![Picture](/uploads/1/2/9/2/12929432/4392824.jpg?383)
My homebrew club held the obligatory Oktoberfest Competition in October. When I first heard about it I got a little excited because I had brewed an Oktoberfest last year with great success. For that one I had borrowed a simple recipe found on HomeBrewTalk, and performed my first ever full-on decoction mash, and also made use of a buddy's garage apartment fridge (in exchange for 5 of the 10 gallons) for my first true lager - cold fermentation with a lager strain, diacytl rest, and 4+ month cold aging. That one was fine at first, but as it cleared in the keg it became fantastic. I knew if I could replicate that beer I'd have a really good shot at wining the competition.
Unfortunately, I learned of the competition too late for extended cold aging, plus I don't have the ability to ferment (or age now that my buddy's fridge is not available) cold enough to use the same strain (that's changing soon!). Knowing that I couldn't give it the full 100% it deserved but still wanting to enter, I decided to throw together a half-ass attempt.
Starting with the original recipe I decided to try to mimic a decoction by adding specialty malts. Again, I used wlp029 fermented as cold as possible to mimic a lager.
Unfortunately, I learned of the competition too late for extended cold aging, plus I don't have the ability to ferment (or age now that my buddy's fridge is not available) cold enough to use the same strain (that's changing soon!). Knowing that I couldn't give it the full 100% it deserved but still wanting to enter, I decided to throw together a half-ass attempt.
Starting with the original recipe I decided to try to mimic a decoction by adding specialty malts. Again, I used wlp029 fermented as cold as possible to mimic a lager.
I brewed on August 7 and everything went well, as did the subsequent fermentation. On September 20, 3 weeks before the competition, I measured the FG at 1.010, noted that the sample was "malty and clean - very tasty", and kegged. I force carbonated for 48 hours, then left it alone for a while before pulling the first pint on the 27th. At this point there was a weird background flavor similar to the first sample of the Scottish Amber. Again, I hoped the weird flavor was related to yeast and/or other particulates in the beer and hit it with a dose of gelatin on October 4. With the competition on the 10th, I spent the next week pulling and dumping pint after pint hoping the flavor profile would clean up. Of course, it never did. I entered the beer into the competition anyway hoping the judges would help identify the off flavor. It received predictably low scores, but the feedback received was totally useless and I left still not knowing what the issue was. However, as with the Scottish Amber, the off flavor continued to develop with more time in the keg until I was ultimately able to confirm it to be a contamination issue.
Given the off flavor issue, it's hard to comment on the quality of the recipe. However, I will say that I believe the melanoidin malt, and possibly the aromatic malt, was overused. It was added in an attempt to mimic flavor that would have been introduced by a decoction, but I think it failed. This is the second time I've used melanoidin malt in this manner (first time to use aromatic), and both times the resulting beer was bad. Of course, this time it might be due to the contamination, but regardless I'll be eliminating - or at least drastically reducing - any melanoidin additions in the future. I'll also probably avoid brewing styles that call for decoction and/or lagering until I have the time and ability to do it right.
Given the off flavor issue, it's hard to comment on the quality of the recipe. However, I will say that I believe the melanoidin malt, and possibly the aromatic malt, was overused. It was added in an attempt to mimic flavor that would have been introduced by a decoction, but I think it failed. This is the second time I've used melanoidin malt in this manner (first time to use aromatic), and both times the resulting beer was bad. Of course, this time it might be due to the contamination, but regardless I'll be eliminating - or at least drastically reducing - any melanoidin additions in the future. I'll also probably avoid brewing styles that call for decoction and/or lagering until I have the time and ability to do it right.
Recipe:
Batch Size: 6 Gallons
Planned Efficiency: 75% (Actual = 73%)
Planned OG: 1.054 (Actual = 1.052)
Planned IBU: 24
Planned SRM: 11
FG: 1.010
Grain:
6# 2oz Vienna
3# Dark Munich (9 SRM)
1# 8oz Domestic 2 Row
12oz Caramunich III
4oz Melanoidin
4oz Aromatic
Hops:
2.00 oz German Hallertau (4.5 AA) @ 40 min
Extras:
Irish Moss
Yeast:
WLP029 - German/Kolsch Gen 3 fermented at 57*F.
Water:
Target Profile (ppm):
Salt Additions (gram / gallon):