Octoberfest

10/10/03 - Octoberfest. Well, the Octoberfest is now upon us and that means another chance to decoct. We've pretty much managed to dial in this procedure here (if Dan would only hit those conversion temps!) It's amazing how much color and character comes from even a single decoction, which is what we used this time. With a mixture of Belgian Aromatic and Munich malts making up 30% of the grist, I would expect a gold to copper color, but we ended up with deep orange to amber hues. Nice malty sweetness in the nose which carries over into the flavor quite well. At 28 IBU's there's a nice hop bite from the Northern Brewer's which is perhaps a tad out of style, but dern it, I love hop buds! The beer lingers with a nice blend of hops and malt which is smooth but not cloying.

On a separate note we've finally installed our liquid nitrogen dropper to purge the bottles before filling. This should give us much better shelf life on all our beers, and more confidence in laying down the Big Beers for aging. I'm not sure if the Octoberfest is really suited for this, but as things start cooling off here in New England we'll be rolling out the big boys soon! Cheers!

Malt:
Pilsner Malt
Belgian Aromatic
20L Munich

Hops:
IBU - 28
Northern Brewer Bittering
Northern Brewer - Flavoring