Preparing for Oktoberfest

[Maeldric]

I know probably a little early but have decided to start my Oktoberfest party preps early this year. Have only done a couple AG brews and they have been with split boils as I only ever had a 15L pot in the past (8 hour brew day ftw :beerbang: ). I have recently ordered a 36L kettle and italian burner from beer belly and am just waiting for it to be delivered then I can dive right into the wonderful world of AG brewing.

First beer Ill be making for the party is a Marzen which will allow me to Lager it for quite a few months and hopefully end up with some golden nectar. Have devised a recipe in Beersmith and wanted to run it by you all to see if I should change anything. Will be doing a decotion mash for the first time with this also so have just chosen one of the built in decoction options in beersmith.

Recipe is:

3.5kg of Vienna Malt
1kg of Munich Malt
.25kg of Caramunich Malt
1oz Tettnang for 45mins
1oz Hallertauer for 20 mins

Mash steps were:
35mins at 50 for protein rest
Decoct 6L then add back to bring temp up to 64 for 20 mins
Decoct 3L then add back to brign temp up to 69 for 20 mins
Bring temp up to 75 for mash out
Drain and sparge.

With this ingredients and steps Beersmith has my Gravity,Bitterness,Colour and ABV all roughly in the middle of the Green Section for the Marzen Style.

Will then be fermented at 10 Degrees for 2 weeks, brought up a few degrees for a couple of days then slowly lowered to 1 Degree. Will then Rack off into a secondary and Lager for a few months.

Any thoughts on the process or changes I should make would be greatly appreciated.

Edit - Is lagering in a plastic container for an extended period of time going to be an issue? Have been meaning to buy a couple more kegs so would be able to do in them if the plastic is a no go.

 

[idzy]

I am in the same boat Maeldric, so can't comment on process.

This is a helpful article that I read recently. Hope you enjoy it:
https://byo.com/stories/item/1486-the-key-to-better-lager-cornelius-kegs

Cheers,
Idzy

 

[tiprya]

The beer sounds like a winner, but just note it is likely to be much maltier than commercial 'Oktoberfests' that now mostly rely on pilsner malt.

Interesting article that covers the development of the style here:
http://beervana.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-curious-case-of-ninkasis-dortmunder.html

Personally, I'd prefer your recipe mate.

Re: lagering, if its more than a couple of months, I'd try to secondary in purged stainless.

 

[Maeldric]

Very interesting reads thanks guys!

 

[mckenry]

I dont think youre going to need 35mins protein rest. Some say a protein rest is not required with todays malts and others say they are still beneficial (for other reasons such as complexity) Beersmith might say 35 mins, but beersmith is American and they do have different barley to us.
Personally I am a 5 min protein rest for most beers.

 

[Maeldric]

Yeah I had actually written in brackets after that step (is this nessecary) before i edited it because of the reading i have done. Though had the thoughts of it might add flavour/complexity to the beer so left it out to see what people thought. Thank you for your response mckenry

 

[mckenry]

Yeah I had actually written in brackets after that step (is this nessecary) before i edited it because of the reading i have done. Though had the thoughts of it might add flavour/complexity to the beer so left it out to see what people thought. Thank you for your response mckenry

Hi Maeldric,
No worries. Most people agree a long protein rest is detrimental. If you had a lot of unmalted adjunct it might be worthwhile, but you dont, so it isnt necessary to do a long P.R. If you want to do a short one, IMO, go for it.

The other thing is about your lagering times. I may get flamed here, but I find you can lager too long. I made an Oktoberfest in about April, to consume in December, thinking the longer the better. Come December it was disappointing. Maybe the stability wasnt great. Seeing as I do doubles, I had already drunk one keg in July for my bday and it was perfect. I'm not convinced 8 months storage is better than 2 or 3 months with these delicate type beers.

I say brew it, but drink it in a couple of months and see how it changes over the next month or so after that. You may want to rebrew for your Oktoberfest. I'm a fan of lagering in the keg rather than plastic. Cant say plastic is bad (no evidence), but I'm relaxed with my fermented beer in SS.

So when planning ahead for lagers, I try to brew them about 3 months out from consumption, allowing 3 weeks til packaging, which gives me a tad over 2 months lagering which I find to be the sweet spot. I have consumed lagers after 1 week in the keg and while fine then, they come really good after a couple of weeks and great at the 2 month mark and like I said above, downhill by 8 months.

Most importantly - Get your yeast right! And good luck.

