Over doing the Hops on this Oktoberfest?

[Artemisag]

The Recipe calls for the following amount of hops:
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.25 ozs 3.72 Tettnang 90 mins 4.80
0.75 ozs 10.91 Tettnang 75 mins 4.80
1.50 ozs 18.56 Hallertauer 60 mins 3.20
0.75 ozs 6.69 Saaz

I dont want to waste some good hops to goto waste (not sure is I would use the remaining partial oz amounts soon enough) so I was thinking of the following hops additions to maximize the usage

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.25 ozs 3.72 Tettnang 90 mins 4.80
0.75 ozs 10.91 Tettnang 75 mins 4.80
2.00 ozs 18.56 Hallertauer 60 mins 3.20
1.00 ozs 6.69 Saaz

Thanks for any assistance you can provide

 

[wildwest450]

These numbers mean nothing without a batch size and recipe. On the surface, the original appears to be way overhopped for the style.


_

 

[Artemisag]

Final Batch 5 gallons
Boil Volume 6.25 gallons

Modified Octoberfest
Style: Octoberfest/Marzen OG: 1.090
Type: All Grain FG: 1.024
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 8.65 %
Calories: 295 IBU's: 39.89
Efficiency: 75 % Boil Size: 6.50 Gal
Color: 17.1 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
Boil Time: 90 minutes

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Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 7 days @ 55.0°F
Secondary 14 days @ 55.0°F
Lager 45 days @ 40.0°F

Grains & Adjuncts (brew shop was out of grain and subbed what they could, know this is not a traditional grain bill)
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
14.00 lbs 84.85 % Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 60 mins 1.037
1.75 lbs 10.61 % Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L 60 mins 1.034
0.75 lbs 4.55 % Caramunich Malt 60 mins 1.033

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.25 ozs 3.72 Tettnang 90 mins 4.80
0.75 ozs 10.91 Tettnang 75 mins 4.80
2.00 ozs 18.56 Hallertauer 60 mins 3.20
1.00 ozs 6.69 Saaz 30 mins 3.00

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg German Bock Lager White Labs 0833

Additions
Amount Name Time Stage
1.50 tsp Irish Moss 30 mins Boil

Mash Profile

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Medium Body Infusion In 60 min @ 154.0°F

Add 20.62 qt ( 1.25 qt/lb ) water @ 168.6°F

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Sparge

Sparge 14.96 qt of 170.0°F water

 

[gothcopter]

Yikes! That ingredient list looks better suited to an 8-9 gallon batch. In 5 gallons, you've got something that looks more like a doppelbock than an Oktoberfest.

Your standard Oktoberfest has OG in the 50's, and IBUs in the 20's. Any bigger than that and it starts to turn into something else. Are you sure the original recipe was for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[Artemisag]

Thats what I requested on the visit to a new brew shop. I guess he assumed I was doing 10. I will just have to split it between 2 carboys and make a10 gallon batch. This will be the first all grain I attempt so I had no idea if the recipe is correct or not. Thanks for catching that for me.

 

[markg388]

this is your first all-grain beer? oktoberfest is a pretty tough beer to get it "right"... have fun with that! hops are pretty much the least important piece of an oktoberfest, they're only there for balance.

In addition to the mashing & sparging techniques, read up on making huge starters, fermenting lager yeasts properly, diacetyl rest and all of that stuff so you don't waste a bunch of time making a terrible beer like I did with my first lager (unless you've done a bunch of extract lagers already then you should already konw).

 

[Irrenarzt]

As MarkG above said, be sure to have good temperature control and to make a bigass starter when doing lagers.

I have an Oktoberfest going right now that I brewed last Saturday. I actually brewed 3 lagers last weekend to combine the lagering simultaneously as then I'll free up my fermentation fridge sooner. I think this recipe is a bit over the top. You only need a very little hop presence as this style is all about the malt backbone. Look at Yoopers Oktoberfest for a better idea of what you need to do. I didn't use her recipe but it's a good one to start with. You want Munich and Vienna for the base malts, not pilsner. You can also lose the C60 if you are using Caramunich.

 

[Artemisag]

Thanks for the advice - I figure to pitch about a 3-4 quart starter. Im going to be learning alot on this beer I hope. First all grain and lager beer. I hope this turns out.

 

[Irrenarzt]

I do 4L starters with my big lagers (over 1.070 OG). I'll do 3L ones for 1.050 OG ones or if I'm feeling lazy and I can get away with Fermentis 34/70 (Weihenstephan stain) then I'll rehydrate 3 packs in place of the 4L starter beers or 2 packs for the smaller 3L starter ones.

This scheme has worked for me so far.