Oktoberfest!
Oktoberfest!
Brewed a year ago and lagered. Time is coming to brew it again!
11 comments
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But doesn't it get bad after a year?
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It gets better! That's why they call it lager.
Ales get better with years passing too though.
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Looking nice! Tell us more about the beer
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Oh, I looked up what we did last year and...
It's triple decoction lager actually!
2.5 kg Pale Ale (Simpsons) 2.0 kg Munich Malt (Ireks) 0.5 kg Crystal Oak (Ireks)
Then the sequence:
30 L kettle, no external heating for whole volume. Mash-in 35C water. After 20 min, take 1/3 portion, heat in 10 L kettle to 65 C on induction hotplate, wait for a negative iodine-test. Boil 45 min, mostly without mixing.
Return to mixture, wait 20 min. Take 1/3 portions, heat in 10 L kettle to 65 C on induction hotplate, wait for a negative iodine-test. Boil 45 min, mostly without mixing.
Return to mixture, wait 20 min. Take liquid, boil 45 min, return.
Then sparging.
Boil for 1h, Perle hops (6 AA%), 29 g at start, Tettnanger hops (2.4 AA%), 24 g at -15 min
LAG101 yeast (German lager strain, captured in expedition to Bayern), fermented at 10+-2 C (non-heated building part with a tiny 200W heater) for about 3 weeks, then diacetyl rest at RT for about a week (feeling lazy), then bottled with light sugar priming, and into a fridge.
OG 1069 FG 1012
Profile is what we could expect from an Oktoberfest, malty body, mildly bitter with pronounced hops aroma.
I must say, it was totally worth it (and done with simplest kitchen tools and a bottle of some veterinarian drug containing iodine). With lager profile as blank canvas, this process is pretty much a show-off of what people should be really doing to make them lagers interesting.
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Mine is only 20 days old at the time I took the photo on October 3rd, at the beginning of the cold crash, but the sample already tasted really nice!
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I will brew this Friday. After deciding what I will do bit wild experiment with grape juice, cherries and some classic leftover ale. I will add only basic hops so the fruits came out bit stronger (SAAZ for flavour and some leftover bitter ones).
Tbh I never tried intentionally age beer that long usually it is some forgotten bottle found and I am bit surprised if it's good.
11 comments
Märzen is traditionally brewed in March because that's what märzen means!
But we don't need to be overly prescriptive, that's no fun!
I'm mostly just jealous because I didn't get to it this year.
That doesn't sound very German of you. :P
That's why I was calling it Märzenfest half year ago. Apparently, or at least the books say so, they were brewing this all winter, for same reasons I do this. But sure, the later brews were probably the ones that mostly survived the thrist period.