Oktoberfest
by the numbers
OG:1.050–1.056 (12.4–13.8 °P)
FG:1.012–1.016 (3.1–4.1 °P)
SRM: 7–14
IBU:20–28
ABV:4.8–5.7%
People often ask me, “What is your favorite style?” I tell them that I love all of the styles, because they are all great beers. Picking a favorite style for me would be like picking a favorite child. Well, almost. There are some styles that, as a consumer, I enjoy more than others.
Oktoberfest is a beer I really enjoy drinking, especially during nice fall weather when the leaves are just beginning to turn. I love that smooth, clean, rich malt character, followed by a nice balanced finish. It is a beer style I can drink in quantity since it does not fatigue my palate, as some IPAs do, nor does it fatigue my stomach, as some sour beers do, nor does it fatigue my head, as some Belgian ales do. There is a reason Germans can drink beer by the liter, and it is balance. Oktoberfest, while rich, is well-balanced and endlessly drinkable. Anton Dreher developed a new, paler lager (compared to the then-common opaque dunkel), which we call Vienna lager today. Well, at the same time that Dreher was developing the Vienna lager, Gabriel Sedlmayr created his own alternative to the dunkel in Munich in 1841 that he called the Märzen-Bier, which we know today as Oktoberfest beer. (The style acquired its modern name of Oktoberfestbier in Germany only in 1872, when Sedl-mayr’s son introduced a variant of the Märzen at that year’s Oktoberfest).
Oktoberfest is a dark gold to deep orange-red color German lager with a rich toasty and bready German malt character that starts in the aroma and lasts all the way through the finish. People often describe Oktoberfest as having a complex and rich malt character, but this is not a sweet beer. A good example of the style is well attenuated with enough hop bitterness to leave a balanced finish. This is a cleanly fermented lager (no fruity esters or diacetyl), with a soft, medium body that one might describe as creamy. There should not be any roast flavor; and any caramel flavor should be subdued and only mildly in the background. Hop flavor and aroma are low at most, and when present, have a spicy or sometimes floral quality.
The most common fault in brewing this style is making it too alcoholic, too hoppy, or too sweet. Keep in
mind this is a balanced beer, with an emphasis on malt flavor and aroma. Often the issue of brewing too sweet an Oktoberfest occurs because the brewer assumes that maltiness and sweetness are the same thing. A beer with a lot of sweetness from malt is not necessarily malty; it is sweet. A sweet beer may or may not have a lot of malt character. It is quite possible to have a dry beer that has lots of malt flavor and aroma (malt character). When a knowledgeable beer judge uses the term “malty,” he or she is referring to the rich grainy, bready, toasty flavors and aromas that come from the malt, not the residual malt sweetness.
Oktoberfest gets its substantial bready, toasty malt character from its base malts. As a general rule, I like to use around 1⁄3 each of Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malt, but I will tweak that depending on the specialty malts involved. Often brewers want to make a beer like this “more complex,” using other malts to develop color and flavor. This can be because the base malts they are using lack those key malt flavors. If you find that is the case, you can try adding character and color with specialty malts, such as aromatic, melanoidin, and caramel.
One specialty grain that works really well in Oktoberfest is mid-color or caramel malts (30–70 °L) such as Caravienne and Cara-munich®. They increase color and give a little residual sweetness to the finish. You want to use restraint though. Use no more than 5–10% caramel-type malts. Your specialty grains should accentuate the malty notes, not compete with them.
Extract brewers should use Munich malt extract, which is a blend of Munich and Pilsner (or other pale malts) in different percentages. It does a respectable job of brewing Oktober-fest and you can enhance the flavor by steeping specialty grains such as caramel malt or a tiny bit of huskless dark grains for color.
I like to avoid any work that I do not feel improves the beer, so I prefer a single infusion mash. Perhaps historically, a brewer would use a decoction mash when brewing most German-style beers, but I find that high quality continental malts, a single infusion mash, and excellent fermentation practices will produce beer every bit as good as the best commercial examples. It is far more important to invest time and effort in fermentation, sanitation, and post-fermentation handling than decoction. If you have ensured that all of those other aspects of your process are flawless, then decoction might be something of interest. For a single infusion mash, target a mash temperature range of 150–154 °F (66–68 °C).
Like most beer styles, you can brew a good Oktoberfest with almost any kind of water, but sometimes tweaking your water is the last key to perfecting a style. For Oktoberfest, moderately hard, moderately carbonate-rich water is best. For very soft water, add gypsum and chalk, about 1⁄2 teaspoon of gypsum and 1 teaspoon of chalk per 5 gallons (19 L) should get you close. If your water source is very hard, you can always dilute it with some distilled water.
