I've been brewing for over a decade and I recently brewed my first lager - a Festbier. It's lagering while on gas and hoping to tap it soon. Keep up the great work; truly enjoy watching the immense challenge you've undertaken. Cheers!
nice concrete wall behind you and a very nice brewing room. I really like your videos. thnx. :) the recipes are also very good :) sometimes the yeast alternative would be good (hungary)
I just purchased the Unibrau as well. What do you set your grain mill in millimeters? Trying to find the right crush. Thanks for all the work on these videos. Amazing stuff!
If you attach the temperature probe in your fermentation chamber to the side of the fermenter under a sponge, or use a thermowell, then the chamber will go as cold as it can until the beer reaches the target temperature, which means you should be able to increase the ramp rate without risking frozen wort/beer.
The beer served at Oktoberfest is Märzen, so you were on the right track. Btw, in Germany (or better yet the Munich region) you can get the Wiesn (we call it Wiesn not Oktoberfest) beer in bottles. I've brought home some Augustiner which imho is the best beer at Oktoberfest. Interesting enough, the beer color is different (darker) than it is if you drank it at the Wiesn although it is the same exact beer. The reason is, that the beer served at the tents is stored in barrels, Augustiner is the only brewery that still uses wood barrels and therefore preserves its lighter color.
I love this style. I’m currently fermenting the same style. I went with 9.5lbs of German Pilz 2lbs Vienna and 12oz of Munich 1. I went with 1oz of Spalt at 60min and again at 15min. I pitched L13 Global and I’m fermenting it at room temp. Prost!
I have to say, this series is awesome :) Nice production value, and you always have new guests. Keep up the good work! How do you plan, to have a different beer each week, different styles different fermentation times, no :)? Or do you shoot in advance?
Thanks! I have to shoot a little in advance to allow time for each beer to ferment and condition so it’s ready for tasting. Biggest problem is finding enough people to drink all the beer I’m making :-)
Started fermentation at 50F. Raised to 55F after a couple of days. After two weeks raised to 68F for a diacetyl rest. Then cold crashed. Lagered for a few weeks. Should probably have waited longer but wanted to get this on tap!
Firstly, amazing series, really love it (even if I don't always agree with your music selection)! What I think would be nice is to dig a little deeper into the guidelines so it could serve as a reference to folks who'd like to brew a specific style of beer. They could of course start with your used recipe but general guidelines of "use 90-100% pilsner malt and up to 10% munich", hop guidelines and recommended IBU ratios or something like that would be really great. It would obviously add to your workload so I understand if you want to avoid that.
Your doing a great job. could you post your grain bill %'s and mash thickness? as well as batch size (5gallon?), pre and post boil size would be cool as well. so a guy could easily scale up or down and switch to metric in a brew calculator. tack!
Batch size is always 5 gallons. Some of those other metrics like boil size are specific to my system so I don’t post those. But yeah have been thinking maybe I could post grain bill percentages rather than weights to avoid imperial v metric.
If I wanted to do this beer as extract, what kind and how much extract would I use? Id assume the Munich and victory would stay the same and do a mini mash with them. Also, how could I scale this to be about 3 gallons instead of a 5 gallon batch?
You need a pre-chiller: a cheap old crusty dented immersion cooler inside a cheap old chest freezer filled with water, a $10 aquarium pump wired off the freezer compressor to circulate the water so it doesn't freeze all in one spot... add antifreeze if you want. Switch it on the night before brew day and switch it off when the water is just above freezing (you don't want any water inside the immersion cooler to freeze solid). Chill wort down to ground water temp then connect the pre-chiller in series before your wort chiller. This is the cheapest & most effective solution I came up with for the problem of high ground water temps, heckuver lot cheaper than buying bags of ice from the supermarket. I've never used it to chill down to lager temps but it's very effective so I'm sure it'd work fine for lagers. Edit: Works with immersion chillers, don't know how well this will work with plate chillers.
