Panorama Heights Springfest Maerzen

Oktoberfest beers are unique to late summer reveling under a blue/white checkered sky in Bavaria. The style is actually called Maerzen, as those beers were usually brewed in March since brewing was not allowed during summer in the olden days. Whatever was left over from that March batch was finally served at the Oktoberfest. Nowadays an Oktoberfest Maerzen is brewed in late summer, of course. Nothing better than fresh beer! A Maerzen is usually a pretty strong, light to medium brown beer, somewhere around 5.6%abv. Also unique is the addition of strong bittering hops, a stark contrast to the very lightly hopped Helles or Dunkles you'll get otherwise in Southern Germany. Instead of ale yeasts like you would use for British brown ales, Maerzen uses Lager yeast. Unfortunately it is way too warm here in California to brew this kind of beer in late summer, since this specific Lager yeast is not very happy with temperatures above 65F. So I just changed the name to a "Springfest Maerzen" and added a West Coast twist to it with a rolling ground swell of Cascade leaf hops finished with noble Tettnang hops. I'm kind of hoping to mimic a "Einbecker Mai-Urbock", lots of memories from my early college days! 

BREW DATE: 02/28/2015

BOTTLING DATE: 03/22/2015

GRAIN BILL: 12lbs total

-5lbs Salzgitter German Pilsener Malt

-5lbs Briess Bonlander Munich Malt

-1lb Weyermann Caramunich II
-1lb German Dark Munich Malt

MASH-IN: 1 hr at 155F, Mash-out 10 min at 170F. Fly sparked with 175F water.

HOP SCHEDULE:

-60min 1oz Cascade (leafs)

-30min 1oz German Tettnang

-10min 1oz German Tettnang

OG: 15.8 brix for 17l wort filled up to 23l => alcohol content should come out at 6.3%.

YEAST: Wyeast 2633 Oktoberfest Blend 

Springfest Maerzen grain ingredients

Cascade leaf hops ready to go into the final boil

TASTE NOTES: Pretty awesome! Very fruity, at the same time still some good hops aromas. Slightly sweet just as a Maerzen is supposed to be. Einbecker Mai-Urbock reborn on the West Coast! Pours somewhat turbid though, the same problem with all the other beers I've made so far using Lager yeast. I suspect it has either to do with the slightly elevated temperatures vs. recommendation (about 62F in my basement, vs. 56F recommended), or with the relatively high Ca/Mg content in our water here. My next beer will have a 2stage fermentation, let's see how that turns out.