An American Marzen

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jswordy

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This is probably the last possible week, being so far down heah in the South, that I can get away with a naturally temp-controlled lager ferment, so I have boiled up my version of Marzen and I have it in a 54-degree water bath that is on the concrete floor of my root cellar.

Next up will be to lager it for 3-4 weeks and then see if I can get the bottles to last all the way through until October, when conditions will again get right for a true to form natural Marzen again.

If it doesn't turn out, I am SOL on a natural fermentation for the year. Wish me luck!
 
I checked it yesterday afternoon and it is slowly bubbling. Perfect. It will hit 87 here today, so I hope that water bath and the root cellar keep temps down in the 50s inside the fermenter! I think I'll be good on it, but I would have been better off last week.

Glad it is not in the house, too, since the root cellar smells like rotten eggs (normal, but not something the wife would like in the house).
 
I bought a brand new freezer and temp control for my beer making...I was so excited to be able to control temps. Then one of my meat freezers dies, I shot a couple of deer, went fishing, and friends gave a us a 4H pig project...new freezer is full already and the garden looks like it will be a bumper crop this year.

Reckon I'll just have to drink wine with my pork and beans!

Ohhh... the last beer I did was a Kolsch. With Joe working my brain on tweaking wine ideas....I pitched the zest from a couple of oranges in the bucket. I called it a Kolschwerks Orange and it's nice, light, crisp and refreshing...finally made a beer my wife likes!

Looking for cheap used fridge for the shop and beer making.
 
I bought a brand new freezer and temp control for my beer making...I was so excited to be able to control temps. Then one of my meat freezers dies, I shot a couple of deer, went fishing, and friends gave a us a 4H pig project...new freezer is full already and the garden looks like it will be a bumper crop this year.

Reckon I'll just have to drink wine with my pork and beans!

Ohhh... the last beer I did was a Kolsch. With Joe working my brain on tweaking wine ideas....I pitched the zest from a couple of oranges in the bucket. I called it a Kolschwerks Orange and it's nice, light, crisp and refreshing...finally made a beer my wife likes!

Looking for cheap used fridge for the shop and beer making.

To me, it would not be a legit Marzen if I used a freezer and temp control. I am interested in natural temp control of the ferment.

http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/M%E4rzen.html
 
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To me, it would not be a legit Marzen if I used a freezer and temp control. I am interested in natural temp control of the ferment.

http://www.germanbeerinstitute.com/M%E4rzen.html

Yes Sir, I am interested too. Just ain't gonna happen here in South Texas. We have warm, hot, and hotter....then Summer gets here!:h

Temp control is just the next step I want to make to try and make better beer. As a side note, I finished out my time in the Army in Germany. It was the memories of those beers that started me brewing and then wine making. Just never really liked BMC industrial American beers even when they were free!
 
Yes Sir, I am interested too. Just ain't gonna happen here in South Texas. We have warm, hot, and hotter....then Summer gets here!:h

Temp control is just the next step I want to make to try and make better beer. As a side note, I finished out my time in the Army in Germany. It was the memories of those beers that started me brewing and then wine making. Just never really liked BMC industrial American beers even when they were free!

My root cellar is beneath my limestone sided house. It is 65 down there in August when it is 95-plus outside. It's where I store my wine overflow from the Vinotemp.

I'm the other way. I have made wine for years, it is my preferred drink, only made beer for the past year or so. As a sideline, I can make my wine equipment do double duty and still produce great beers. I do not want to become an equipment addict like so many friends I have who are home brewers. If I am going to sink $1,500 to sky's the limit into beer equipment, I'll just go out and buy my beer and save myself a lot of work. Plenty of beer challenges available without spending lots of money.
 
Tasted a bit fruity before it went into lagering. I know now I could have done better in my yeast choice; beginner's mistake. We'll see how it is on the other side of lagering. Lager's a whole nother world, especially without the equipment to make it nice and predictable.

Next up is a super-easy British Golden Ale using all extract. I just want to get something to drink in the bottles with this one.
 
I always do taste tests as I move through the process and it never tastes like I think it should! Too sweet, too malty, too hoppy...it amazes me how much the the carb effect changes the flavor of the beer. And serving temps too...I did a Porter that tasted like 3 different beers depending on the temps it was served at...which is OK with me.

I got into wine because I could make my beer equipment do double duty. Besides, it takes a lot of beer to make good wine...gotta have something to sip on for a couple of years!
 
I started brewing to learn enough of the fermentation process to make wine and ended up making both because its fun. If I could justify the expense I'd get temp control for lager fermentation, but as it doesn't carry over very well to winemaking, I make lagers in the deepest part of winter and California common and ale the rest of the year. IMHO I think layering will help take away the fruity taste...
 
Tasted a bit fruity before it went into lagering. I know now I could have done better in my yeast choice; beginner's mistake. We'll see how it is on the other side of lagering. Lager's a whole nother world, especially without the equipment to make it nice and predictable.

