Weihenstephan Festbier?

[electric_beer]

I'm on a lager kick right now. I just started and now of course I just can't stop.

Anyone have any idea where to start on a similar beer? Not necessarily a clone, but something in the neighborhood?

Info I have is:
IBU 26
ABV 5.8%

No info on any grains on the website.

What I'm thinking:
Vienna 5lb
Munich 5lb
CaraMunich III 1/2 lb

Single Decoction mash at 150.

Hop choices:
Perle
Tettnang
Hallertauer Mittlefruh

Probably FWH only?

OG. 1.057
FG 1.014

Ferment with saflager w-30 70

Anyone have any suggestions?? Does this seem like it should get me into the ball park?

 

[Brewsmith]

I think your recipe looks good, but I don't think it will be a a good clone. My guess is that you would need some amount of pilsner malt in there. I would take the 10 lbs of base grain and split it three ways between Pils, Munich and Vienna, or even go 5 lbs pils and 2.5 lbs each Munich and Vienna. Either way you go you should have a great malty beer.

For the hops FWH is probably not necessary. I'd just do a 60 min addition to about 25 IBU and maybe a half ounce 15-20 minutes from the end of boil.

 

[electric_beer]

Thanks for the tips Brewsmith!

Do you think it needs any CaraMunich or any crystal?

 

[BigEd]

Thanks for the tips Brewsmith!

Do you think it needs any CaraMunich or any crystal?

No. The Munich and Vienna will provide plenty of color and IMO you don't want any crystal malt sweetness in this beer.

 

[merkinman]

Did this beer ever get brewed? How did it turn out? I really like the idea of 50% pils, 25% Munich, 25% Vienna.

 

[electric_beer]

I brewed it with equal parts pils, light munich, and vienna with perle @ 60min & just a little big of tettnanger @ 20 mins. Came out really nice. Not sure if I'd say clone, but really tasty!

 

[bwible]

This beer is LIGHT in color. Yet very malty. I agree the grain bill must be a large percentage of Pilsen malt with limited Munich and/or Vienna. Almost like a bumped up Helles Recipe.

https://learn.kegerator.com/festbier/

 

[LokiM4]

This beer is LIGHT in color. Yet very malty. I agree the grain bill must be a large percentage of Pilsen malt with limited Munich and/or Vienna. Almost like a bumped up Helles Recipe.

https://learn.kegerator.com/festbier/

Digging up an old thread on this-but it was one of the few I saw about this beer.

I wrote to the brewery and got a reply that the malt bill is 100% Pilsner malt with Callista at end of the boil for aroma and the yeast was the brewery’s ’standard’ bottom fermenting yeast. They said they couldn’t provide the recipe exactly, but hoped their help pointed me in the right direction.


So from that I get there has to be an early bittering addition-but should it be a cleaner Magnum or something else to get the IBU’s up like Hallertau ?

I think most of us would either add in something to acidify the mash, either acid, acid malt or sauergut and due to the light color, not do a decoction or a very brief one. Question is single infusion or step mash?

Yeast sounds easy, their ‘standard’ lager yeast should be W34/70, correct?

Anyone else have thoughts or ideas based on their reply and what you taste in this beer?

Thanks in advance!

 

[day_trippr]

Wrt the early hop addition, do your taste buds lend any direction? Hallertau should leave enough character behind even as a 60 minute addition to differentiate it vs Magnum (which would be my inclination to use). Don't have anything to offer wrt yeast, but certainly an all pilsner malt mash is going to need substantial acid addition. If you detect the lactic acid character in the bottle - or if you're sensitive to lactic acid in general - I'd go with phosphoric acid vs LA or sauergut. Lastly I have no experience doing single-infusion brews as I run a herms rig and can hit a multiple rests fairly easily if desired, and lately have been using the Hoch Kurtz (or "Hochkurtz") mash strategy which appears to be favored in Germany these days...

Cheers!

 

[LokiM4]

Wrt the early hop addition, do your taste buds lend any direction? Hallertau should leave enough character behind even as a 60 minute addition to differentiate it vs Magnum (which would be my inclination to use). Don't have anything to offer wrt yeast, but certainly an all pilsner malt mash is going to need substantial acid addition. If you detect the lactic acid character in the bottle - or if you're sensitive to lactic acid in general - I'd go with phosphoric acid vs LA or sauergut. Lastly I have no experience doing single-infusion brews as I run a herms rig and can hit a multiple rests fairly easily if desired, and lately have been using the Hoch Kurtz (or "Hochkurtz") mash strategy which appears to be favored in Germany these days...

Cheers!

For the early hop edition I think Magnum is too clean, an I don’t think it’s the same as the Herkules in the Paulaner Festbier and the Hofbrau or the Tradition in Paulaner’s Munich lager. Though I’ll admit I don’t know what Callista tastes like-so I’m not sure

Edited to add-the same person replied to my follow up about bittering. They use Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Perle both for bittering.

Amazing!

I have phosphoric and Acid malt, I can use either or or a blend of both. Haven’t ventured into sauergut yet…

I like step mashing and Hochkurtz is definitely an option.

Cheers

 

[LokiM4]

Since you been working on a Paulaner, do you have any thoughts @tderanleau ?

Or possibly @VTMongoose ? Possibly @Miraculix ? Or anyone else whos had this beer and might have some insight?

Thanks