2012 Marzen

Can you make a Marzen in November? Sure you can.

 

2012 Marzen

 

Every year on Christmas Eve, the six Drummond families all exchange Christmas gifts.  Not just the kids, not just the parents with the kids, but everyone.  Every family buys presents for every person in the other 5 families, parents, kids, children-in-law, everyone.  Plus whatever aunts or mothers-in-law that might be there as well.  That makes for a lot of presents, and a long session of gift-wrap-ripping.

 

Some of the in-laws aren't so fond of the melee, mainly because it means buying presents for so many people (not out of a lack of generosity, but out of a desire to avoid the number of presents to be bought.  The efforts of those naysayers have resulted in a post-Thanksgiving tradition: Aunt Mamie requires everyone to submit a Christmas gift list, which everyone uses as a guide to buy stuff for everyone else.  Those of us on the side of more presents are fine with this, since it keeps the griping down to a minimum by those who don't like the plethora of presents.

 

Sometimes you buy stuff that's not on the list; one year, I had made some homebrew, and I distributed some of that around as a Christmas present.  Since then, the first item of brother Art's list every year is the same: homemade beer.  Since I'm the only brewer in the family, that task falls to me.  So I've gotten in the habit of making a "Christmas beer" every year.  Not a winter ale or spiced beer or Old Fezziwig or something; I don't do that often.  But just a beer that will be in the bottles by Christmas.

 

This year, I repeated a Marzen I had made in the spring that was a nice, snappy Octoberfest beer.  Marzens are traditionally brewed in March (hence the name, Marzen, the German word for March) to be ready to drink at Octoberfest.  My last one was a little edgy and estery on first taste; I decided that I probably pitched the yeast a little too soon, while the beer was a little too hot, the the little bugs complained by producing some esters, which give a harsh side-of-the-tongue tang and sourness to the mouth of the beer.  This go-round, I held off on pitching the yeast until the wort temperature was below 80 degrees (a little warm for commercial brewing, but nice for my amalgamation of yeast).  One week in the primary fermenter at room temperature (around 70 this time of year in the utility room), then lagering for about 5 weeks at around 45 degrees in a carboy in the garage fridge. 

 

The results are nice, better than the last Marzen, without the estery sourness.  The crystal malt and Munich flavors are pretty big, and the Saaz hops are subtle; but there's a thinness to it that's hard to explain.  It's a mainly whole grain with a little extract recipe, but I think I had a very successful enzyme rest around 150 degrees during the cooking process, and might've done too good a job of chopping down the starches.  Personally, I like a light beer that doesn't feel filling, and this avoids that thick maltiness (think Fat Tire).  Next year, maybe a half an hour at the enzyme rest.

 

Next up: a Pale Ale, probably an IPA.  After that, it'll be the White House beer, a honey ale.  Where, you may ask, did I get the White House Honey Ale recipe and ingredients?  Of course, another Drummond brother gave them to me as a Christmas gift.

 

Hmm, if I use Shawn's gift to make beer that I give to Art and Randall next year, is that re-gifting?