Homebrew for the Oktoberfest Party

[BigWally]

I'll bring my Kolsch.

[Bill Lawrence]

Well, I'll tell you one thing about WLP833, that stuff throws off alot of sulfur. I was bumping up my starter last night and frankly, it stank. All that goes away however as you age the beer so no worries.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Bill, hope all goes well today with the brew. great day for brewing at 75F with an overcast.

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[Bill Lawrence]

Well that worked out pretty well, hit my numbers so I guess the whole thing is now in the hands of the gods. I've got things at 48F right now and will probably go to 50F once I see some action from the yeast. I will say though that doing German beers is a bit more work, awfully long brewday doing two decoctions and all.

Also got to taste my hop bursted American wheat beer (pulled off a bottle for the COC later this month); came out pretty well, I think the "hipsters" will like it at the Labor of Love event this coming weekend. When you hop burst with Simcoe, you cetainly get a very citrus flavor from that stuff, I suspect I may make that beer again as it's very different than most Amercian Wheat beers I've had (which frankly are somewhat boring in my opinion). I may screw around with the dry hops next time, I used Cenenial but I may try Amarillo or even Cascade next time to try and get just a bit more "pine tree/grapefruit" action going. It will be interesting to see what kind of comments I get on that beer, I am notorious for not picking up problems with much of the stuff I make myself. The "hipsters" don't know it but I am going to use them as "Guinea Pigs" to tweek this little project.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Wally thanks for the Kolsch.

Bill, congrats for sizable share of the Limbo purse!

It's nice to know NTHBA is still brewing! I was beginning to think we had retired as homebrewers. My kettles were certainly cooled after getting punched out of my socks at the Bluebonnet Brewoff. Orlando and Wayne decided to take me in. I am learning slowly. The greatest encouragement has been to have brewers to look up to. There's only so much you can learn as a young gun scanning the net and brewing by proxy.

Hop bursting is cool technique I've wanted to try. Everyone tends to use the same C hops in mass. Seems too hip for my calling. I like malt and yeast nuance. I did brew a moderately bitter American pale ale with Northern Brewer Hops followed with a massive Centennial dry hop that turned out great. Early on I found it too grassy After two months in the keg it was a beautiful beer.

As for my pseudo O'Fest I've started the climb to the finish. I did revisit some commercial examples as a reference. I am expecting it will missed the Vienna toasted notes. When racking time arrives I'll pull a sample.

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[TheMacheteMasher]

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Bill thanks for chat expounding on the Oud Bruin solera and malts. I did not get a chance to circle back and close out the conversation. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder sent me on a tangent. Happens too often. I would like to know how the Double Bock brew goes. I have very little time in the brewing world and so pay attention to your established brewing knowledge. The hope is with much research and some guidance I can make better beer. I missed the hop-burst American Wheat. The line was too long which means it was good. Hope you got some meaningful feedback. I'll have to spend more time to produce hoppy beers. Most of my efforts have produced malt balanced beers. The bravo hopped "blonde" I did for the LOLFOA event had every opportunity to be hoppy. However, I shied away using an once in the boil and the remaining 2 ounces as dry hops.

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[Bill Lawrence]

Well, it can be difficult to pay attention when there are so many good looking damsels running around. Perhaps we should do a "team brew", Although you are not nearly as good looking as the "Cougars", maybe we can a collaboration some time.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Bill,

I've not forgotten about this little challenge. I will rack the beer over to keg and force CO2 into solution. I've not touched it since. It should be interesting to see how things have developed. I will bring the keg with me tomorrow. Hope your O'fest has fermented well.

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[Bill Lawrence]

It's doing ok but it is not completely clear yet. Most likely, that is because I kept my fermenting frig at 48F since I have a Double Bock in primary and I don't want that sucker to stall out on me by going lower. I plan to bring my Vienna Lager instead which is close enough to an Oktoberfest for the girls I go with. Depending on what happens I'll try to bring some of the Octoberfest to the Christmas party, I'll just have to see how it goes. Sunday's project is going to be an Abbey Single, I want a big load of yeast so I can brew a Dubbel as well as use it on another batch of Oud Bruin (along with some Rosalarie blend of course), time for some blending and a top off of the solera.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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Sitting at 1.017 and looking good. I will bring the keg to the party.

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[TheMacheteMasher]

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Bill, thanks for the challenge can't wait to see how your brew turns out. My keg had no hope at survival floated before midnight. I think he beer turn out within style but needed some age to mellow. This beer was super green lets than 24 hours off the yeast. I was also amazed by the clarity.

David & Jenna, thanks for hosting a great gathering the chicken and wankles were good!

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[RyanD]

Reviving this thread from the dead. Kevin and I are brewing our first Oktoberfest Friday after work, in for a long night. We are planning a double enhanced decoction. Looking for about a 3.5 hour mash before any sparge. It was fun to read all the info in this thread. I am thinking:

60% Pilsner malt
25% Munich Malt
15% Vienna Malt

Shooting for about 25 IBU from Hallertauer hops, I am just thining putting them all in at 60, I am not going for any hop flavor, just enough bitterness to offset any sweetness.

Fermenting with Whitelabs 830, big starter going to get it going tonight.
Fermenting at 50 for about 10 days, do a 4 day diacytl rest, then lager about 6 weeks before going into the keg.

Barrett or Bill, see anything wrong with this basic plan?

[Bill Lawrence]

Sorry, I just saw this and I suspect you have already brewed. There is nothing wrong with your formulation, the beer should taste great. I like to add just a little melonodin malt, I think it improves the malty character along with the decoction mash. You can also screw around with other specialty malts, victory, bisquet and of course crystal type malts depending on how sweet and heavy you want the beer to come out. The one I did last year was pretty dry, I will likely tweek my formulation a bit because frankly, I can't seem to let well enough alone. Now that I am done brewing for the Limbo I need to do an Octoberfest although I do have a Vienna Lager as yet untapped.

[RyanD]

Thanks Bill, the Oktoberfest is fermenting away, I'll be upping the temp here in a couple days for a diacetyl rest then going to the lager chamber. I will see about adding the melanodin malt next time, hopefully this turns out well, the decoction mash was a headache, it sure took forever, but I can only hope it pays off in the final product!

[Bill Lawrence]

Yeah seems like I make alot of German beers and every one gets a decoction, makes for a long day. I do cheat a bit however, I let the mash convert using normal infusion techniques then start pulling the decoctions, really all I want are the melonodin products you get from doing the boiling. The easiest way to get an arugument going in homebrew circles is to start talking about decoction versus infustion mashing but especially with heffeweizens I am a believer. I have done it so many times now however it really seems routine to me. If you really want to have some fun, try doing a cereal mash with some grits (I do that when I make my CAP and also a Ballentines XXX clone). One thing though, after doing a couple of decoction beers making a British or American ale seems really easy.