OktoberWeist Bier

Time to reach for the leaderhosen, funny pants, knee high socks, put the hair in piggy tails or try on some skin tight skivvies and put on some strange German techno and put down a traditional Marzen or Octoberfest bier!  Using all Gladfield Malt and a moderate hopping regime for me with just under 40g of Hallertau Mittelfruh and a dash of Warrior at the 60 mins boil mark to hit target 28IBU.  In place of a traditional Weyermann Caramunich III I have substiuted 10% of the grain bill with Gladfield toffee malt.

Read on for Brewers Friend recipe and brew day notes - Sat 10 Aug 2013.  Will be targetting a 1 month extended cold lagering post racking after primary and secondary fermentation and pre-bottling which should hit its straps right on time for octoberfest - umpha umpha :-)

Marzen

  Method:   BIAB 

Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen 

Boil Time: 90 min 

Batch Size: 23 liters (fermentor volume)

Boil Size: 28 liters 

Boil Gravity: 1.045 (recipe based estimate) 

Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

Source: Michael Wallace 

Original Gravity:

1.054

Final Gravity:

1.014

ABV (standard):

5.36%

IBU (tinseth):

28.55

SRM (morey):

11.55

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	PPG	°L	Bill %
2.3 kg	Gladfield - Pilsner	38	1.6	39.8%
1.73 kg	Gladfield - Munich	37	6	29.9%
1.12 kg	Gladfield - Vienna	37	4	19.4%
0.63 kg	Gladfield - Toffee	34	57	10.9%
5.78 kg	Total

Hops

Amount	Variety	Type	AA	Use	Time	IBU
35 g	Hallertau Mittelfruh	Pellet	4.8	Boil	60 min	19.44
4 g	Warrior	Pellet	16.7	Boil	60 min	7.73
5 g	Hallertau Mittelfruh	Pellet	4.8	Boil	15 min	1.38

Hops Summary

Amount	Variety	Type	AA
40 g	Hallertau Mittelfruh	Pellet	4.8
4 g	Warrior	Pellet	16.7

Mash Guidelines

Amount	Description	Type	Temp	Time
28 L		Temperature	66 C	60 min

Yeast

Wyeast - Octoberfest Lager Blend 2633

Attenuation (avg): 75% Flocculation: Med-Low Optimum Temp: 8.9 - 14.4 °C Starter: No Fermentation Temp: 12 °C Pitch Rate: -

Notes

Michael Wallace 2nd in NSW Championship and 4th in the Australian championship Marzen/Octoberfest Lager - all grain with some edits using Gladfield malts in place of Weyermann including Gladfield Toffee malt in place of Caramunich III.  Also a small addition of Warrior hops at start of boil to get target IBU of 28.

Heated the Urn to 72C before lettting it cool down to 66C and putting the grain in and tweaking as required for 1 hour for the mash.  Hung and strained the grain bag off the trusty ladder and put the wort back on to boil.  Took nearly 30 mins to get to a rolling boil before adding the 35g Hallertau and 4g of Warrior at 60 mins in hops sock and the final 5g of Hallertau 15 mins before flame out.  Immersion chilled quite rapidly down to 35C then racked off into the fermenter for a starting gravity of 1054 (right on) but pulled through a lot of trub by mistake having forgot to strain the trub through a tea-towel or similar.

Planted the fermenter outside in the turkish beer fridge and primed with Wyeast 2633 which had been popped since 1pm but showed no/low swell and was dated Apr 13 (not good).  Primed at 24C and set the fridge for maximum temp.  Checked on Sunday morning and the brew is at 14C with a target fermentation temp of 12C.

Sluggish on the get go this bier took till the following Thursday to get a good ferment going with a decent head on top and Krauzen forming.  Once up and running I maintained a temp on the Keg King fridge controller of 12C although it did seem to fluctuate a little up and down for my liking.

Racked off the beer on Sat 24th Aug @12C and managed to get 21L transfered across into the conditioning vessel with a FG of 1012 as Brewers Friend predicted ;-) Thanks Brewers Friend ;-)

Bottled off on Sat 14 Sep adding 180g of DME to 500mL of boiling water to bulk prime and filling over a dozen champagne style 750ml bottles and over a dozen stubbies and a few Bombers 650s.  Tasting the beer it was very clear with a nice golden amber hue and a very mild hop palate as expected.  Tasted clean and put it away back in the friendly Turkish neighbours beer fridge turned up to 12C to bottle condition for coming 10 days before chilling again for a few more weeks cold conditioning in the bottles.

 

First tasting on Fri 11 Oct in Christchurch with Billy Keane and Arthur Keane.  Good colour but a little hazy perhaps due to the transit and felt could benefit from more lagering.  Pleasantly suprised by the hop tones given low IBU.  Still fresh and there but may disappate with extended lagering.  Home supply still under cold bottle conditioning in readiness for the OktoberWest celebration on Sat 26 Oct @Dowlhaus.  Should be fun!