying you can't make decent beer that way, but you're bound to have much less consistancy between batches. You can definitely darken the brew more, even scorch small portions if you're not constantly stirring. It's just trouble. I would do a minimum of 2-3 gallon boil and only start with 1 can and not add the second can until knockout, then let it sit for a good 10mins to pasteurize the second addition before you cool it.