Fast Lagered Oktoberfest

I haven't been very active with this blog in a while.  Part of it is that I have been busy with work.  Part of it is that I haven't brewed anything in a while. Part of it is also that I recently moved.  The main part is that I have been lazy.

Breaking the habit of not brewing and not posting, and making use of my new brewing environment all at once, I decided to set out and make my second lager beer: a traditional Marzen/Oktoberfest.

After my visit to Munich last year to celebrate at the Wiesn I knew that I needed to eventually brew a beer in the oh so quenchable yet complex style.  Taking advantage of my new barley crusher (that took me about an hour of finagling to work with my underpowered cordless drill, but hey I got it to work!) I was able to crush the grist of relatively equal parts continental Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malts, with just a little Carahell for extra color and flavor. While I didn't do a decoction mash or anything overly interesting with the wort production I did get to try out a few new toys, using my pH meter during the mash and refractometer throughout to ensure everything was on track.

Despite my new toys, the most interesting aspect of this brew might be the lagering schedule.  Using techniques I have pulled from a number of sources, most recently Brulosophy, I set out to make a fast lager.  My last lager, a Bohemian Pilsner, turned out fairly well but took a long time from grain to glass and had some diacetyl issues. I am hoping that the fast lagering method is able to reduce off characters and fermentation time for this beer.  I'm also under some serious time constraints as I plan to serve this beer at the DC Homebrewers 4th annual BBQ in late September as part of their homebrew presentation/competition. As such this beer needs to be delicious and ready to drink in less than a month. Challenge accepted.

Fermentables:

Amount

Fermentable

Maltster

Use

PPG

Color

4.0 lb	Vienna (DE)	Avangard	Mash	37	5 °L
3.5 lb	Pilsner (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	37	2 °L
3.0 lb	Munich (DE)	Avangard	Mash	37	8 °L
0.44 lb	CaraHell (DE)	Weyermann	Mash	34	11 °L

Hops:

Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
0.5 oz	Magnum (DE)	60 min	Boil	Pellet	12.1%
0.5 oz	Hallertau (DE)	15 min	Boil	Leaf	4.5%

Yeast:

Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast	White Labs WLP802	77.5%

Stats:
OG: Measured 1.055
FG: predicted 1.012, measured 1.014
IBU: Calculated 24

Notes:
8/28/15 Brewday
Added 1 tsp CaCl to 7 gallons distilled water, 1.5 gallons bottled purified water
Mash Water 3.5 gallons
Mash Thickness 1.28 quarts/lb
Strike Temperature 165.2
Mash Temperature 151.9
Mash pH: 5.19
Mash Time 60 minutes
Sparge Water: 8.5 gallons
Sparge Temperature: 169.2
Sparge Time: 45 minutes
Boil Time: 75 minutes
Cooled to ~80 degrees then transferred to 48 degree fermentation chamber. 2 quart yeast starter pitched 8 hours later.

8/31/15
No obvious signs of fermentation (airlock bubbles or krausen) after 3.5 days had me worried but gravity showed 1.038, so it should be fine.
9/3/15
Increased temperature to 63 +/- 2 degrees after 5 days. Plan to begin slowly decreasing again on 9/7 assuming FG is reached.
9/6/15
Beer is showing minimal signs of fermentation, will slowly drop.
9/9/15
Down to 7.5 Brix (a calculated 1.013 gravity) at 53 degrees. This is near the estimated FG and the beer is tasting pretty good so I will add gelatin and continue dropping in temp.

9/14/15

Moved to keg. Tasted a sample post transfer and noticed diacetyl. Tasting very similar to my Czech Pilsner in that the diacetyl it is noticeably present, though not unbearably high. Running out of time to carbonate the beer but I decided to give it 48 hours at room temp to see if it clears up at all. Pretty disappointing given that I hadn't noticed it in my previous tasting, but I will have to live with it.

9/20/15
Tasted a sample this morning, not bad but still some noticeable diacetyl so I decided to take the latest version of Maisonette to the BBQ instead.

9/25/2015
Tasting:
A- Small but resilient white head over a hazy orange body. Perfect color though clarity is disappointing, I'll have to review my gelatin addition method.

S- Diacetyl is definitely the first thing I notice with that signature butter character. There's also some malt aromas of toasted grains and caramel, giving a sweet buttered toast impression.  No noticeable hop character.

T/M- The diacetyl is much less present in flavor than in the smell, with light grassy hops and bread crust malt giving way to a dry, lightly bitter finish which leaves just a touch of buttery slickness on the tongue. Carbonation is moderate, maybe a touch lower than I would like.

O- This beer is slightly disappointing in that I was hoping to avoid the butteryness and have more malt presence, but it is still a nice, easy drinking beer that suits the weather perfectly. I will likely use a different yeast and pay closer attention to my d-rest next time but other than that I'm fairly happy with the recipe and process.