German Fest Bier (Helles) - Homebrew recipe

In Munich, the beer styles are very controlled by law. This beer is higher in alcohol than a standard helles, but not quite at Oktoberfest alcohol levels. It is a great homebrew beer recipe for those who want a little more kick in their beer. Great for summer, but made for the fall festival season, it is really great homebrew anytime.

I am also becoming lazier in my brewing and have decided to not use a mash-out and simply fly sparge. Basically I recirculate the wort like normal until it is clear and then let the sparge begin. This cuts some time off of the day at the expense of mash efficiency. I am figuring on about 65 – 70% efficiency so I buy an extra pound of grain for a five gallon batch. No biggie, this is homebrew beer and if you don’t like it, make your own homebrew however you want.

This is also a good example of using what you have. I used a very non-German hop, Amarillo, because it was sitting in my freezer. The good thing about most German beers is that you can get away with no aroma or flavor hops and the citrusy bits in the Amarillo hop won’t matter for bittering. Lesson: Use what you have, it is only homebrew.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
5 gal	60 min	17.8 IBUs	3.7 SRM	1.053 SG	1.012 SG	5.4 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Munich Helles	1 D	1.045 - 1.051	1.008 - 1.012	16 - 22	3 - 5	2.3 - 2.7	4.7 - 5.4 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsner (2 Row) Ger	10 lbs	90.91
Carafoam	1 lbs	9.09

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Amarillo Gold	1 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	5.3

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
SafLager West European Lager (S-23)	DCL/Fermentis	74%	46°F - 50°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Mash In	150°F	75 min

Recipe Type

All Grain

Experience Level

Advanced

Submitted by tresero on Sat, 03/24/2012 - 20:47