Oktoberfest Advice

[Subsonic]

I'm just about to do one tomorrow and wanted some views on my grain bill. Its for 45 litres at 1058 running at about 72% efficiency. What concerns me is the amount of crystal, is this right? I have looked at loads of recipes and can;t seem to get this figure right. It seems way too much for me?

Malt Bill kg Extract %
munich malt 5.5 35 45.5%
Pils 2 row 5.5 37 45.5%
CRYSTAL 80L 1.1 34.0 9.1%

Yeast is going to be Yeast W34/70 Saflager which is from Weihenstephan and I have a room cooled to 10c to ferment this lot at.

Any help appreciated as I am mashing tomorrow! I did pm Mysterio as he has given me a bit of advice recently but he seems to be offline and I am good to go tomorrow. Cheers Subsonic.

[delboy]

It does seem rather a lot, with 45 % munich in there i don't think you should need that much if it was me id drop it to 5 % and up the munich accordingly.

[steve_flack]

Depends what sort of oktoberfest you want to brew. The recipe you have is for the american style - a copper coloured lager. The German version you see at Oktoberfest is more like a strong helles - perhaps a bit more golden in color.

[Subsonic]

Thanks all, the recipe was from an American. I eventually dropped the crystal right back to 300g as suggested by Mysterio in a PM and it is boiling away as I speak, all 50 litres of it! Cheers Subsonic

[Subsonic]

Whey hey! I ended up cutting the crystal to 300 grams. I pulled 45 litres at 1060 which by my reckoning has my efficiency up in the 84% mark which is lovely, better than usual.

As the boiler was getting pretty full I sparged to a big pan as well so I had a full boiler plus a pan full. Hop loss was a lot but I still got my 45 litres. So with 10.7 kg of grain and a wort of 1060 I am well happy

Right, off to the pub to meet some friends for lunch. They have Dark Star APA on and it is a superb beer.... Subsonic

[Barley Water]

You did the right thing by cutting back on the crystal malt. In my opinion, the better examples are malty but the beer is pretty dry. Of course too much crystal will add sweetness because it is not fermentable and also will add alot of body. You want to make sure you really take care of your yeast as you want maximum attenuation, no matter what formulation you choose to use. I also try to keep my O.G. no higher than 1.055 because you start getting into Bock range when you let it get higher and again, the beer starts to sweeten up. By the way, over here we tend to make the more traditional Octoberfests like they did back in the day. I think the Germans are actually dumbing down their beer just a little to get more mass market appeal (ie; they are making a paler product). I also think that the hardest thing about this style is getting the hopping level correct. You want to get a balanced, round tasting product but too little hops cuts into the drinkability of the beer as does too much. One day I will get it right.

I am going to start screwing around with the formulation I have been using, probably dropping the crystal malt a little. I am also considering adding just a smidge of bisquit or similar specialty malt just to add a little interest. When I make my version, I do decoctions but I won't get that whole argument started again. Anyhow, the next two weeks will be German wheat beers for me. I am trying to get ready for a contest in early March so I'm going to make a Heffe and then a Dunkel Weizen on consecutive weekends. These are two of my favorite styles and I want them really fresh for the contest. By the way, if anybody out there has a good formulation for a Dunkel Weizen I would love to see your ideas (I have the Heffe under control but I need help with the Dunkel Weizen).

[Subsonic]

Cheers Barley Water. My efficiency was way better than expected hence me overshooting on the gravity. If you want I have a couple of original German beer recipes translated from a German friend of mine who is in Bavaria. Happy to pm them over in word format. Subsonic

[mysterio]

Yeah I think a couple of percent to give it a touch of colour is all you need. Hope it went well.

[Barley Water]

Yes, I would love to see the German formulations, that would be very interesting.

I have made this beer a few times and really only came close to what I was looking for once. I ended up lagering a full keg in the traditional manner, from March until the end of September and the beer was pretty good although I thought that it had just a touch too much hop. I really don't have that much cold space though and I really hate to tie up what I have for that long. Maybe I will make some again this spring and bottle a couple of six packs for contests in the fall, then just drink the rest out of the keg.I had pretty good luck with a Vienna Lager that I did that with so maybe that will be a workable solution for me. The last batch I made tasted like it was just a little under attenuated and I am thinking that maybe the long lagering period would take care of that issue. Oh well, if this hobby was easy, everyone would do it, right?

Maybe what I sould do is purchase a medium sized chest freezer and put a thermostat on it however, selling that one to the wife might be difficult since I already have two dedicated refrigerators.