 

[Maeldric]

Thanks mate. A 2 month lager would probably be a better option as I haven't made this recipe before and would be better to test it at that stage and then make another ready for October if i like it. Will also have the benefit of having a keg out of action for a shorter time that way. Am using the wyeast Munich lager for this batch.

My wife's parents are visiting us in a couple of weeks and her dad is a home brewer that only does kits and fresh wort atm. Will be making this with him when they get up here as he had a recent trip to a micro brewery on the weekend and is thinking of taking the plunge into ag.

Oh and thanks for the heads up on protein rest, I will cut it back to much shorter and then next time i make this skip that step to see if there was any difference in the outcome.

 

[manticle]

5 mins at 52-55, 10 minutes at 72. Bookends to your mash, good, lasting head and lacing.

 

[Maeldric]

Well this beer won't be being made this weekend as planned. After almost a month, beer belly have still not sent my pot or burner. Sent hem an email with no response, called them over a week ago and was told it was getting sent the next day, which it was not. Not happy as father in law was really looking forward to making this with me. I understand they make their gear custom but would much rather be told its gonna take a while than being told yeah it will be sent tomorrow just to get you off the phone. In contrast, ordered the ingredients needed from craft brewer and they made it up here to cooktown only 4 days later. Great job guys.

 

[mckenry]

Yep. There are plenty of beerbelly wait time complaints on here. I waited an awfully long time for my stuff. Top quality but shit it took ages. I really don't like the 'say whatever it takes' line. I guess if you ordered and they said it would take 4 months customers would go elsewhere. If they tell you 2 weeks and then you wait 4 before you ring and they can tell you next week etc and around it goes again, the 4 months is there before you know it

 

[Maeldric]

Its hard to stay mad at Beerbelly. The pot and burner finally turned up today, a month and a half later... But man o man their work is a thing of beauty. They gave me a bag of cascade hops as an apology for the delay too so bonus Will be making this beer up today once I have gone and refilled the gas. :beerbang:

 

[Maeldric]

Well 4 hours later the brewing is done and its in a cube in the bath tub with a few bags of ice to cool down. Few notes:
Make sure to check the taps before brewing... My mashtun has a beerbelly falsy in it and worked fine the last time it was used (4 years ago) but the nuts had somehow come loose over time. After mashing in at 52 there was a constant drip from the tap. Drained it and tightened it then refilled. Still dripping!!! So the hand was then plunged in and tightened more which fixed the problem. Though turned my 5 min protein rest into a 20 min one.

Must have lost some temp over this process as when I decocted 5L and returned it to the mash after the boil I only hit 60 instead of my intendid 64 so added a couple litres of boiling water to get it up to 62. Oh well, 45 mins later decocted another 5L and returned which brought me up to 68. Left for 20 then one final decoct which got me to 72. 10 mins at this then added 5L of boiling water to hit 76 for mashout. Would of hit my 20L nicely though didnt realise I would be left with about 2.5L of liquid in the pot once done.

So ended with about 18.5L of wort which is currently cooling. Havent done a OG test yet so might be able to add a couple litres if it is a little high. All in all apart from the begining it was a rather smooth brew day

Edit: Just did an OG reading and came out at 1.049 after adjusting for temp so could add a little bit of water to reach my desired volume without making it too weak.

Edit: So I actually did hit my marks pretty well. Tested the gravity again this morning once it had cooled and it was sitting at 1050-1051 with beersmith estimating 1053. Also after transfering the wort to my fermenter I realised I was bang on 20L like I had planned. Thought I only had 18 because it was originally poured into my 20L jerry to cool and had some head space so that was an estimate. Turns out the jerrycan must be more like 22. So am extremely happy to get the desired volume and only missing OG by a couple of points for my first ever dectoction mash and first all grain brew in quite some years. Oh and the sample tasted AMAZING... cannot wait for this bad boy to be ready.

 

[Maeldric]

4 weeks later it has finally hit 1010 SG. That was a long ferment (even had 4 days sitting around 20 degrees because of that ******* Ita knocking out our power) Tasting pretty good in the fermenter. I am lowering it a couple degrees a day till i get to 0 now and then will transfer into a keg to condition for a month or two. Judging by the taste of it now its going to be a damn nice beer.

 

[mckenry]

Mate. Well done. If it's tasting good now, there's really no reason to wait a month or two! Get the cc over with and package and drink. IMO lagering for a set period is an unnecessary rule if thumb. Let taste be the judge.