@@TheHomebrewChallenge That's the thing: the immersion cooler can be really cheap because it doesn't have to be sanitary, can even have pinholes that you solder up - it's not going anywhere near your wort, and neither does the water going through it... keep your good immersion cooler for your wort of course. The chest freezer I got was a rusty smelly old $10 bait freezer that lives outside, but carefully wired up so there is no electrickery exposed to the weather.
Brau supply or Clawhammer? I love both and I know you probably can't comment so not sure why I'm asking but I want to get into BIAB and need help deciding what's best. On your next video wink once for Brau and twice for the claw....
@@fivefingerfullprice3403 we have this wonder machine called a freezer that can actually operate under 32 degrees all year.... make the ice or buy some...
Here in Germany, we never heard About "Festbier". :D "Bockbier" was invented for a folksfair as well to match with Bockwurst. It was invented in Einbeck. But nobody called it Festbier, however it was invented for a fest.
Cool, I’m not to far up the road in Eden. Trying to finish up my Herms brewery so I can get back into homebrew. I hit the subscribe and look forward to your content.
does tilt works into the stainless steel fermenter? I used the clone (ispindel ) but into the SS fermenter doesn't connect to wi-fi, and I never receive informations in the gravity
Even w modern malts, ppl like Gordon Strong mash in low at like 130-35, ten minutes, ramp slowly to a 140’s rest, then again to 156-58, then mashout. These classic German lagers benefit from a step mash, and classic fermentation schedules. I’ve been doing tons of research before getting into it, it’s March as I write this, and want to do traditional Marzen and fest beer, lager all summer and see what happens..now it’s all down to malt selection. Such great malts now..I’m leaning towards Weyermann Barke malts..I’m lucky my tap temp is extremely low, I can get to at least 48F in chill..
Again with the Victory Malt? No, no, no, no. Just no to victory malt. In my opinion, the malt structure should be 1/3 each pilsner, vienna and light munich, with caramunich or caravienne to taste and desired color. Oh, and it isn't festbier that is served in the tents at Oktoberfest - they serve helles almost exclusively.
Nice look beer there, and nice t-shirt too Brian, NZ!!!🍻🍻 cheers!!
I've been brewing for over a decade and I recently brewed my first lager - a Festbier. It's lagering while on gas and hoping to tap it soon. Keep up the great work; truly enjoy watching the immense challenge you've undertaken. Cheers!
I think you will be in for a treat. It’s been one of my favs so far.
I'm enjoying your vids but also the music you use. Putting me on to great tunes I've not previously heard!
Thanks 🎶
Speights T-shirt = Legend !
Brian is my favourite guest that you have!
Hey iv been to volksfest too! it was amazing
nice concrete wall behind you and a very nice brewing room. I really like your videos. thnx. :) the recipes are also very good :) sometimes the yeast alternative would be good (hungary)
Parabens pelo videos, faço bastante cerveja aqui no brasil e faço algumas receitas sua
I just purchased the Unibrau as well. What do you set your grain mill in millimeters? Trying to find the right crush. Thanks for all the work on these videos. Amazing stuff!
If you attach the temperature probe in your fermentation chamber to the side of the fermenter under a sponge, or use a thermowell, then the chamber will go as cold as it can until the beer reaches the target temperature, which means you should be able to increase the ramp rate without risking frozen wort/beer.
Water additions and profile would be great
Nice! I never tried to make this one yet, but my Marzen just finished and it's delicious. Cheers!
Marzen is coming up soon for me. Prost!
The beer served at Oktoberfest is Märzen, so you were on the right track.
Btw, in Germany (or better yet the Munich region) you can get the Wiesn (we call it Wiesn not Oktoberfest) beer in bottles. I've brought home some Augustiner which imho is the best beer at Oktoberfest. Interesting enough, the beer color is different (darker) than it is if you drank it at the Wiesn although it is the same exact beer. The reason is, that the beer served at the tents is stored in barrels, Augustiner is the only brewery that still uses wood barrels and therefore preserves its lighter color.
