This is my go to base kit. I have found that it makes a great starter base for a wide variety of styles. Stay tune for beir lichen!

This is the first Octoberfest Brew that I've been satisfied with. If you have incomplete fermentation, I think this would disappoint. I really wanted this to work out so I double pitched the white labs Octoberfest yeast (2 packs) and made a starter, and gave the wort pure O2 for oxygenation. Long, steady fermentation at 55-58. Also, (per instructions I think) I pitched at 70 on purpose and then put in fridge to bring it down to 55 after about 6 hours. This got the fermentation started faster than it would have otherwise. Mine lagered in secondary for 3 months and then was kegged, so I didn't have to worry about carbonation. If you bottle it, I don't see how you can let it clear out and sit for so long and then get CO2 conditioning in bottle without adding some dry yeast at bottling.

Overall I was surprised at the simplicity of this kit, and the lighter-side clean (and good Marzen/Octoberfestbier) not like the heavier-on-malt Octoberfest that you might find now. I would let those steeping grains sit at 170 longer than usual to get as much red color as possible.

This beer turned out fantastic. The comment I received most was, "Wow, this tastes just like an Octoberfest." That was what I was looking to produce so it confirmed the recipe was spot on for the style. The only adjustment I made was to the water profile. I start with RO water and add salts per the style of beer I am looking to create. The rest was all More Beer. I anticipate entering this into the National Homebrewers Competition.

I brewed this beer in late September, let it lager for the month of October. put in the keg, carbonated it and just let it rest thru November. (OK I had a few glasses of it so, I'm weak). I brought this keg along with a Porter to my daughters Christmas party. We had folks there who were craft beer drinkers and some who were not. All I can say is folks raved about it and the keg(5 gallons) was all but empty when I brought it home. I set the kegs up in the garage so they would stay cool and figured that no one would make the effort to traverse from the basement (where the bar was) to the garage to get beer when all the action was in the basement....wrong! the line went from the garage and into the living room so they could pour themselves another lager! I will be brewing this again for next Christmas for sure as it was the talk & hit of the party!