21 and 28 June, 2014 AD
OK, I am running a little late this year, brewing my Marzens in June. This will be the last oktoberfest at Solis Thoor, so might as well make it a good one.
I brewed two styles. One is pretty much a repeat of last year’s Hunger Game marzen. The second is my homage to the AGU. I made my own interpretation of your 2014 fest recipe.
Solstice Festbier:
Grain Bill
- 6 pounds German Pilsner
- 2 pounds red wheat malt
- 1 pound Vienna malt
- 0.5 pound light crystal 10L
- 1 pound cara Munich
Hop Bill
- 2 ounce German Hallertau pellets (2.7% alpha) 1.5 hrs (won’t be overhopped!)
- unknown small quantity of unknown variety of hops from my vines
Yeast
- White labs Octoberfest Lager yeast
I made a starter the night before.
Mash Schedule-
I hit my temps like clockwork with the decoctions.
- 3 gallons well water.
- Mash in: Strike temp = 100 F
- Glucanase rest: Temp = 100 F hold for 20’ (not sure where I got this idea)
- Protein rest: Raise to 125 F (122-127); hold 30‘
- Decoction 1: Remove 40% of thickest part of mash into second kettle
- Raise second kettle to 158 F (158-162); hold saccharification for 20’
- Keep rest mash 122 F (122-127)
- Bring second kettle to boil; boil 10 min
- Beta amylase rest: Recombine with rest mash to bring to 150 F (145- 153F) & hold for 30’
- Decoction 2: Remove 1/3 mash into second kettle, slowly raise to boil for 10’
- Alpha amylase Rest: Recombine with rest mash. Was dead on at 160 (158-162)F; hold for 1.5 hour. Temp had dropped to about 145, so I brought back to 160 and rested another half hour.
- Mash out: Raise to 170 F
Sparge
- 4.5 gallons well water. I did not treat the sparge water for this one, but did for the next one.
I came frighteningly close to a stuck mash, probably due to the wheat in the mix. But, I slowed the outflow to a trickle and it never did actually come to a full stop. The gravity at the start of the boil, just after sparge, was 1.050
Boil
- Total boil about 2 hrs
- 2.7 AAUs (pellets) added at start of boil
- 2.7 AAUs (leaf) added 60 minutes in
- handful of hedgerow mystery hops to add complexity and make sure I can never actually repeat a recipe.
O.G.: 1.070
Came up short on volume. Probably about 4 gals. This was my inspiration to brew a second festbier.
AGU Tribute Fest:
An interpretation of the 2014 AGU fest. I wanted to stick with the idea of splitting the base grain bill in half, half pils malt and half a blend of Munich and Vienna. The AGU hop level is listed at 35 AAU for a 20 gallon batch, which is 1.75 AAU per gallon. This means just shy of 9 AAU for a 5 gallon batch, which worked out well for the American Hallertau I used.
Grain Bill
- 5 pounds German Pilsner
- 3 pounds Vienna malt
- 2 pounds Munich malt
- 0.5 pound crystal 60L
- 0.5 pound cara Munich 3
Hop Bill
- 2 ounce American Hallertau pellets (4.5% alpha) 1.5 hrs
Yeast
- White labs Octoberfest Lager yeast cultured from first batch.
I racked the previous week’s batch and made a starter from it. It was not really ready to be racked, but as Shakespeare said, some beers have racking thrust upon them.
Mash Schedule-
I again hit my temps like clockwork with the decoctions.
- 3 gallons well water.
- Mash in: Strike temp = 100 F
- Glucanase rest: Temp = 100 F hold for 20’ (not sure where I got this idea)
- Protein rest: Raise to 125 F (122-127); hold 30‘
- Decoction 1: Remove 40% of thickest part of mash into second kettle
- Raise second kettle to 158 F (158-162); hold saccharification for 20’
- Keep rest mash 122 F (122-127)
- Bring second kettle to boil; boil 10 min
- Beta amylase rest: Recombine with rest mash to bring to 150 F (145- 153F) & hold for 30’
- Decoction 2: Remove 1/3 mash into second kettle, slowly raise to boil for 10’
- Alpha amylase Rest: Recombine with rest mash. Was dead on at 160 (158-162)F; hold for 1 hour. Temp had dropped to about 150, so I brought back to 160 and rested another half hour.
- Mash out: Raise to 170 F
Sparge
- 4.5 gallons well water treated with 1 tsp Calcium Chloride.
No issues with mash or sparge this time. Very smooth. Gravity to start boil 1.050
Boil
- Total boil about 1.5 hrs
- 4.5 AAUs (pellets) added at start of boil
- 4.5 AAUs (leaf) added 30 minutes in
O.G.: 1.060
Good volume. Solid five gallons. This will be the quaffing beer on fest day and other will be the heavy stuff.
Plan for storage:
After fermentation, I will keg these with no priming and take them to my father’s restaurant to await the fall.