Have you ever wondered, is it really necessary to follow the “rules” that have been used for years and decades?  Technology, processes and ingredients are changing constantly, so could we tweak things a bit, or a lot and get the same results?  I had to check it out, so I did two Oktoberfests on the same day Crazy? Right? I kept eveything the same EXCEPT for the mash and boil lenghts.  Here’s what I did:

60 Minute Mash & Boil

The ingredients:

Imperial measurements will be six pounds of pilsner malt, two pounds of Munich malt, one an a half pounds of Vienna malt and one pound of wheat malt. Our mash and temperature will be 149 degrees Fahrenheit or 65 degrees Celsius. Our mash out temperature will be 167 degrees Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius. Our hops will be 28 grams of Hersbrucker, followed by 14 grams of Hallertau Mittelfruh. And those hop additions will go in the start of each of the boils.  Then we’re going to ferment with one package of German 1 from Omega yeast. Now, if you prefer to use metric, here are the measurements for the grain, 2.722 kilograms of Pilsner malt, 0.907 kilograms of Munich Malt, 0.68 kilograms of Vienna malt and 0.454 kilograms of wheat malt.

Early start time - 4:00 a.m.  BUT I wanted everthing to be the same.  :)

30 Minute Mash & Boil

Okay, so batch number two, even though we did a 30 minute mash, we’re also going to do a  10 minute mash out at 167 Fahrenheit or 75 C Celsius because we only want ONE variable.   That’s the mash and boil length of time.  Which technically may be two things, but you know what I mean.   Round two octoberfest, 30 minute mash, 30 minute boil, gets one packet of Omega German 1 as well. 

Okay, we’ll see what happens.

Testing Gravity

In the 60/60 batch it appears that the tilt stopped working. So I am doing a test with the EasyDens, and as confirmed, the reading of 1.000 is incorrect. Actual ready is 1.014. 

The Tasting:

First - 30 minute mash & boil. 

21For aroma, we have soft malt, sweetness, sweetness, multi little bit of toast. All that follows into the flavor. Super drinkable. Tastes like an Oktoberfest with a very light mouth feel. 

Second - 60 minute mash & boil.

Same malt flavor, soft malt, sweetness, a little bit of toast. Mouthfeel is not heavy, but it is heavier than the 30 minute mash and 30 minute boil, and this one is considerably hoppier. 

So the cool thing is, if we weren’t comparing ‘em, I think the 30/30 would pass as an Oktoberfest, easy drinking.  I know a lot of our friends are going to love this one, but when you’re comparing them side-by-each, you really can taste the difference. 

What worked?

You get away with a 30 minute mash & 30 minute boil and make beer.

What would I do differently?

I would make sure that I upped my hops (almost double)  because of science, you’re going to need more hops to get the appropriate bitterness.  I would up my grain bill a bit (not sure how much at this point) but each style has a flavor and mouthfeel expectation.  I would want to make sure that I was getting the levels I’m hoping for. But it works, so you can save yourself a bunch of time. It’s just going to cost you, in my opinion, a little bit more in ingredients. Now, special thanks goes out to Marshall Schott at Brulosophy with his short and shoddy series. You can check out his website https://brulosophy.com/ and see what they’re doing over there, but it works, saves you some time. Thanks to Pint for reading.  

Rahshal

FAQs

Q:  What was the batch size?

A:  6 gallons or approx 23 liters for both

Q: Did you do an iodine test.

A:  No

Q:  Where the starting gravities different?

Yes.  30/30 starting gravity was 1.038 final gravity 1.010 ABV 3.7%

60/60 starting gravity was 1.055 final gravity 1.014 ABV 5.4%