Following the golden path of modern festbier, this homebrew-scale recipe is closely based on Counter Weight’s GABF gold medal winner.
Whatever its strength, whatever its story, and whatever its color—amber or gold?—festbier ought to be drinkable in quantity. Here we dissect the diverging styles to find out what makes a great (Oktober)festbier tick.
In Munich in 1872, the famous Schottenhamel tent needed more beer. Josef Sedlmayer had beer to sell ... but it was a stronger lager brewed in the Viennese style. Thanks to beer historian Andreas Krennmair, we have an educated guess about the recipe.
To show what’s possible with “splatch” or split-batch brewing, Tannery Run head brewer Tim Brown shares this recipe for a brew that divides immediately after the boil to walk the divergent paths of a festbier lager and a tea-infused Belgian-style dubbel.
Maybe we can't do Oktoberfest this year, but we can still don our dirndls and drink lager. Plan ahead to have this one ready for autumn. The fresh, grassy, floral hop nose on this one is a perfect fit for the bready malts in the grist.
Here's an all grain festbier recipe to get you in the spirit for this time of year.
