Oktoberfest Brew Day

Today, we're brewing ten gallons of Oktoberfest Lager from Northern Brewer's all-grain kit.  Some slacker (read: me) forgot to create a starter for the yeast, so we'll be pitching the massive number of yeast packs (five) that I proofed earlier in the week.

We started out by crushing the grain for the mash tun:

• 10-lbs. German Pilsner Malt
• 10-lbs German Munich Malt
• 2-lbs German Dark Munich Malt
• 1-lb Weyermann Caramunich II

We infused the grain with six gallons of 175°F water from the hot liquor tank and gave it sixty-minute rest at 152°F.

Next, we added 3 gallons of strike water (boiling) bringing the mash tun up to 175°F for a 10-minute mashout.  This is where things went downhill.  The drain on the mash tun clogged, which we valiantly overcame by turning our boil kettle into a mash tun and draining the grain from there into a number of buckets. We finished with a 7-gallon, 180°F batch sparge for a total 14 gallon initial boil.

Of course, there are hops to be had: two ounces of tasty, tasty Hallertau in the boil for sixty minutes (plus a few extra to bring the total volume under 10 gallons.)

Finishing up we added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, ran it through the chiller, divided it into two sanitzed buckets, and let it sit in the lagering fridge at about 50-55°F for a few weeks.  We'll move it over into a secondary fermenter and let it hang out in the cooler for a total of three months.

Photos after the break ...

Milling the grain

Stirring the grain in the mash tun as we add water.

 Mash tun clogging problems means that the lauter tun becomes the mash tun.  Adaptability FTW!

Draining the lauter mash tun in prep for removing the grain.

Sixty minutes of boil, plus some extra to reduce it under 10 gallons.

Chilling the beer into the primary fermenter for a 3-month rest.