Oktoberfest - The Pinnacle of Lager Season

Well its over and done. The Muhleisen Oktoberfest/Marzen is now sitting in the fridge on the verge of fermentation.  The past 8 hours have been a battle for the brew.  Here's how it all unfolded.

Oktoberfest beer is by far my favorite style of beer.  Flavor wise it is just a straight up malty lager with no 'in your face' or 'funky' flavors.  The reason I enjoy it so much is from a combination of sensory combinations.  Fall begins to roll into the US and the air takes a turn from hot and humid to warm/cool and dry.  The smell of autumn sets in air and the leaves that are green turn to brown.  When I first started brewing beer in August of 2008 I had just started my journey on craft beer.  I found myself fascinated with the delicious German Oktoberfests from Paulaner, Spaten, Ayinger and an American Craft Oktoberfest from Great Lakes Brewing Company.  I remember sitting on my parents deck one early autumn evening and eating dinner whilst quaffing on some of these fine brews.  I was hooked.  Every September/October I get reignited for a delicious Oktoberfest beer. I also love drinking these beers from big 1 litre mugs while singing German songs, but that is a separate blog post.

Even though its my favorite style, of the 3 dozen odd batches of beer I have brewed I have yet to brew an Oktoberfest.  So today was the day.  The weather is beginning to warm and soon I will have to decrease my brewery output as the hot days of summer come back to Arkansas.

Here was my recipe:

4# German Pilsener
3.5# Munich Malt
2.5# Vienna Malt
0.5# Crystal 60
0.5# Carafa45
Preboil Gravity (7.5 gallons) ~1.045
OG (6 gallons) ~1.056

90 minute boil
1.1 oz. Hallertau (5.7% AA) at 60 min
0.4 0z. Hallertau (5.7% AA) at 20 min

Water was a 50% dilution of Mountain Valley Spring Water and distilled water.  Approximately 3 grams of CaCl added with 2 grams of CaSO4 to bring the alkalinity in check and add needed minerals.

Yeast was White Labs Oktoberfest Lager yeast off a 2 stage starter to achieve roughly 400 billion cell count.

The mash was 'Hochkurz Double Decoction'.  Hochkurz roughly means 'HighShort' in German and this approach employs two different saccharification rests with decoction to raise between the first and second sacc temps and then a second (decoction) to raise the mash to mash-out temp.  I won't bore anyone with details but my fist rest was at roughly 145F and my second rest was at 158F.  I hit 85% brewhouse efficiency and the decoction boils should add a nice malty backbone to the final product.


Decoction brewdays are much more hectic than the average infusion mash brewday.  Therefore I don't have a bunch of pics.  But here are some action shots:

The aftermath of the decoction.  I did the majority of it on the stove (the decoctions were small [7 quarts] because of the small temperature increases needed).

Boil boil boil boil.

Was happy to hit my gravity goal.  I also really like the color.

The sweet sweet wort is making its way to the fermentor.

The sweet sweet wort has been inoculated with the yeasties and well aerated.

 

So as excited as I am for this beer, it is going to take patience.  I want to do this the way that the Germans intended for this beer.  They would brew this beer in March and lager it in caves in the summer months before enjoying it in the fall.  The history is a little blurry but it was called Oktoberfest beer after 1810 when these beers were brewed specially for a celebration of a Prince/Princess wedding.  


Long story short.  I'm going to ferment this beer for 3 weeks and lager for 6 weeks.  Then I will bottle it, let it condition, then put it back in the fridge to sit, and sit, and sit.  In late September I will bake pretzels, grill brats, and enjoy this beer with my brewthers and brewisters.


Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this beer rocks!