My "Real Bavarian Märzen"-recipe

[Wonderwoman]

So I brewed the following recipe the other day for a Märzen (dark lager with higher alcohol vol):

(I hope the ingredients are correct as the recipe didn't get saved...!)

IBU 26.5
EBC 19.9

Batch size: 11L *
Boil size: 10L
Sparging water: 6L *

1kg Dark Munich
1kg Vienna
0.5kg Carapils
0.15kg Carawheat **

9gr Perle leaf (8,2%) at 90min
2gr Hallertauer Blanc pellet (9.3%) at 70min
11gr Tettnanger leaf (4.5%) at 10min

adds grains at 60°C
10min rest at 57°C
45min rest at 63°C
20min rest at 73°C
end mash 78°C

I used Danstar Nottingham yeast and fermented at 21 degrees (it may even have gotten up to 22 but no harm done).

OG 1.062
FG 1.012
ABV 6.56%

efficiency I believe 85%

It was supposed to be primed with 5.1gr per litre... I just realised I added 5gr per bottle!!! exploding bottles again, I guess...


Notes:
* Next time I will use one litre more, either use more water in the boil or one litre more to sparge with - to be honest, I ran out of space heating up 6l of sparging water and decided to only use six. Also, as this was my first step infusion mash, I ended up "boiling/heating" the mash twice as long so probably lost another litre or so during that time. So a bit of extra water can't harm if you can and it would bring the ABV down a little, too, closer to the target ABV for a Märzen between 5.5-6.0%

** I used up some carawheat I had also to bring the colour up and add some malty taste. I think I only used about 100gr instead of the 150 as one of the other malts (Vienna or Munich) ended up weighing not as accurately as the shop said - one was quite a bit under 500gr and the other one quite a bit over 500gr.

Today I finally bottled it after being in the FV for two weeks (I wanted to bottle it earlier but had issues with the bottles - after two days the primary fermentation was already almost finished with an SG of 1.0614).
After 9 days or so the beer tasted very bitter, like medicine. Today, after17 days, it is already delicious.

 

[YeastFace]

They look super.

 

[baggybill]

Nice report/review :thumb:

Looks great sitting in those bottles, good choice, the labels really make it too. Well done, enjoy the contents :-D

 

[Wonderwoman]

Nice report/review :thumb:

Looks great sitting in those bottles, good choice, the labels really make it too. Well done, enjoy the contents :-D

Thank you! If they won't explode that is... what do you reckon with me using 5gr per bottle? Will I get to drink any or will it all go on the floor?

 

[W0nderW0man]

I haven't gotten round to posting a little update (issues with my account hence different name now) but after leaving it to condition in the bottle for 2 months (or more) I can say it is a very nice, smooth, sweet but strong beer and almost gone already! Even my Dad and godfather were impressed (I had to ship some to Germany ).

Even though I used twice as much priming sugar (oups!) there were no bottle bombs: it is very sparkling but for this style a little less carbonation won't hurt. It looks darker than expected (also due to the glass) but I will definitely brew this one again.

 

[Steam brew]

Looks good must put on my to brew list