Oktoberfest (experimental)

[CrealCritter]

Next up is an experimental all grain Oktoberfest with all grown in or around Munich Germany ingredients. I developed this recipe myself, so copy/brew it with fair warning, it's strictly experimental. Of course any development help would be gladly welcomed.

Yeast is one package of Saflager 34/70

It should finish out around SRM 9 or a little lighter colored

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

Next up is an experimental all grain Oktoberfest with all grown in or around Munich Germany ingredients. I developed this recipe myself, so copy/brew it with fair warning, it's strictly experimental. Of course any development help would be gladly welcomed.
View attachment 13071
Yeast is one package of Saflager 34/70

It should finish out around SRM 9 or a little lighter colored
View attachment 13072

That's a nice one... It's never too early for Octoberfest that's my cousins use to say!!! And having this recipe will just make waiting for October more exciting!!!

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

Like what I mentioned, My cousin just went ordering the ingredients for the brew... This is gonna be great!!

 

[CrealCritter]

label, very rough first pass.

 

[CrealCritter]

More label clean up...

 

[CrealCritter]

I hit my target original gravity of 1.060 and I had a good time brewing this Octoberfest today.

I thought my math was off for the batch spage, the water and grains hardly fit. But I guess I still had about 1/2 a gallon of headroom, pretty close... I'll be happy when I get my hot liquor tank setup and operational, then I won't have to be so conserned with sparge water volume and fitting grains plus water in my 10 gallon mash lauter tun.

These 10 gallon Home Depot Rubbermade coolers simply amaze me, they are incredibly efficient. I started the 1 hour mash at 154 degrees.

And I ended the mash an hour later at 153.7. A lose of .3 degrees over an hour, is that really even possible? Yep it sure is, horray for Rubbermade, made in the USA.

My chickens love me long time for this special warm threat on a cold winter's day.

 

[CrealCritter]

We have ignition, keep it cool baby, lager yeast likes it cool, in the lower 50's.

The downside of fermenting in food grade buckets, is you can't see what's going on in there, you have to guess but how many bubbles flow through the air lock.

What's in the glass 1 gallon jug is from the bottom of the kettle after, I syphoned and filtered out the hop and grain sludge. So a 6 gallon batch makes a little over 6 3/4 gallons, if you do a little extra work. I'll use what I can out of the glass jug to fill a swing top 1/2 gallon growler.

 

[CrealCritter]

Which draft label do you like better 1, 2 or 3?

1)

2)

3)
Neither, both suck.

 

[CrealCritter]

It's been 9 days since I pitched the yeast. The nice thing about fermenting in glass is you can see what's going on. The krauesen has fallen and it's still actively fermenting with a bubble through the air lock about every 15 seconds. The temperature has been vary consistent at around 52 degrees fahrenheit. I suspect it'll be time to bring it out of the cold basement and into the house to warm up for the diacetyl rest phase by this weekend. Diacetyl rest is required for lagers, it gives the yeast a chance to clean up after themselves and convert diacetyl (buttery flavor) into better flavors. Who wants butter beer? Yuck!

Official Diacetyl Rest instructions. But I usually go 3 to 5 days, sometimes even a week before I rack and start to lager.

 

[CrealCritter]

Like what I mentioned, My cousin just went ordering the ingredients for the brew... This is gonna be great!!

We need pictures of your cousin brewing