Hop flavor and aroma are usually just background notes in Oktoberfest. Hop bitterness is restrained, just firm enough to provide a nice balance to the malt sweetness. I really like using German-grown Hallertau hops for flavor and aroma, although sometimes they are hard to source. Other German-grown hops, such as Tettnang, Perle, Tradition, Alsatian Strisselspalt and Hersbrucker work well also. These hops, when grown outside of Germany, may still work well but be cautious as different growing conditions can make them substantially different from the German-grown hops. If you cannot get any of those hops, you do have some flexibility. The trick is to select hops with that same flowery or spicy noble hop character. You do not want to use anything fruity or citrusy. Some decent substitutions are Liberty and Mt. Hood. You can also try Crystal, Ultra, and Vanguard. It is really the overall impression that matters. The big picture is that you want very low hop character and a balancing bitterness, with both complementing and integrating with the malt. The balance of bittering versus malt sweetness should always be close to even. The bitterness to starting gravity ratio (IBU divided by the decimal portion of the specific gravity) ranges from 0.4 to 0.6, but you will want to target the middle, 0.5. While there is no real need for a late hop addition, I do like to toss in a little late addition near the end of the boil (last 10 to 20 minutes). Keep the addition to no more than 1⁄2 oz. (14 g) in a 5-gallon (19-L) batch. This might be too much hop character for the style when the beer is fresh out of the fermenter,
but after a few months of lagering, it can be just right. A bit bold, but not out of style. Since there is very little specialty malt or fermentation esters, these subtle amounts of hop flavor are more noticeable than in a bigger beer style.
You can ferment Oktoberfest with many different lager yeast strains, although my favorites are White
Labs WLP820 (Oktoberfest/Märzen) and Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager). You will find that each lager yeast strain will emphasize different aspects of the beer. Some will have more malt character and some more hop character, but all can produce an excellent Oktoberfest with proper fermentation. If you use dry yeast, Fermentis Saflager S-23 is probably your best choice. While most lager yeasts will work well, Czech lager strains are an exception because they will add diacetyl notes (especially at the Czech fermentation temperatures) that are atypical of the Oktoberfest style.
As when brewing any lager, it is important to control the fermentation temperature and to pitch plenty of clean, healthy yeast. You want the beer to have a clean, low-ester fermentation profile, but you also want to make certain that the beer attenuates fully. This is the most common mistake new brewers make when attempting lagers. You need to make sure you pitch enough yeast, provide enough oxygen and nutrients, and use temperature control to not only start the fermentation on the cool side, but then raise it toward the end of fermentation. This rise in temperature not only helps reduce some of the unwanted compounds produced during fermentation, but it ensures that the yeast is active enough to attenuate the beer more fully.
When making lagers, I like to chill the wort down to 44 °F (7 °C), oxygenate, and then pitch my yeast. I let the beer slowly warm over the first 36 hours to 50 °F (10 °C) and then I hold this temperature for the remainder of fermentation. If fermentation seems sluggish at all after the first 24 hours, I am not afraid to raise the temperature a couple degrees more. The idea is to reduce the diacetyl precursor alpha-acetolactate, which the yeast creates during the early phase of fermentation. Once the growth phase of fermentation is complete, it is important that fermentation be as vigorous as possible. It may never be as robust as fermentation at ale temperatures, but it is important to have enough activity to blow off aromatic sulfurs and other unpleasant compounds. Vigorous yeast activity at the end of fermentation also improves reduction of compounds such as diacetyl. Starting fermentation colder only works well if you are pitching enough clean, healthy yeast at the start. If not, you will need to start warmer (perhaps 55 °F/13 °C) to encourage more yeast growth. Even if you start fermentation warmer, you can still raise the temperature toward the latter part of fermentation.
Since diacetyl reduction is slower at colder temperatures, a cold-fermented lager may require a diacetyl rest. To perform a diacetyl rest, simply raise the temperature into the range of 65–68 °F (18–20 °C) for a two-
day period near the end of the fermentation. While you can do a diacetyl rest after the fermentation reaches terminal gravity, a good time for a diacetyl rest is when fermentation is 2 to 5 specific gravity points (0.5–1 °P) prior to reaching terminal gravity. Brewers ask how they should know when fermentation has reached that stage. My advice is to raise the fermentation temperature for a diacetyl rest as soon as you see fermentation activity significantly slowing. It will not hurt the beer and it should help the yeast reach complete attenuation as well. It seems that every beer improves with some period of cold conditioning and this style is no exception. Traditional lager conditioning utilizes a slow temperature reduction before fermentation reaches terminal gravity. The purpose of the slow cooling rate is to avoid sending the yeast into dormancy. After a few days, the beer reaches a temperature close to 40 °F (4 °C) and the brewer transfers the beer into lagering tanks. If you want to use this technique, you will need precise temperature control so that fermentation slowly continues and the yeast remains active. Rapidly chilling the beer near the end of fermentation can cause yeast to excrete a greater amount of ester producing compounds instead of retaining them.
Personally, I prefer to wait until fermentation is complete, including any steps such as a diacetyl rest, before lowering the beer temperature. The yeast is far more active and able to reduce fermentation byproducts at higher temperatures. Once I am certain the yeast have completed every job needed, I use a period of cold storage near freezing. This time in storage allows very fine particulates to settle out and the beer flavors to mature. In any case, great lagers take time, so do not rush things.
