Modern Oktoberfestbier

My little brother recently got into brewing and has brewed 3 extract batches thus far. (I’ve never been more proud of him during his 25 years of life).
He’s coming to see me in two weeks and I really want to brew AG with him.
I’ve decided on doing a double decocted Oktoberfest and wanted to do something in the style of the modern Festbier sold throughout Germany by the big Munich breweries and that is consumed there at the festival. I go to Germany usually once a year and really don’t care for the American/Sam Adam’s/traditional Ofest that are dark amber and super rich.

I’m looking for a slightly bigger more robust and malty helles in the 8-10SRM range. These are the ones I have come to love. Think of the festbiers put out by paulaner, hacker pshorr, Lowenbrau….
Here’s what I’m looking at now. Any comments?

70% Light Munich
20% German Pilsner
5% CaraHell

OG: 1.056

Total IBU’s to 25
60 minute addition of Halletauer
30 minute addition of .5oz Spalt

Wyeast Hella Bock Yeast from yeast cake
Main decoction rest at 152F
Ferment 48F -50F

Buddy: I know exactly what you’re talking about and I recently made one and then refined it and made it again. I did not do a decoction but just a single infusion and I also realized that using authentic ingredients is the key. Check out this recipe and tell me what you think… it makes a very nice, dark gold/light amber lager that is very much in the style of a German Festbier.

[b]5.00 lbs Weyermann Pilsner malt
4.50 lbs Weyermann Munich 10L (also called Munich Dark)
8 ounces Carafoam
4 ounces Acid Malt
1 oz Spalt pellets @ 4% plus 1 ounce Tettnanger pellets 4.5% FWH
1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh pellets 3.1% for 1 minute
Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager yeast

OG: 1.054, FG: 1.014, IBU: 25, SRM: 7-8, ABV: 5.2%[/b]

I used 100% filtered tap water with some calcium chloride added to the mash, mashed at 151-152° for 90 minutes and fermented in a fridge at 47°. There are no hops added between 60 minutes and 2 minutes of the boil… they’re all FWH and then in the last minute. What you get is firm but smooth bitterness from the 8.5 AAU of FWH and then some aroma from the last hop addition. All ingredients are German (except the water, of course) and all hops are Noble. Beware of anything domestic that may call itself “dark munich”, etc. You may see Briess “Dark Munich 20L” which is NOT a base malt and may not even be a Munich malt, but more of a crystal malt. This Weyermann 10L Munich is the absolute boss and makes such a delicious beer when everything else is done properly. More HERE

, but look close because there are two recipes there. The first one came out “good” but the second one will be MUCHO better. Cheers.

Ken,
the second recipe at the link is slightly different from the one posted above. Is the one above the third iteration/refinement?

looks damn tasty by the way.

bob

[quote=“Ken Lenard”]Buddy: I know exactly what you’re talking about and I recently made one and then refined it and made it again. I did not do a decoction but just a single infusion and I also realized that using authentic ingredients is the key. Check out this recipe and tell me what you think… it makes a very nice, dark gold/light amber lager that is very much in the style of a German Festbier.

[b]5.00 lbs Weyermann Pilsner malt
4.50 lbs Weyermann Munich 10L (also called Munich Dark)
8 ounces Carafoam
4 ounces Acid Malt
1 oz Spalt pellets @ 4% plus 1 ounce Tettnanger pellets 4.5% FWH
1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh pellets 3.1% for 1 minute
Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager yeast

OG: 1.054, FG: 1.014, IBU: 25, SRM: 7-8, ABV: 5.2%[/b]

I used 100% filtered tap water with some calcium chloride added to the mash, mashed at 151-152° for 90 minutes and fermented in a fridge at 47°. There are no hops added between 60 minutes and 2 minutes of the boil… they’re all FWH and then in the last minute. What you get is firm but smooth bitterness from the 8.5 AAU of FWH and then some aroma from the last hop addition. All ingredients are German (except the water, of course) and all hops are Noble. Beware of anything domestic that may call itself “dark munich”, etc. You may see Briess “Dark Munich 20L” which is NOT a base malt and may not even be a Munich malt, but more of a crystal malt. This Weyermann 10L Munich is the absolute boss and makes such a delicious beer when everything else is done properly. More HERE

, but look close because there are two recipes there. The first one came out “good” but the second one will be MUCHO better. Cheers.[/quote]

Thanks for replying Ken!!

Funny, I actually meant to add in acid malt - 1-2% in the grist.

I really like the idea of FWH, but I’ve never tasted or smelled hop aroma in Munich beers that you would get with a 1min addition of 1oz a hops.
Is this something you’ve noticed, or something that you personally like?

With the ratio of Munich to Pilsner malt, do you think my 70/20 split would end up too bock like?

And any reason you went with carafoam over carahell? I can only think of the additional color carahell would add.

Stormy: This is the latest one as I made it on 6/21.

