German Octoberfest

[CrealCritter]

My son in law helped me, first time brewing for him and he was full of questions. So I took my time, explained everything the best I could. Ended up taking a little over 3 hours start to finish. The most time consuming was the mini mash. You all know better than me that its hard to maintain a temperature range of 150 to 160 for 30 minutes. At 170 you burn the grains, and the grains can not touch the bottom of the kettle. I used a magnetic hook from the shop to suspend the bag in the water. It worked great.

The at the end of 30 minutes I raised the bag and let it drip to get every drop of goodness out of those grains. It dripped for a good 30 minutes.

The spent grains were deliciously sticky. My chickens love me long time for this special treat.

Taking hydrometer reading. 1052 or around 7%ish potential alcohol content.

Since this is a German beer, my daughter named it Wolfgang Van Wortenhauser -

 

[Marianne]

Did anyone get the address where this is going on? And when's the party?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Right?!

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 2 - Krausening continues at 59 degrees ambient air temperature.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 3 - Octoberfest TV

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvhUpsMFL-F

Butter colored chunkies starting to form on the top.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 7 - Head is just starting to fall, this means fermenting is starting to complete. I kind of figured it would take 10 to 14 days to finish fermenting.

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 9 - still chugging and getting a bubble through the air lock about once every 8 seconds. At 55 degrees this lager yeast really likes it cool.

I can see this yeast creates sticky trub in the bottom of the carboy. It should make for a good clean syphon into the secondary when the time comes.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I love good beer. NH and Vermont are big into craft beers, so I'm surrounded by good choices bad beer though, is a terrible thing.

 

[CrealCritter]

I love good beer. NH and Vermont are big into craft beers, so I'm surrounded by good choices bad beer though, is a terrible thing.

I've also heard craft beers are big up there. Here in the Midwest not so much you have to go searching for craft brews.

Personal I like simple beers, good water, single base malt, single dual purpose hop and a natural tasting yeast, simple is better for me.

I had one beer that tasted like fruity pebbles cereal once. I don't remember the brand name but two drinks was all I could do before it went down the drain.

 

[wyoDreamer]

There seems to be a microbrewery around every corner here in Wisconsin. lol
And I don't like beer. Which makes me desiganted driver.

I drank a whole can of beer once - on a hot day in August after hauling firewood for 3 hours. Anything cold and wet would have been appreciated at that time. I don't like the Mikes Hard lemonades or stuff like that either.

Give me a good, made from scratch Whiskey Old Fashioned and I am happy.