German Marzen lager recipe - Homebrew beer recipes brewingbeer.io

German Marzen lager is a beer style you probably have tried without knowing. Mass-produced lagers that are darker in color normally fall into this style. Traditionally Marzen was the beer consumed in Octoberfest, but nowadays they serve something similar but more suited for power drinking, it even has its own style called “Festbier”.

This Mazen lager recipe however is closer to a traditional Marzen, but with improvised ingredients.

Recipe

Mari Marz

German-Style Maerzen

Volume 25 l
OG 1.059
FG 1.014
IBU 21
ABV 5.91 %

Fermentables

1.4 kg

Vienna

Netherlands The Swaen

21.3 % GP 12
2.5 kg

Barke Munich Malt

Germany Weyermann

38.58 % GP 23
1.1 kg

CaraFoam

Germany

16.98 % GP 10
1.5 kg

Pale Ale

Germany Weyermann

23.15 % GP 14

Hops

50 g

Hallertau Mittelfruh | First Wort 60min

Germany

Pellet AA 4.3 % IBU 18
15 g

Hallertau Mittelfruh | Boil 15min

Germany

Pellet AA 4.3 % IBU 3
15 g

Hallertau Mittelfruh | Boil 0min

Germany

Pellet AA 4.3 % IBU 0

Yeast

1 pkg

M76 Bavarian Lager

Mangrove Jack

Attenuation 77.0 %

Process

Malted grains for a German Marzen lager recipe, Vienna, Munich, Carapils and Pale Ale — Start with a grain bill of around 20% Vienna, 40% Munich, 15% Carapils and 20% Pale Ale. I’ve used 6.5 kg malt for a 35L batch.

Crushed home brew malted grains for brewing a German Marzen lager — As always grain crushed with malt conditioning for best results in the Braumeister

Brewing water adjustment with Calcium Chloride flakes — Water adjustment 15g Calcium Chloride, 1/2 tsp Phosphoric acid in 32L RO water

Homebrew mashing process in the Braumeister malt pipe — Mashing in process

Beer mash temperature taking the the thermopen — Single infusion mash rest 1h at 66C, followed by 15min mash-out at 76C

Hallertau Mottelfruh hops measured for adding to the brew — Using only Hallertau Mittelfruh hops for this batch

Sweet malt extract ready for boiling — End of mashing

Homebrew before and after boil specific gravity measured with a refractometer — Pre and post boil SG readings. Pre boil: 1.056, post boil: 1.059

Sanitising SS brewtech chronical fermenter before filling up with sweet wort — Sanitising all the things

Homebrew sweet wort OG measured with a hydrometer — After ever everything is filled up I take a Hydrometer reading just for another opinion. And this one’s 1.056 @ 25C so after calibration at 20c it’s 1.057.

SS brewtech chronical fermenter temperature control, temperature reading right before pitching yeast — Yeast pitch temperature

Harvested M76 yeast into a flask for easy pitching into the fermenter — Using a hefty M76 yeast harvest from a previous batch.

After pitching yeast I leave the beer do it’s thing at 8C for a few about a week and then start raising the temperature followed by dropping temperature for lagering

Closed transfer from fermenter to keg, kegging process — After primary fermentation is done I transfer to keg and leave the beer for lagering at ~1C

Beer final gravity reading taken with a hidrometer — FG right before lagering at around 1.017

Tasty early sample of a green beer before lagering — Early sample right before lagering

Results

Conditioned homebrewed lager, a clean tasting Marzen beer — After around 4 weeks of lagering the beer has cleared out and is very clear. No need for gelatin or other fining agents, with a good brewing process the beer will clear out.

Tasting notes:

Appearance

Medium-amber. Slightly amber, creamy head. Clear.

Nose

Caramel and toffee, malty sweetness, some bread and very light floral notes.

Taste

Malty, toasted bread, caramel and prunes.

Mouthfeel

A medium to medium-full body, moderate-high carbonation. Smooth and bold.

Summary

A marzen beer balancing more on the darker side with more flavour and body. With its more heavy body it is still fairly drinkable, hops and malt sweetness does not fall out of balance and works well together.

Next time I might mash lower, slightly reduce bittering hops and replace some of the Munich malt with a lighter base malt to increase drinkability.