Alan's and Melissa's Oktoberfest

Bodensatz Brewing

Oktoberfest Lager

Ingredients

3.0 kg Liquid Light Malt Extract
0.3 kg Powdered Light Malt Extract
3.0 oz Hallertauer Boiling Hops pellets
0.5 oz Mount Hood finishing hops (plug)
1/2 lb Crystal Malt (grain)
70 g Chocolate Malt (grain)
Wyeast 2035 American Lager Liquid Yeast

Method

Put 7 or 8 litres of cold water in a 23l carboy and set aside for later.

Put 7 or 8 litres of cold water in the brew pot, and put in a grain bag containing the grains from above. Turn on stove and bring to a boil. As soon as water begins to boil, remove grain bag.

Put the boiling hops in another grain bag, and add it and the malt extracts to the pot. Of course, keep the opening end of the grain bag draped over the side of the brew-pot. Boil the wort for one hour. Open the boiling bag and drop in the finishing hops and boil for 3 more minutes.

Remove pot from heat, remove the hop-bag from the pot and sparge well into your carboy with boiling water, mooshing it about with your brew-spoon as you go.

Agitate the mixture really well, allowing it to aerate. Fill halfway up the curved part of the carboy, let the temperature come down below 75F, and pitch with your favorite Lager yeast.

Data

brewed: 26-Aug-1995
pitched: 29-Aug-1995, midnight
bottled: 16-Sep-1995. Bottle-primed for the first time, putting 5.5 tsp sugar in 2 litre bottles, and 1.5 tsp in 600 ml bottles.
O.G. 1.043
F.G. 1.013

Pitching

Smacked the Wyeast 2035 American Lager packet on Thursday the 24th, and here it is Tuesday the 29th and it still isn't ready. Of course the packet was a good 13 or 14 months old. Checked it at lunch today and it is starting to swell, so it looks like it will work afterall.

Fermentation

31-Aug-1995 -- first few bubbles coming out of blow-off tube

Taste Tests

Yield
2 litre x 10
600 ml x 2