Oktoberfest 2014

February 22, 2014

Oktoberfest, Double decoction, 20 gallons- 

Grain Bill-

• 20# Pils malt
• 15# Vienna malt
• 5# Munich malt
• 2# 60L Crystal malt

Hop Bill- 7oz Hallertau 5% AAU for 60′

Yeast- Wyeast 2633 Oktoberfest started a week before brew day, propagated twice more

Brewers- Tom, Charlie, Dickie, Rob, Kyle

Mash Schedule-

• 7AM put on coffee, start heating water, and grinding grains
• 14 gallons liquor, strike Temp- 140F
• Mash in- 9:47 AM @126F, hold for 30′
• Decoct 7 gallons, raise to 158F for 20′
• Boil decoction for 15′
• Recombine 11:40AM @ 153F, hold for 20′
• Decoct 5 gallons, raise slowly to boil, boil @ 12:25, hold for 15′
• Recombine 12:40PM @ 160F, hold 1 hour
• Mash out at 2:10 with 7 gallons of boiling water

Sparge-

• 2:20PM 10′ recirculation
• 2:30PM runoff for 1.5 hours
• 6 gallons of hot water
• Add another 3 gallons of hot water through the grains for more volume
• Begin coldbreak at 5:00PM

Primary Fermentation-

• Starting gravity = 1.064 (a little higher than we we’re shooting for)
• O2 through wort for the first time
• 17-18? gallons of wort (a little less than what we we’re shooting for)
• Temp in fermentation room is 52F (s/b 48-58F). Forecast looks promising to keep it in  50’S.
• 12 hours later the airlock is bubbling well

Post Brew Notes-

This was the third brew with the barrel sized equipment. In general, another smooth working day with promising results thus far. The sample is flavorful, sweet, malty, with an appropriate, if perhaps strong, noble hop character, very tasty, and the color is a beautiful deep amber.

The gravity is a little too high and correspondingly we are a little low on volume. More sparge water gets us back below 1.060 on gravity (I was expecting 1.054). We noticed that we were low on volume during the sparge, so we added another 3 gallons of hot water after the sparge was over; not ideal, but it gave us more volume.

Also, we lost the flame on the boil water to raise to mash out and still haven’t made a decent mash out with the bigger gear. But hiccups are expected, and these were minor. It was a long exhausting day, but Dickie noted a couple of times how non-eventul and easy-going things went. The proof won’t be known until next fall, but at this point the beer looks like a good one.

Secondary-

March 9- Racked approximately 19 gallons of beer into two 7 gallon carboys and one 5 gallon carboy. Sample was strong with no off flavors. So far, so good.

Gravity = 1.014

Seems rather low. If accurate the beer is already at 6.5% ABV. We could have a lot of drunk people next September.

March 26- Packaged the Fest, 15 gallons in kegs, 3 gallons in bottles. Gravity = 1.010. ABV is 7.1%. Sample was good.