Next up is a super-easy British Golden Ale using all extract. I just want to get something to drink in the bottles with this one.

I agree with RevA. Excessive fruitiness and diacetyl will be reabsorbed by the yeast as a food source as it lagers. When I had a working lagering refrigerator, that was a pretty normal phenomenon. I had a temperature control and used W308 exclusively. I used to raise the temperature slightly after primary fermentation was complete and it acted as a diacetyl rest and would absorb any of the "buttery" effects of that yeast. Only would take a week or so, then I carefully plunged it down to about 33*F for a few months.

Hope your batch turns out great!
 
Thanks, guys. I did not detect any diacetyl flavor in it. I was hoping the fruit would be absorbed; it did not seem to be an overwhelming flavor. We shall see. I used Saflager S-23, and saw later that brewing forums are down on it. They seem to like S-189 better. Using a dry yeast because I don't want to be a slave to brew days.

RevA, I started the other way, wine first. So I am used to waiting around for a result! :)

I should be safe at 3-4 weeks to bottle carb, I think. If not I have another packet of yeast. Could I just take a small sample, let it come to room temp, and add sugar to see if it is still viable before bottling?
 
I always do taste tests as I move through the process and it never tastes like I think it should! Too sweet, too malty, too hoppy...it amazes me how much the the carb effect changes the flavor of the beer. And serving temps too...I did a Porter that tasted like 3 different beers depending on the temps it was served at...which is OK with me.

I got into wine because I could make my beer equipment do double duty. Besides, it takes a lot of beer to make good wine...gotta have something to sip on for a couple of years!

Yeah, the beer is all labor up front, while the wine is all labor on the back end of the process. I am just trying hard to avoid more equipment around. I have a fruit press that I have not even had time to use yet, and I've had it a year now.

Still, for $200 plus the controller, I could have a brand new lagering freezer....

AHHHH! See how that happens? :)
 
Yeah, the beer is all labor up front, while the wine is all labor on the back end of the process. I am just trying hard to avoid more equipment around. I have a fruit press that I have not even had time to use yet, and I've had it a year now.

Still, for $200 plus the controller, I could have a brand new lagering freezer....

AHHHH! See how that happens? :)

Yeah BUT...freezer with temp control is very multi use...fermentation, lagering, cold crashing wines/beer, keg/beer cooler...heck, in pinch you can even use to store frozen stuff like meat and dead bodies! At least that's how I sold the deal to my red head!
 
Three to four weeks should still be fine to just prime and bottle, but testing is always best.
Din't know if you've ever tried this method before, but it works pretty well for me when I want to try something quikcly....
http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/
Winemaking and brewing tend to easily help one hoard/collect equipment...
 
Yeah BUT...freezer with temp control is very multi use...fermentation, lagering, cold crashing wines/beer, keg/beer cooler...heck, in pinch you can even use to store frozen stuff like meat and dead bodies! At least that's how I sold the deal to my red head!

And now it's full of deer! Which is good... I have 200 lbs of deer meat, myself. Since I dispersed my goat herd, it is all we eat as a staple meat.

Not ready to jump in yet. I still have wine equipment I have never used, including a vacuum pump I bought from Runningwolf a couple years ago.

But I see a Haier 5 CF freezer at Wally is $169...

ARRRGH! See how it starts? :)
 
Three to four weeks should still be fine to just prime and bottle, but testing is always best.
Din't know if you've ever tried this method before, but it works pretty well for me when I want to try something quikcly....
http://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/
Winemaking and brewing tend to easily help one hoard/collect equipment...

I have seen an abbreviated version of that method on the net. This is my first lager, so we will see what happens first. I do agree with the guy, the basic reason is to clear the beer, though there are obvious benefits to aging even ales. Cold-clearing wines has been in my bag of tricks for some time.

I really should jump in on some kind of unit, though, so I don't have to transfer into gallon jugs to use the refrigerator I have now....

ARRGH! See how it starts? :D
 
I have seen an abbreviated version of that method on the net. This is my first lager, so we will see what happens first. I do agree with the guy, the basic reason is to clear the beer, though there are obvious benefits to aging even ales. Cold-clearing wines has been in my bag of tricks for some time.

I really should jump in on some kind of unit, though, so I don't have to transfer into gallon jugs to use the refrigerator I have now....

ARRGH! See how it starts? :D
I think that's the problem we all face, I'm saving for a BIG keerzer, a fruitpress, a few oak barrels and...
Which is probably why I can't seem to get rich...
 
I think that's the problem we all face, I'm saving for a BIG keerzer, a fruitpress, a few oak barrels and...
Which is probably why I can't seem to get rich...

Hahaha, I am so far away from rich that not only can't I "seem to get rich," I actually CAN'T! :h

I'd settle for just seeming to... BUT NO!
 

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