BD: I was originally concerned that the FWH addition wouldn’t provide enough hoppitude and thought that the last addition would be a sort of insurance policy against that. It turns out that it was not necessary but I did in fact like the character. I wasn’t necessarily trying to nail a style or brand of beer, just create something good and different. The character you get from FWHing cannot be beat. You will notice an aroma in your brewhouse (and a different character in the beer) from the FWH addition. It’s hard to describe but it’s really nice. Your grain bill uses Munich Light (6L) and you’re using more of it and I’m using the 10L and I’m using less of it. I have used the 6L but I recently fell in love with the 10L and I just went with close to 50/50 with that malt and the Pils. I honestly don’t think you can go wrong in either direction. I typically don’t have CaraHell on hand. I usually have CaraFoam and aldo CaraPils for head formation and stability and I like to add some amount to almost any beer I make. I think the FWH is the biggest piece of this beer. I consider the Munich 10L to be big but the FWH to be bigger. The CaraHell/CaraFoam is probably not much of an issue at all.

Cheers guys!

Ken,

recently I’ve been making 3 gallon batches and will probably give this recipe a go in a few weeks. So, to reduce the recipe to 3 gallons, do you recommend cutting everything by 2/5s or only the base malt and hops?

Or, should I treat the munich 10L as a base malt, rather than specialty grain, and cut it by 2/5s also. Should I maintain the full 8oz carafoam and 4oz acid malt as specialty grain or cut by 2/5s?

bob

I think if I were doing that, I would do 60% of everything.

So…

3 lbs of Pils
2.7 lbs of Munich 10
just do half the specialties, 4 ounces and 2 ounces respectively
and then just get close on the hops but stay with the 60% of everything. I have a small digital scale that measures in ounces and grams and it’s very handy if you ever need .38 of an ounce or whatever.

I think you’d have good success with the recipe if you did it that way and I really wouldn’t sweat the minor things… just get close.

Cheers.

I’ve got a digital scale…one of my first purchases when I downsized to 3gallon batches. Luv that little bastard.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Oh, your Dos XX Amber clone turned out great: Tres XXX is on tap. :wink: If I remember, I’ll snap a pic on the next pour.

cheers.

[quote=“StormyBrew”]I’ve got a digital scale…one of my first purchases when I downsized to 3gallon batches. Luv that little bastard.

Thanks for the recommendations.

Oh, your Dos XX Amber clone turned out great: Tres XXX is on tap. :wink: If I remember, I’ll snap a pic on the next pour.

cheers.[/quote]
You’ll have to point me towards my post on that recipe. I don’t think I have it on my site and I know I made it but I’m not sure I made it again. Did I post this in the recipe forum?? Glad to hear it came out nicely. I know I have a pic of it on my site, but not sure what the recipe was w/o checking my notes. Cheers.

Ken,

your recipe posted here during discussion of “Negra modelo vs Dos XXs amber”.

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=108225&p=954964&hilit=negra+modelo#p954964

cheers

edit:

here’s what I made on 3.17.12: 3 gallon grain bill:

3.25 lbs German Pilsner Malt
2.0 lbs Vienna Malt 4°L
0.67 lb flaked corn
0.34 lb Crystal 120°L
0.17 lb Belgian CaraMunich II

Total = 6.43 lbs.
Mash = 10qts = 1.56qts/lb
Sparge = 9 qts

1.25 oz German spalt pellets 3.9% at 60 mins
0.18 oz Halletauer pellets 3.8% at 20 mins

60 min mash @ 152F

White Labs 940 Mexican Lager Yeast. Pitch/ferment at 50-55f.

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.013 on 4.24.12
diacytal rest on 4.23-24.12.
Lagering (33-35F) begins: 4.24.12
kegged: 6.13.12

:cheers:

[quote=“brewingdan”]My little brother recently got into brewing and has brewed 3 extract batches thus far. (I’ve never been more proud of him during his 25 years of life).
He’s coming to see me in two weeks and I really want to brew AG with him.
I’ve decided on doing a double decocted Oktoberfest and wanted to do something in the style of the modern Festbier sold throughout Germany by the big Munich breweries and that is consumed there at the festival. I go to Germany usually once a year and really don’t care for the American/Sam Adam’s/traditional Ofest that are dark amber and super rich.

I’m looking for a slightly bigger more robust and malty helles in the 8-10SRM range. These are the ones I have come to love. Think of the festbiers put out by paulaner, hacker pshorr, Lowenbrau….
Here’s what I’m looking at now. Any comments?

70% Light Munich
20% German Pilsner
5% CaraHell

OG: 1.056

Total IBU’s to 25
60 minute addition of Halletauer
30 minute addition of .5oz Spalt

Wyeast Hella Bock Yeast from yeast cake
Main decoction rest at 152F
Ferment 48F -50F[/quote]

I’d use a Vienna malt base along with Pilsner, skip the crystal malt and would bring the mash temp down some.

60% Vienna
35% Pilsner
5% Munich
If you want to use crystal malt I’d suggest CaraFoam/CaraPils at ~3%. It won’t add sweetness like CaraHell. Try your main decoction rest @ 148F.

:cheers:

Brewing tomorrow and going with:

6.5lb Vienna
2.5lb German Pils
1lb German Munich
3oz Acid Malt
Double decocted with main rest at 148F (gotta something to drink by the liter right!!!)

25ibus
FWH with Tettnang
30 min .5oz Tettnang

OG shooting for 1.056-1.058

massive 6L starter of munich II lager yeast