I love this style. I’m currently fermenting the same style. I went with 9.5lbs of German Pilz 2lbs Vienna and 12oz of Munich 1. I went with 1oz of Spalt at 60min and again at 15min. I pitched L13 Global and I’m fermenting it at room temp. Prost!
Yeah this is a wonderful style. Hope yours turns out great.
Nice Speights tee Bri...
Love the music!
That Speights tee shirt is killer. NZ’s finest beer🍻
DB Draught is better.
Nah m8 that title belongs to Double Brown
I have to say, this series is awesome :) Nice production value, and you always have new guests. Keep up the good work! How do you plan, to have a different beer each week, different styles different fermentation times, no :)? Or do you shoot in advance?
Thanks! I have to shoot a little in advance to allow time for each beer to ferment and condition so it’s ready for tasting. Biggest problem is finding enough people to drink all the beer I’m making :-)
@@TheHomebrewChallenge :D
That looks amazing! Could you share your fermentation details, durations and temps, so as to get a rough idea?
Started fermentation at 50F. Raised to 55F after a couple of days. After two weeks raised to 68F for a diacetyl rest. Then cold crashed. Lagered for a few weeks. Should probably have waited longer but wanted to get this on tap!
Firstly, amazing series, really love it (even if I don't always agree with your music selection)! What I think would be nice is to dig a little deeper into the guidelines so it could serve as a reference to folks who'd like to brew a specific style of beer. They could of course start with your used recipe but general guidelines of "use 90-100% pilsner malt and up to 10% munich", hop guidelines and recommended IBU ratios or something like that would be really great. It would obviously add to your workload so I understand if you want to avoid that.
Yeah that’s a good suggestion. Have been trying to work a little bit more of that in.
Your doing a great job. could you post your grain bill %'s and mash thickness? as well as batch size (5gallon?), pre and post boil size would be cool as well. so a guy could easily scale up or down and switch to metric in a brew calculator. tack!
Batch size is always 5 gallons. Some of those other metrics like boil size are specific to my system so I don’t post those. But yeah have been thinking maybe I could post grain bill percentages rather than weights to avoid imperial v metric.
I really like your videos keep it up! But I don't seem to find when do you add sugar to your beer in your recipes? Do you add it when you bottle?
Thanks. I force carbonate in kegs so I’m not adding sugar.
hy, thanks for the video, ii's very interesting. I have a question, what is the filter you use for your brewing water?
It's an RV water filter.
How is festbier categorized? Seems to be right between the Helles and the Helles Bock
How long did you lager it for? Roughly
Me too have been in Stoccarda at the VolkFest in 2016!and you?
Unfortunately not. It’s been far too long since I went.
What song did you use lol
how big is the batch?
5:00 why not attach your glycol pump to the plate chiller??
If I wanted to do this beer as extract, what kind and how much extract would I use? Id assume the Munich and victory would stay the same and do a mini mash with them. Also, how could I scale this to be about 3 gallons instead of a 5 gallon batch?
Sorry not really sure how conversion to extract works. As for scaling I always use BeerSmith for that.
What happened to the dope graphics
You need a pre-chiller: a cheap old crusty dented immersion cooler inside a cheap old chest freezer filled with water, a $10 aquarium pump wired off the freezer compressor to circulate the water so it doesn't freeze all in one spot... add antifreeze if you want.
Switch it on the night before brew day and switch it off when the water is just above freezing (you don't want any water inside the immersion cooler to freeze solid).
Chill wort down to ground water temp then connect the pre-chiller in series before your wort chiller.
This is the cheapest & most effective solution I came up with for the problem of high ground water temps, heckuver lot cheaper than buying bags of ice from the supermarket.
I've never used it to chill down to lager temps but it's very effective so I'm sure it'd work fine for lagers.
