The Festbier Recipe
- Color: Blonde
- Alcohol: 5.2%
- Quantity: 20L
- Bitterness: Mild
- Brewing Time: 6 hours
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients :
- 2.5kg of Pilsner Malt
- 500g of Munich I Malt
- 200g of Biscuit Malt
- 20g of Mittelfrüh Hops
- 30g of Mittelfrüh Hops
- 3 packets of Saflager W34/70 yeast
- Total water volume: 34L (preferably Chloride > Sulfate = 2)
Want to brew this recipe ?
Brew our Festbier Recipe
Step 1 :
Heat 16 liters of water to 72°C and pour in the crushed grains.
Stir well and don’t hesitate to crush the lumps against the walls of your tank. Continue until you reach a temperature of 65°C. Maintain it for 1 hour.
At the same time, heat 18 liters of water to 77°C.
Step 2 :
If possible, do a 10-minute mash out at 75°C.
Step 3 :
Once the saccharification hour is complete, proceed to rinsing and filtration.
Step 4 :
Then, heat your wort to proceed with a 90-minute boil.
Add the first dose of Hersbrucker after 30 minutes. 15 minutes before the end, add the second hop.
If you are cooling with a coil, don’t forget to sterilize it in the wort during the boil. Once the boil is complete, send in the cold water.
Step 5 :
Cool the wort as low as possible, transfer it to the fermenter, and place it in your fermentation fridge to bring it down to 12°C. The initial gravity should be around 1.047.
Once this temperature is reached, add your yeast and let it ferment for 5 days.
For any low fermentation, we recommend doing a diacetyl rest. After the 5 days, gradually raise the temperature to 17°C and maintain it for a good 7 days.
Finally, once this week has passed, cool your beer to 5°C (over 2/3 days, don’t rush it) and maintain it for a good month to proceed with lagering.
The final gravity should be around 1.009.
Step 6 :
Add 6g/l of sugar at bottling.
Conclusion :
With Oktoberfest starting at the end of September, it was the perfect opportunity to offer a good Festbier. This traditional style from Munich represents a very interesting balancing act!
While the emphasis is slightly on the malt in this type of beer, it shouldn’t be overwhelming. The low fermentation will allow the beautiful bread and honey aromas of the malt to shine while being clean and crisp.
Without encouraging excessive drinking, the goal of this type of beer is to be easy to finish and to refill the famous Bavarian “MAß” (the typical 1L glass of Oktoberfest). Combine a good crispy texture, with medium to high carbonation, plus the subtle floral notes of the hops, and you will have the perfect German festival lager !