This festbier recipe is one I’ve been iterating on . However, this particular instance will be awesome. Why? Because I screwed up the whole process that’s why. Overshot the gravity somehow. I’ve been having low efficiency issues which I apparently fixed this time. Not sure how. So it’s high on gravity for the style. Adding the second hop addition I screwed up the time and boiled it 30 minutes instead of 10. So there is no doubt that this beer will be wonderful. The changes from previous versions are less melanoidin malt, different specialty Munich. It should be a savory and enjoyable beer for sure. Hopefully the bitterness is enough at about 23 IBU to balance the 1.06 OG.

Followed my standard process for the most part. Trying this out with 1 hour boil where I typically used 90 minutes in the past. I’m still using the Viking Pilsner malt which I find to be a very enjoyable base pilsner malt. It’s about half the price of Weyermann as well. The Munich and the Melanoidin malt are Weyermann. The yeast is a new brand to me, but we’ll see how that goes. It’s a Cellar Science Berlin. The options for German lager yeast have been slim from the primary manufacturers. So we’ll give this guy a shot.

So it’s about as late as you can push it if you want a Festbier for 2022 to drink in October. This year, similar to the International Amber Lager I brewed, I went back to the drawing board to try something new with the Festbier. In 2020/2021 I brewed a Helles type recipe I’d been formulating that was coming out quite nice and in the range of Festbier. This year I revisited the Brewing Classic Styles book on German Classic Styles – Oktober, Vienna, Marzen book, and located some notes online around Ludwig Narziss, and comments this legendary German Brewmaster made around the Festbier style of modern Octoberfest beer. I stumbled in to this wondering if I might add a grain that I quite like, Carahell from Weyermann. Apparently the answer is yes. So I came up with the beer below and brewed it today. Gravity and volumes came out right on. Will be pitching the starter tomorrow after everything cools to fermentation temperature.. One note I’ll make for myself is that this yeast was the last German lager yeast the Homebrew shop had. Likely the result of me being the last to brew their German lager for the Fall. So well see how it comes out! To me the most important part was that they had the Weyermann Pilsner which is very important and the Carahell. Not sure about the Briess Munich but I couldn’t find any negatives on it online. In such a small amount, I think it’ll be a non-issue.

9/22/2022

Fermentation went well. Cooled the wort and starter down to fermenting temperature at around 50F and pitched. Fermented over two weeks. At the end of the first week I start to gradually raise the temperature 2-3F daily until I get up to about 60F at the end of two weeks. Then going back the other way down to 40F and let it lager for about 2 weeks. Transferred the beer over the weekend and it’s about half carbonated at this point . Final gravity is approximately 1.012, it’s fairly dry but malty in the finish as expected with the Festbier style which is a large Munich Helles in a basic description of the beer. It’s extremely clear without fining. I expect this beer will be very enjoyable. I had the time to not rush any of the process and be more precise when brewing which is key to this sort of style.