Edit: Works with immersion chillers, don't know how well this will work with plate chillers.
Yeah I’m not enjoying having to buy ice all the time. Your pre chiller solutions sounds good - crusty dented and all :-)
@@TheHomebrewChallenge That's the thing: the immersion cooler can be really cheap because it doesn't have to be sanitary, can even have pinholes that you solder up - it's not going anywhere near your wort, and neither does the water going through it... keep your good immersion cooler for your wort of course.
The chest freezer I got was a rusty smelly old $10 bait freezer that lives outside, but carefully wired up so there is no electrickery exposed to the weather.
Chilled With Bait Worms (TM) :-)
Brau supply or Clawhammer? I love both and I know you probably can't comment so not sure why I'm asking but I want to get into BIAB and need help deciding what's best. On your next video wink once for Brau and twice for the claw....
😉 😉
What water filtering system is that hooked to your sink?
An RV water filter
Quick suggestion. Since you're using an immersion chiller use a fish tank/pond pump to pump ice water through your chiller in the summer months.
Ice doesn't form in the summer. It needs to be at least 0C (32F) for ice to form.
@@fivefingerfullprice3403 we have this wonder machine called a freezer that can actually operate under 32 degrees all year.... make the ice or buy some...
@@MrDgmiller pfft, yeah right, good one.
@@fivefingerfullprice3403 I'm from the future. The year is 1950
@@MrDgmiller The future is bleak.
Here in Germany, we never heard About "Festbier". :D "Bockbier" was invented for a folksfair as well to match with Bockwurst. It was invented in Einbeck. But nobody called it Festbier, however it was invented for a fest.
Mein Lieber Ray, Festbier is an own beer style.
But you're right that Bockbier (another beer style) was invented in Einbeck.
Do you live in NC?
Yes just outside of Raleigh
Tell me, what is this capsule that you put in beer?
It’s a Tilt wireless hydrometer
@@TheHomebrewChallenge In your videos, I did not see a review on this wireless device! Please give a link to it and where can I order?
How not to use a TILT wireless hydrometer czcams.com/video/Z6TT3Jj7HYY/video.html
What type of vent hood is that you use?
Sorry not sure had it for years. Wish it was stronger as I sometimes get some drips falling back.
Oh ok, I appreciate it.
What part of North Carolina are you in?
I'm in Cary NC
Cool, I’m not to far up the road in Eden. Trying to finish up my Herms brewery so I can get back into homebrew. I hit the subscribe and look forward to your content.
does tilt works into the stainless steel fermenter?
I used the clone (ispindel ) but into the SS fermenter doesn't connect to wi-fi, and I never receive informations in the gravity
Yeah the newer models especially work well in the stainless fermenters- I can be across the room and still pick up a signal.
Your music taste is all over the map lol.
Even w modern malts, ppl like Gordon Strong mash in low at like 130-35, ten minutes, ramp slowly to a 140’s rest, then again to 156-58, then mashout. These classic German lagers benefit from a step mash, and classic fermentation schedules. I’ve been doing tons of research before getting into it, it’s March as I write this, and want to do traditional Marzen and fest beer, lager all summer and see what happens..now it’s all down to malt selection. Such great malts now..I’m leaning towards Weyermann Barke malts..I’m lucky my tap temp is extremely low, I can get to at least 48F in chill..
Again with the Victory Malt? No, no, no, no. Just no to victory malt. In my opinion, the malt structure should be 1/3 each pilsner, vienna and light munich, with caramunich or caravienne to taste and desired color. Oh, and it isn't festbier that is served in the tents at Oktoberfest - they serve helles almost exclusively.
You can’t trick the freezer, it’s on or off
Music is a little loud compared to voice. Could just be my phone's speakers though
why are you brewing german beer with american hops?
You should look up how to pronounce "Mittelfrüh". Because it is not mittelfrùhhh.