Low oxygen baseline recipes for German lagers

[Techbrau]

I agree that Pima, vima, and c25 are going to be in every festbier. That's not to say that they can't have a bit of Muma and/or darker cara too, but for some reason the exact flavors in festbier are always harder for me to put my finger on than in other styles.

[wobdee]

[brewcrew7]

Some of you have moved to a Hochkurz step-mash instead of a traditional decoction since utilizing the low oxygen brewing method (LODO). Techbrau has recommended just a 30 minute rest at 62C for his baseline recipes when before the release of the article, a full 60 minute rest was recommended for some styles to achieve high attenuation. Bryan, Nico, etc have also mentioned that mashing is 'trivial' in some respects and you want to get out of the mashtun as quick as possible so this short rest at 62C helps that theory. Isn't mash conversion going to be lower for high percentage Munich grists if a lower temp is avoided or a shorter rest is employed? I'm thinking of trying Techbrau's baseline Marzen for this year's Oktoberfest party. Mine typically has been 90/10 Vienna/Munich II.

I understand this is just a recommendation at this point, but my current cooler mashtun doesn't allow easy step mashes - I've never had much luck using boiling infusions and with the requirements of LODO, the process becomes "more complicated" to achieve that. I don't have a pump to recirculate but like Roachbrau's method of lautering after the first mash, heating the wort through the next rests. I haven't tried that yet but it seems my efficiency would suffer even more.

[Bryan R]

I personally would call mashing roughly ~5% in the overall 100% of the beer. However, if I am going to do a step mash I am going to do it to get the most benefit I can. I have made munich heavy beers(dunkel) and used the 60/60 with great success. However, understanding your hurdles If a single infusion is what you you know, you can stick with that for now. I would say though, that our recipes would need some tweaking, since ours are all based on the 30/60 constant. I make all my American beers with a single infusion, and they always turn out fine.

[ajk]

I have a cooler mash tun, too, and I'm not likely to upgrade for awhile (saving for a trip to Bavaria next summer). I always found decoctions easier with this equipment as well, but since the paper, I've been doing step infusions. I think they're easier if the steps are closer together in temperature and shorter in duration, and beyond that, practice seems to help. I boil (and treat with salts/SMB/acid) 20% more water than I need, and I've been no-sparging so I can end up with a high-volume mash. A long as I don't overflow my mash tun, I'm good.

[ajk]

Why do we use warm fermentation for the darker beers? I know Nico's post states that, just not sure why.

[Bryan R]

I have always used a dunkel as the beer for my first gen yeast pitch. Which for me is 5 packs of yeast direct pitch at 50f. I was use the thought processes that A. Darker beers have more antioxidants, and are B. less refined or more robust as say a Helles. So you have a little more leeway there. But that's just what I do.

[Big Monk]

[Bryan R]

After my first fermentation(and in successive fermentations) I get 2-1qt slurrys from each fermentation. When you recover yeast when spunding that yeast slurry is left with extract left in the wort. So those go into the yeast fridge slowly munching on sugars and strengthing themselves to be more cold tolerant. I keep the yeast fridge at 36f. So once I recover the 2-1 qt jars they will each get direct pitched into a new beer. Then the generations start. I went a year on the last yeast. Now I just started out with a new yeast(2124), which is on its 3rd gen now. If I like it, I am sure I can get a year out of it.
I will never repropagate, everything I do is direct pitch. I have gone 6 months( in the fridge)and direct pitched with activity in 8hrs.

[Big Monk]