If you brew beer, you either will or already have experienced this situation. You’re two weeks out from a Halloween party or Oktoberfest celebration and realize you forgot to brew your Oktoberfest beer. It’s in this moment of utter panic I turn to a recipe for what I call “Mocktoberfest.”
It’s like a lager, only faster. It’s also a recipe that you can use to “fake” a lager if you lack a fridge that can do temperature control. We have a couple of recipe and process adjustments to make, but at the end of the day you can end up with a clean (as far as anyone can tell) and clear (if you have a cold fridge and some gelatin) version of the Märzen style.
STYLE
The Oktoberfest/Märzen is a rich, clean, “elegant” (according to the guidelines) amber lager. I’ll let you read up on it on your own this week at the BJCP’s website or in our MYB Märzen column, so we can get down to business on how to fake this style out!
RECIPE
If you want to present a clean beer that might not be super clean because you fermented it with an ale strain at warm-ish temperatures, then you’ll want to adjust your recipe. You know how in spy movies when the characters think the room or car might be bugged, they turn the radio up and then speak quietly? That’s what we’re doing here. You want to bump up the perceptions (within the guidelines) of the beer that have nothing to do with fermentation character to help “cover” for the subtle flavors that could come from your non-lager-yeast, warm-temperature, impatient fermentation.
Take 4.5 pounds (2kg) each of Munich and Maris Otter as a base (so far, no real change from my usual Märzen). Then, add 0.75 lbs. (0.34kg) of Caramunich and a quarter-pound (0.11kg) of Melanoidin malt. Those two, in combination, should push up the bready-rich flavors in this beer, which in turn will make it a bit harder to notice any light esterification you’ve picked up in fermentation.
Hopping changes, too. Start with 20 IBUs from any hops from a 60-minute addition, but add one ounce (28g) of Hallertau at the 20-minute mark. That should leave you with about 28-30 IBUs (high, but not super-noticeable, especially given the richer grist) and a moderate amount of floral hops presence. The style guidelines allow for it, and it, too, will help paper-over any ale-like flavors!
Most important is yeast. You don’t have the time (or maybe the capacity) for a long, temp-controlled fermentation, so you can’t use the Bavarian Lager yeast. You might try something like Wyeast’s California Lager or San Francisco Lager strains, but rather than push those faster and warmer just choose a clean ale yeast. This is the time for Wyeast 1056, American Ale. It’s clean (for an ale strain), producing relatively few fermentation characters even at higher temperatures. The only ding I have on it is that it’s not much of a flocculator, but that’s OK – we can deal with that in process. Get yourself 2-3 packs of yeast, though, because we want a healthy pitch and don’t have time for a starter.
PROCESS
Brew this as you would any other beer. Standard mash, boil, whirlpool, chill. I usually use my standard clarifying agent (Irish Moss), but I’ve also read that leaving more proteins/hot break material in the beer can improve clarity later on, but we’re going to take active measures on that point, so it probably doesn’t make much difference. Brew as usual.
Then hit it with oxygen, if you have it. If you don’t, stir vigorously to get as much oxygen into the beer as possible – this will both encourage a quick fermentation and minimize yeast stress, and yeast stress causes fermentation flavors and off-flavors, which are exactly what we need to avoid. Pitch you multiple packs of yeast, and then put the beer in a cool place in the house (if you have a temp-controlled fridge, 60F/16C is fine). Most fermentation flavors develop early in the process, so a cool start keeps them at a minimum.
36-48 hours after you start to notice activity in the fermenter/airlock, move the beer to a warmer place. Any room-temperature room will do (72F/22C or so). If time isn’t a factor and you’re doing this because you don’t have a fridge, go ahead and leave it in the cooler place and you’ll be fine! For we idiots who forgot to brew it until it was almost too late, though, it’s time to put the spurs to it. 2-3 days at room temperature will help speed along primary fermentation without generating too much in the way of flavor.
We’re now about five days in. At this point, I put the beer in the warmest room in my house, and I shoot for about 78F/26C. Laundry rooms with active dryers are good; maybe over a floor vent with a towel draped over it to capture warm air from the HVAC system. You get the idea. Two days later, activity in the airlock should be just about nil. The beer will probably STILL be pretty cloudy, though.
If you have a fridge, put it in there and crank down the temperature to near-freezing. If you don’t, put the beer back in the coolest spot you have or consider an ice bath or evaporation rig to cool it down. We want to crash out as much as possible over the next 2-3 days.
Now it’s time to package, but before you do, use that gelatin. For those who haven’t tried it before, it’s like liquid time. Nothing clears a beer like gelatin, except for actually filtering (if that’s an option for you, go for it). Package as usual, then carbonate to a little over two volumes of CO2.
Done. Two-week Mocktoberfest (or a little longer if you’re bottle conditioning).
IN CLOSING
One nice thing here is that once you get past the “emergency – need beer” time window, you can lager this beer just like any other. Tuck the bottles or keg away for a few weeks of cold refrigeration to clean up and clear up. 2-3 months later it should be indistinguishable from your more conventional lagers – but the upside is that 2-3 days after conditioning, it’ll still be pretty darn close to them, too. You can also generally apply this approach to your other lagers. Prost!