It’s that time of the year again and soon the surplus of the Oktoberfest brews will make it to specialist shops world-wide.
The modern Oktoberfest is much lighter than it used to be. Here is a table of how they compare among each other. One is not mistaken that the modern brew is simply a Helles brewed at higher gravity.
| Brewery | OG | ABV | Bitterness | Colour (EBC) | Brewmaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augustiner | 13,8 | 6,4 | 19 | 7 | Werner Mayer |
| Hacker-Pschorr | 13,7 | 5,8 | 23 | 10 | Andreas Höflinger |
| Hofbräu | 13,7 | 6,3 | 26 | 9 | Rolf Dummert |
| Löwenbräu | 13,8 | 6,1 | 27 | 8 | Michael Müller |
| Paulaner | 13,6 | 6,0 | 21 | 8 | Christian Dahncke |
| Spaten | 13,7 | 5,9 | 24 | 7 | Harald Stückle |
The Hofbräu Oktoberfest was often my favourite. I don’t know what happened last year, maybe my taste-buds turned? I found it way too salty and rather harsh to drink. This said, everyone knows that it is a seasonal brew, so these kinds of variations are expected.
I once made a fest-beer that was quite close to the Hofbräu. Here is the grain bill
| Malt | Colour (EBC) | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Pilsener | 3,1 | 64% |
| Wiener | 8,0 | 30% |
| Münchner | 11,0 | 6% |
It works really well with the classic cold fermentation and WLP838 — if one has enough time to wait for the sulphur to disappear (for me that’s usually 8 weeks in lager), alternatively any W34/70 strain, such as WLP820 will do nicely as well. Other malt-forward lager strains should also be suitable.
The Hofbräu is quite floral. So a good hop would be the tried and trusted Mittelfrüh or Spalt Select. Nowadays I tend to favour Tettnanger and Hersbrucker, so this year its probably going to be them. And because I don’t have time to wait, I’ll do an accelerated classic fermentation together with WLP820.
Let’s see how this turns out…
