This is my recipe to brew a Märzen without having all the refrigeration control needed to brew a proper lager.
- Original Gravity: 1.048
- Final Gravity ….: 1.011
- IBU ………………..: 23
- SRM ………………: 11
- ABV ……………….: 5.3
- Boil Volume ……: 5 Gallons
- Final Volume ….: 6 Gallons
Ingredients
6lbs | Light Dry Malt Extract |
1lb | Belgian CaraMunich |
1/2lb | German Munich |
1/2lb | Belgian Aromatic |
1/2lb | Belgian Carapils |
1oz | Tettnanger Whole hops |
1oz | Hallertau Whole hops |
2 Packages | Safale S-04 |
You can use pellet hops, but use about 20% less hops since the pellets are more concentrated.
Brew Day
- Start by prepping your yeast in a starter (1 cup of water at 80 degrees per package)
- Mash all the grains in 4 quarts of water at 165 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Rinse all the grains with an additional 4 quarts of water at 155 degrees
- Bring 10 quarts of water to a boil in your kettle
- Add sparge water to the kettle
- Add DME to the kettle
- Let boil for 45 minutes (DMS removal)
- Add Tettnanger hops and boil for 15 minutes
- Add Hallertau hops and boil for 20 minutes
- Add irish moss and boil for 10 minutes
- Quickly cool down to 72 degrees (or as close as you can get)
- Rack to your 7 gallon carboy, and bring water level up to 6 gallons
- Pitch the yeast
Followup
These instructions are what I do as I have a spare refrigerator for cooling my kegs. Additionally, I force carbonate. If you plan to bottle carbonate, just use your typical lager methods.
- After the first week, the krausen should have dropped. You can rack it to the secondary carboy if you desire. That’s what I do.
- After the additional week in the secondary, if you can move your beer into a cooler location for another week. I have a second refrigerator in my house where I store my kegs at 38 degrees. I put my entire carboy in there with my kegs in order to cold crash the beer for the third week.
- 3 weeks should have passed by, now you can rack the beer to your keg and force carbonate for a week.
- By this time, 4 weeks have passed and you can start consuming your beer. One thing I have learned though, is the longer it sits at 38 degrees, the better it gets.