Batch 120, Oktoberfest

Time for Oktoberfest! I got this recipe out of the latest issue of Zymurgy. I haven't been completely happy with my past attempts at this style, and this recipe won a contest, so I thought I'd give it a try.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.061, actual: 1.060
FG: 1.015
SRM: 10.9
IBU: 25.3
ABV: 6.0

Grain:
11 lbs Munich 10L
11 lbs 2-row (should have used pils, didn't have any on hand)
4 oz Aromatic malt
8 oz Biscuit malt
8 oz Caramunich malt

Mash:
Mash in with 7 gallons of 133F water to hit protein rest at 122F. Hold for 25 minutes.

Add 4 gallons boiling water to raise temp to 152F. That didn't quite work, the addition got me to about 145F. Started direct heat on mash tun, but it seemed to be sticking, so switched to heat exchanger. This took a while to get to 152F . Hold for 60 minutes.

Ran off 3 gallons to boil kettle. Added 4 gallons of 200F water to raise to 165F. That didn't work either, got to about 158F. Ran it all off anyway. Ended up short in the boil kettle by about 1.5 gallons, so topped off with RO water. Pre-boil gravity was 1.050.

90 minute boil.

Hops:
1.75 oz Hallertau pellets at 60 minutes
1.75 oz Tettnanger pellets at 60 minutes

Put the hops in in a nylon sock.

Yeast:
Wyeast 2206, Bavarian Lager.

Made a starter with 1 pack on Wednesday. The starter was made with 1 lb grain mashed in 1 gallon of RO water.

Fermentation:
Pitch yeast at 62F, hold for 24 hrs.
Drop to 50F, hold for 20 days.
Raise to 65F for 2 days (diacetyl rest).
Transfer to keg.
Lager at 34F for at least a month.

Pretty good brew day overall. I've been trying out Brewtarget since it seems more complete than qbrew and is also under active development. It calculates the volumes and temperatures, but I don't think I have it dialed in quite right yet as I was off on both and it took some time to correct for the differences.

Also took some time during the boil to clean out my lager fridge. There were 3 kegs in there, I thought the back 2 were empty and were last year's Oktoberfest. Turns out only 1 was empty, the other has 5 gallons of crystal clear Oktoberfest! Racked that to another keg without moving the original keg so it is still clear as can be. Also racked the keg of prickly pear beer that was in front to another keg, again, without moving the original so it is also very clear.