Oktoberfest
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.055 FG = 1.015
IBU = 27 SRM = 11 ABV = 5.4%
Ingredients
4.6 lbs. (2.1 kg) continental Pilsner malt (2 °L)
3.6 lbs. (1.6 kg) Munich malt (8 °L)
2.7 lbs. (1.2 kg) Vienna malt (4 °L)
12 oz. (0.34 kg) Caramunich® III (60 °L)
4.8 AAU Hallertau hops (60 min.)
(1.2 oz./35 g at 4% alpha acid)
1.6 AAU Hallertau hops (20 min.)
(0.4 oz./12 g at 4% alpha acid)
Irish moss (15 min.)
White Labs WLP820 (Oktoberfest/Märzen) or Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast
Priming sugar (if bottling)
Step by Step
I currently use Best Malz Pilsen, Vienna, and Munich, but feel free to substitute any high quality malt of the same type and color from a different supplier. Caramunich® III is a product of Weyermann. My hops are in pellet form and come from Hop Union, Crosby Hop Farm, or Hopsteiner depending on the variety.
Mill the grains and dough-in targeting a mash of around 1.5 quarts of water to 1 pound of grain (a liquor-to-grist ratio of about 3:1 by weight) and a temperature of 151 °F (66 °C). Hold the mash at 151 °F (66 °C) until enzymatic conversion is complete. Infuse the mash with near-boiling water while stirring or with a recirculating mash system raise the temperature to mash out at 168 °F (76 °C). Sparge slowly with
170 °F (77 °C) water, collecting wort until the pre-boil kettle volume is around 6.5 gallons (25 L) and the gravity is 1.042.
The total wort boil time is 90 minutes, which helps reduce the S-Methyl Methionine (SMM) present in the lightly kilned Pilsner malt and results in less Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) in the finished beer. Add the first hop addition with 60 minutes remaining in the boil and the second addition with 20 minutes remaining. Add Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort to 44 °F (7 °C), aerate thoroughly, and then pitch your yeast. The proper pitch rate is about 380 billion cells, which is 4 packages of liquid yeast or one package of liquid yeast in a 2-gallon (8-L) starter.
Let the beer slowly warm over the first 36 hours to 50 °F (10 °C) and then hold this temperature for the remainder of fermentation until the yeast drops clear. With healthy yeast, fermentation should be complete in two weeks or less, but do not rush it. Cold-fermented lagers take longer to ferment than ales or lagers fermented at warmer temperatures. If desired, perform a diacetyl rest during the last few days of active fermentation. Rack to a keg and force carbonate or rack to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and bottle. Target a carbonation level of 2 to 2.5 volumes. A month or more of cold conditioning at near-freezing temperatures will improve the beer. Serve at 43–46 °F (6–8 °C).
Oktoberfest
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.055 FG = 1.015
IBU = 27 SRM = 11 ABV = 5.4%
Ingredients
7.3 lbs. (3.3 kg) Munich liquid malt extract (8 °L)
8.8 oz. (0.25 kg) Caramunich® III (60 °L)
4.8 AAU Hallertau hops (60 min.)
(1.2 oz./35 g at 4% alpha acid)
1.6 AAU Hallertau hops (20 min.)
(0.4 oz./12 g at 4% alpha acid)
Irish moss (15 min.)
White Labs WLP820 (Oktoberfest/Märzen) or Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast
Priming sugar (if bottling)
Step by Step
There are many Munich extract blends out there. It is always best to choose the freshest extract. If you cannot get fresh liquid malt extract, see if you can find a dried Munich extract instead. Using fresh extract is very important to this style. Caramunich® III is a product of Weyermann. My hops are in pellet form and come from Hop Union, Crosby Hop Farm, or Hopsteiner depending on the variety.
Mill or coarsely crack the specialty malt and place loosely in a grain bag. Steep the bag in about 1⁄2 gallon (~2 liters) of water at roughly 170°F (77°C) for about 30 minutes. Lift the grain bag out of the steeping liquid and rinse with warm water. Allow the bag to drip into the kettle. Do not squeeze the bag. Add the malt extract and enough water to make a pre-boil volume of 5.9 gallons (22.3 liters) and a gravity of 1.047. Stir thoroughly to help dissolve the extract and bring to a boil.
Once the wort is boiling, add the first hop addition. The total wort boil time is 1 hour after adding the first hop addition. Add the second hop addition with 20 minutes left in the boil. Add Irish moss or other kettle finings with 15 minutes left in the boil. Chill the wort to 44 °F (7 °C), aerate thoroughly, and then pitch your yeast. The proper pitch rate is about 380 billion cells, which is 4 packages of liquid yeast or one package of liquid yeast in a 2-gallon (8-L) starter.
Let the beer slowly warm over the first 36 hours to 50 °F (10 °C) and then hold this temperature for the remainder of fermentation until the yeast drops clear. With healthy yeast, fermentation should be complete in two weeks or less, but do not rush it. Cold-fermented lagers take longer to ferment than ales or lagers fermented at warmer temperatures. If desired, perform a diacetyl rest during the last few days of active fermentation. Rack to a keg and force carbonate or rack to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar, and bottle. Target a carbonation level of 2 to 2.5 volumes. A month or more of cold conditioning at near-freezing temperatures will improve the beer. Serve at 43–46 °F (6–8 °C).
