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update 01/23/2020
despite the improvement notes below, I'm planning to rebrew this as is in the next week or so. For NHC possibly.
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update 12/5/2019.
This brew won gold medal at GRIST homebrew contest in northern VA. https://comp.gristhomebrew.com/
Listening to homebrewhappyhour episode with Rob from Pixel Perfect Brewing, he highlights a couple things that he says helped his octoberfest. fermenting under pressure, and decoction mash. he actually did the decoction on an extract brew with specialty grains. also he did 6 weeks conditioning.
this brew i thought was really good as is, and it was indeed a gold medal winner. but possibly adding these three techniques could make it even better. push it to BOS status.
also, judges said it was low carbonation and needs more head retention. touche.
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altered from Drew's March Beer from sept 2019 byo. i changed the hops to get rid of first wort hop addition and to use a single hop, in even oz amount. confirmed recipe uses 1.5 qt/lb mash. the MUNICH/OKTOBERFEST YEASTS REQUIRE DIACETYL REST. if wyeast 2308 yeast not available, check for WLP820 oktoberfest/marzen. Or for simpler wyeast 2124 bohemian lager, WLP833 german bock, Wyeast 2206 Bavarian lager (i might have some of this from last year?)
for diacetyl rest, copied from virginia lager recipe :
going to do byo fast ferment approach janFeb2017. reread but start at 44-50 let fermentation go 50% then (remove the probe from the fermentor let it reach ambient temp then...?) raise temp 5 degrees every 12 hours til you get to 65-68. once you get 100% you can crank down to lager temp for 3-5 days then you done. this will take care of diacetyl rest and apparently gets the lager completely done in 2-3 weeks.
Award Winning Recipe
