Redemption

Oktoberfest Ale was a disaster. First beer I've thrown out. It tasted so stale and gross. The most tolerant beer drinkers are Kevin and Ellie and they each agreed it was bad. It tasted like wet cardboard. I was sad.

Now comes the time where I try to figure out what has gone wrong. The last batch had a this same problem but it was drinkable. My analysis had lead to the following process improvements.

First the air lock doesn't hold any fluid. I don't know exactly why. I've got some theories, but it really doesn't matter does it. The bottom line is that there is a pressure issue and the fermenter sucks the fluid from the air lock into it and thus exposes it to air. I will use a blow off tube from now on.

The other big thing was that the steel thermometer was off. By about 10-15 degrees. This means that the mash was WAY hotter than it should be. I will now order a glass thermometer and calibrate every time I brew.

So I ordered the exact same grains as last time and decided I would try again. This beer will be the first one that I will name. It will be call Redemption.

Once I ordered the grains the packaging guy screwed up. Instead of Munich malt they packed me Vienna. At first I was mad but when I placed the order I gave special instructions that a ninja be drawn on the shipping box and the shipping guy actually drew me one. I enjoyed it so much I thought I give him a pass on the screw up and just roll with it. So there is a change in recipe. We will be using 4.75lbs of Vienna malt and no Munich. Here is the recipe.

0.5 biscuit
0.5 lbs. White Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs. Victory Malt
0.5 lbs. Special Roast
4.75 lbs. Vienna Malt
5.0 lbs. Pilsner 2 row (German)

0.5 oz 3.4% AA Liberty (60 mins)
0.5 oz 3.9% AA Tettnang (60 mins)
0.5 oz 3.4% AA Liberty (15 mins)
1 oz 3.3% AA Saaz (15 mins)

WLP036 - Dusseldorf Alt Yeast Lot number 1036TPP3142761

It was mashed at 152F on the thermometer. Which was a different steel thermometer then the usual one but was still wrong. But not as wrong. So the temp was actually slightly higher.

I made a mistake in the mashing. I meant to add 4.5 gallons to the grain and rest for an hour. I ended up adding 3.5 gallons. So, I didn't get very much in the first runnings. I had to sparge the bejesus out of the grains.

OG was 1.050. After a few weeks the gravity is 1.008. It tasted ok. Still a little stale and cardboardy but drinkable. I wonder if I have cardboard on the brain and so I taste it even if it isn't there.

I've saved one bottle of Sam Adams Oktoberfest and will do a side by side comparison and will report back.

I intend to keg the beer sometime this week.