Festbier

new version of this recipe here :
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/944383/festbier-3

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1/22/2020
just went into cold crash after 9 days at diacetyl based off of beer & brewing article. other places im seeing say only 2 days is needed. would prob benefit for more time in cold crash (if time is of essence). not sure if it hurts to have it at rest temp for longer tho.
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update 12/19/2019
i think i am going to retry this to have ready feb 1. took a pound off the grain bill to lower the abv to more standard level.

for fermentation and diacetyl rest strategy :
we are going out of town in a couple days so if i get this brew done before i leave, i will probably just let it go for 6 or 8 days at 50 then slowly raise it up to 55 when i get back. keep it there for another 3 days then cold crash until feb.

alternatively beer and brewing suggests something like this :

• 50deg for first 48 hours
  
• raise one degree each day for 10 days
  
• on day 11, allow temp to free rise to (warmest temp in brewery, but lets just say 70)
  
• 9 days later start the cold crash
  
  i was considering cold crashing for only a couple days then moving to keg. ive read other places tho that it can benefit from sitting on that yeast cake all that time. on the other hand it would be nice to get it into a closed safe clean keg....???idk
  
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  update 10/20/19
  this beer is way off. i thought it was too malty sweet but i think it is actually diacetyl (or possibly DMS but diacetyl would make more sense) - i pitched the wort on top of oktoberfest yeast cake that had been sitting (in a covered bucket in cold ferm chamber, but...) for several days, maybe even a week. also i went away in the middle of fermentation and wasnt able to ease it up to diacetyl rest temperature properly accordinig to the schedule written out below. need to retry this with 1) proper fermentation schedule 2) fresh or uncontaminated yeast 3) try the original recipe? i think with no malt changes on my system it will still come out at 6%
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  update 10/7/19
  ugh looks like this will accidentally come out at 8%. fermented down farther than the average for this yeast. (avg 75% shouldve been 1.018 but its 1.011 at 85%) (i did pitch right onto the cake from oktoberfest so shouldve been a lot of cells). i brewed this first on a double brew day so the mash was sitting for the full 60 if not longer. i was actually away at gabf so didnt do the exact procedure below, but rather rest the chamber for on the morning of day 4 before i left town. on the morning of day 7 i measure 1.011 and turned the chamber back down to 35. consider diluting before kegging?
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  basically took the recipe word for word. 90 minute boil because of the pilsner malt, will utilize that time for more IBUs with less hops via FWH. https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/pickelhaube-festbier/
  
  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 (<40) 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.
  
  sources :
  
• https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/pickelhaube-festbier/
  
• https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-oktoberfest/