Getting ready for Oktoberfest

Got my “Osk”toberfest kegged this past weekend (named after one of my dogs, Oscar). I knew my volume was high and that it wasn’t going to fit into just one keg so I ended up cleaning all three out, filling one and then putting the last half gallon or so in another.

I made a mistake, however. I stopped syphoning too late and didn’t have enough volume to get it going again. I had two choices in my mind: I could try to suck the beer through the syphon to get it going again or I could put a funnel on the keg and just pour the last bit in. I went with the latter option, choosing potential for oxidation over potential for infection. In retrospect, I could have syphoned some volume back from the full keg into the carboy, thus allowing me to get the flow going again into keg #2. I probably would have done that if I would have thought of it. I won’t let this happen again, however. I’ll just loose an ounce or two and let the flow continue as I move the syphon hose from one keg to another.

I was happy to see how clear the O-fest was while running through the syphon hose. It was brewed mid-May and had been sitting between 30-40 degrees for 10 weeks at this point. This is going to be tasty!

I’ve got the two O-fest kegs marked, carbing and continuing to lager for the next six weeks until the start of Oktoberfest on Sept. 22nd. I also went through the trouble of cleaning, sanitizing and pressurizing my third keg so that it’s all set to receive my next batch once fermented (which will probably be another saison, as my first batch this season disappeared far too quickly).