Märzen

06 May 2007 @ late evening | Comments (3)

It’s neither March nor October, but who cares? It’s beer.

Recipe

Style: Oktoberfest/Märzen
Type: All grain
Batch size: 6 gal
Color: 12 SRM
Bitterness: 32 IBU
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.030?
BU/GU: 0.55
Mash: Single infusion (153°F/168°F)
Efficiency: 78%
Boil: 90 min
ABV: 3.7%
Yeast: Oktoberfest/Märzen lager yeast (WLP820)
Grain:
- 4 lb German pilsner malt
- 3 lb Vienna malt
- 2 lb Munich dark (20L)
- 1.5 lb Pale malt (2-row)
- 1 lb Cara-pils
- 1 lb Crystal (60L)
Hops:
- 2 oz Hallertauer (pellet, 60 min)
- 0.75 oz Hallertauer (whole, 15 min)

Process

The switch from a homemade fermentation chiller to a temperature controller and refrigerator is going well. So well, in fact, that this year I think I’ll brew lagers straight through the hot months, just because I can. That’s not to say the fermentation chiller box is without its purpose, since it will still be useful for primary fermentation of ales. The temperatures of ale secondary and lager primary fermentation overlap nicely, which should allow for a short two-week gap between batches if I alternate between the two temperature control systems.

I don’t have any first-hand experience of the difference between using a decoction mash versus a single infusion. Some say decoction contributes additional maltiness, others (many) say infusion works fine with the right choice of malt and yeast. Never having brewed a Märzen before, I chose single infusion over decoction for later comparison.

Result

May 27, 2007: Racked to secondary. Gravity is still quite high, up around 1.034. I bumped the temperature up from 50F to 56F about five days ago (diacetyl rest), a temperature that I’ll hold for at least another week to promote additional yeast activity. Hopefully this thing finishes off at the proper final gravity.

June 2, 2007: Patience is a virtue. Shortly after racking, fermentation activity picked up again. I’ll wait until it subsides to begin stepping down toward 35F.

June 12, 2007: Now lagering at 38F.

June 19, 2007: Not sure what the hell happened with this one. A stuck fermentation hasn’t allowed this thing to ferment past 1.030. I have a feeling it was just too low of a primary temperature. I may just trash this and return to the drawing board. It’s a good recipe, just flawed execution.

Lessons

Two 25-ft copper coils and a bucket of ice can cool much faster than one 50-ft coil. Now all I need is a pump to get below 55F.

3 comments

1
my preference is for a .4 BU/GU ratio on the Okt/marz. it allows the malt to really shine through. i also like more vienna than pils and light munich (40%/30%/30%). the crystal can make the beer too sweet, so i don’t use it in this. i also use a rio power head submersable aquarium pump ($20) to recirc the ice water through my immersion chiller.

Have fun,
Dave

Dave

2
Yeah, the four grains (aside from specialty malts) that generally make up the majority portion of the grain bill include Munich, Vienna, pilsner and two-row. Of those, many recipes split that portion between a varying combination of Munich/Vienna and pilsner/two-row pairs.

I decided to try the pilsner/two-row combination along with a fairly low mash temperature and some sweeter specialty malts as my first attempt. I’ll definitely brew another batch using the M/V malt combination to compare.

I’ll look into your suggestion for the cheap water pump. I also think I need to replace my 25’ x 3/8” immersion chillers with B3 Superchillers in order to get a lower pitching temperature, which I think affected yeast health on this batch. With my current immersion chillers, I can get a 6-gallon batch below 140F in less that 5 minutes and down below 80F in less than a half hour, but it’s just that last 15 degrees below 60F that is problematic. I mean, I could probably stand there for two more hours waiting to creep down to 45F, but I’ll probably end up trying something similar to Jamil’s whirlpool chiller.

Andrew → compooter.org

3
Dang, and I thought I liked beer…

Josh Stodola → blog.josh420.com