Oktoberfest Recipe?

My oktoberfest was equal parts pils, vienna, and light munich with a touch of melanoidin for flavor. I used hallertauer at 60, 30, 15, and flame out. The beer was great, hands down everyone's favorite within my group of friends.

 

Here is a better pic with known ingredients. That Blue Pants pic I'm not sure if they changed the recipe this year. Please excuse the glassware. I'm waiting on our liter mugs to arrive still

 

Any sub for the melanodin? Never made an octoberfest, but I got all the ingredients but melanodin.

 

Herr Professor is the first lager I ever made, August of 2009. I liked it.

Style: Oktoberfest/Marzen
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG; FG 1.014

Estimated Color: 11.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.7 IBUs

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name %/IBU
5 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 46.0 %
3 lbs Pale Ale Malt (2.3 SRM) 27.6 %
(this was an inadvertent purchase. Intended to buy Pils malt)
2 lbs Light Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) 18.4 %
8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (34.0 SRM) 4.6 %
4.0 oz Caramunich I (34.0 SRM) 2.3 %
2.1 oz Dehusked Carafa I (337.0 SRM) 1.2 %
(strictly for imparting an orange color)
2.00 oz Hallertauer [3.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 25.7 IBUs
1.0 pkg Bavarian Lager (Wyeast Labs #2206) Starter per mrmalty.com

All malts were Weyermann.

Mashed at 152F with14.5 gallons, batch sparged. Chilled to 45, allowed to rise to 49 F over \ 2 days. This is where the bulk of the fermentation took place.

Bottled without secondary after only 16 days, according to my notes, which surprises me. I primed w/4oz of priming sugar. Allowed two weeks at room temp for priming and then lagered in the bottle. Not the typical approach to lagers, but it worked well for me on my first outing and I continued to lager this way until I got a keg setup.

 

Dark Munich 20L is probably your best bet. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Or just leave out, should still be a good beer.

 

Since Melanoidin is basically "Super Munich", dark Munich will get you close, but not all the way there.

 

Do you have any aromatic malt? It's not the same, but it's decent.

 

Here's the recipe for the Marzen I'm drinking right now. It's pretty good and went over well at the last brew club meeting.

10 lbs Munich Malt Light, Germany (Avangard) (7.5 SRM) Grain 45.5 %
10 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 45.5 %
1 lbs Caramunich III (Weyermann) (71.0 SRM) Grain 4.5 %
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2.3 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.3 %
1.75 oz Northern Brewer [7.20 %] - First Wort 60.0 min 22.6 IBUs
4.0 pkg Saflager Lager (DCL/Fermentis #W-34/70) [50.28 ml] Yeast

OG 1.058, FG 1.012.
SRM 10.2
ABV 6%
Next time I brew this I'll sub some of the base malts with enough regular Munich to get the SRM closer to 13.

 

yep. but its slated for another brew, appreciate all the responses and will go with a pils, melanodin, munich mix.
tettnager for hops.

Ompaa

 

Back in the day when I made that recipe I posted, the melanoiden was the suggested malt addition if you decide you don't want to decoct. SO, if you'll permit me to open up a can of worms, you could try a decoction mash.

I have done a small number of decoction mashes. I never did a controlled experiment, so take the following with a grain of salt -- I loved every beer I ever decocted

 

Never tryed that method, but if there is no reason not to, might as well continue on this new adventure.

 

There are differences in dark Munich malts. Weyermann's is around 9-10. Durst and Avangard have 40 EBC Dark Munich, which is at 14.7 Lovibond IIRC.Melanoidin is around 25-30 Lovibond. It would take more of the dark Munich to get the Melanoidin flavor (if you could). Or one could decoct the mash to get the Maillard reaction flavors.

 

Nothing wrong with using Melanoidin, but I often skip it if I have a decent amount of dark munich malt in the bill.

I agree with @hopfenunmaltz that Melanoidin and dark munich will not give you the same thing. I typically go very light with Melanoidin, as it imparts a "dark fruit" character to me at a higher use rate.