Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Miketoberfest 2025 – Seasonal House Recipe Beer

On November 5, 2025

Hey, it’s that time of year again and we are back with a beloved annual tradition.

It’s the one and only “Miketoberfest”, brought to you by Mike in his signature style.

If you’ve been along for the ride before, you know he recreates the classic American interpretation of Oktoberfest/festbiers.

The Miketoberfest 2025 leans harder into the malt-rich, dark-pretzel vibe. This dude is not messing around.

Recipe Breakdown & Brew Day Process

Here is the full homebrew recipe for our 2025 Miketoberfest.
Note: this is for a 5 gallon batch.

Water:
Spring water treated to be sulfate-heavy to lift the malt.
8 g Calcium Sulfate
2 g Magnesium Sulfate
2 g Calcium Chloride

Grain Bill:
7.75 lb (3.52 kg) of Pils/2-row floor-malted (for that extra character)
3.00 lb (1.36 kg) Light Munich (~7° L)
1.00 lb (0.45 kg) Caramunich 3 (~55° L)=
4 oz (113 g) CaraAroma (~180° L)

Hops:
1 oz (28 g) of Magnum hops at 60 minutes left to go in the boil
2 oz (56 g) of Tettnang hops at 5 minutes left to go in the boil

Yeast:
Two packs of CellarScience German (34/70 strain)

Process:
Mike ran the mash full volume on his propane system, about 10 gallons of wort, boiled down to ~6.5 gallons. No sparge. Using a false bottom on the kettle, he skipped the hoisting hassle.

Mashed at 145 °F for 45 minutes (aiming for fermentability)
Then, raised the temperature to 158 °F for 20 minutes
Finished at 168 °F for mash-out
Fermented at 65 °F in the basement for ~2 weeks, then kegged and chilled for another two weeks before serving.

Outcomes:

Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBUs: 28
SRM: 12°
BV: 4.5%

Tastings Notes and Final Thoughts

The color came through beautifully. It had a rich copper glow, a little darker than a typical Festbier but exactly what Mike wanted. The head is off-white, lacing nicely. Aroma hits you with toasted malt, a slight herbal hop whisper, and a yeasty estery edge from the German strain.

On the palate, the layers shine: that Light Munich + Caramunich + CaraAroma stack gives a big malt-forward feel. It is bready, toasted, almost like a warm Bavarian pretzel. The bitterness is restrained, letting the malt shine but still giving enough bite so it doesn’t flop into syrup territory. Paired with good savory fare, like sausages or smoked meats, this beer excels.

Does it have sessionability? Absolutely. We could easily knock back a liter and be totally content.

Tweaks for next year? Maybe pull back just a shade on the darker malts to crisp it up a tiny bit.

Overall, this Miketoberfest iteration nailed the brief: Fall, Malt character, and drinkability.

BREW ON!

Dolcita Hops SMaSH Beer Tasting and Review

By John Krochune

On October 29, 2025

In Hops, Videos

Yes, it is another single malt and single hop (SMaSH) beer. We revisit a hop experiment we tried earlier this year. It’s the second time with the variety formerly known as HBC 1019, now branded as Dolcita hops.

We grabbed the 2025 harvest of it and brewed it in a simple setup: just one malt (Rahr 2-row) and one ounce of the hops in a small one-gallon batch. Nothing fancy, we are just trying to let the hops shine.

Let’s dive in.

The Recipe & Process

Recipe (One-Gallon Batch / SMASH Format)

Malt: Two-row pale malt (Roar Pale, or your equivalent) – full batch.

Hops: 1 oz Dolcita (2025 harvest) total, split across the brew process (bittering + whirlpool/hop-burst + one-day cold dry-hop)

Bittering: small charge early boil – 3.5 grams.

Whirlpool/hop burst: After the boil, chill the wort to ~180°F (≈82°C) and rest ~10 minutes with hop addition 17.5 grams.

Chill down to fermentation temperature; pitch yeast and ferment ~1 week.

Cold dry-hop: 7 grams of Dolcita for one day right before packaging.

What We Thought – The Verdict

The aroma was lively. Immediately, we were sniffing things like grass, hay, green melon, even a touch of lychee. It had a green fruit-leaning note, but not sugary sweet.

On the palate, the hop came through, though less flamboyant than the aroma. We tasted a bit of white pith bitterness, some melon rind texture, grassy back-notes, and the lychee fruit notes again.

As the beer warmed, the pithy rind side grew slightly stronger.

Some of our notes match the commercial sensory profile for Dolcita hops, especially the honeydew melon one.

So, what’s the verdict? We quite liked it. The aroma out-rocks the flavor. The grassy/melon/lychee fruit side is intriguingly unique. It is not “instant candy-sweet”, but more layered and textured.

If I were picking styles, this hop could shine in a wheat beer (letting that melon and light grass mingle), or maybe a modern lager or “Italian Pilsner” type. With that style you want to be emphasizing crispness, letting the hop whisper rather than scream.

For a full-on IPA blast, you might go heavier on the quantity or pair it with something more citrus-bright to bring out the orange/tangerine edge that the commercial notes mention. In our batch, we didn’t chase the orange, we let the green-melon and rind side lead.

If you’re looking to explore a hop with personality rather than shouting “pineapple candy,” this one’s a nice pick. Thanks for joining us on this little experiment!

Brew on!

When Garden Hose Water Makes For Bad Beer

By John Krochune

On October 22, 2025

In Beginner, Experiments, Videos

We have a cautionary tale for you. Mike and I got together to sample two beers he brewed about a month ago and they were… well, let’s just say they didn’t turn out as expected. I came with my tasting cap firmly in place while Mike brought jars of water and an attitude: “We’ll figure out what went wrong.” Long story short, we discovered that something as mundane as using a garden hose during chilling may have ruined two otherwise promising batches.

What Was Brewed and How Things Went Sideways

Here’s what Mike was aiming for:

Batch 1 (the darker one): Best Bitter — Maris Otter malt base, some caramel malt, Victory malt, hopped with Fuggles.

Batch 2: American Cream Ale — 50/50 split of Pils and Two-Row, ~20% flaked corn, Liberty hops, fermented with Wyeast 2112 (American lager yeast) for a twist.

Both were brewed back-to-back on the same day, kegged, cold-conditioned and carbonated for nearly three weeks.

What went wrong: they both turned hazy (especially the “cream ale” batch) and had a puckering, drying, tannic-band-aid like off-flavor. Mike suspects that when he hosed off his immersion chiller with garden-hose water that he introduced vinyl compounds + chlorine into the system.

Then, he suspects microbial contamination settled in (hence the haze and persistent phenolic character). Microbes and residual chlorinated water or vinyl plastic odor are a major issue. In fact, phenolic off-flavors in beer are often linked to contamination or chlorine/tap-water issues.

Mike had a sample of the garden hose water and it had a very strong vinyl odor.

The recipes were solid, but the process got sabotaged by a hose and maybe some careless sanitation.

Lessons Learned

Here’s the wrap-up: both beers were pretty much ruined. The flavors overlapped so much the two distinct beer styles became the same mistake. The dominant notes: drying tannin, vinyl/plastic odor, band-aid phenolic aftertaste.

Ouch.

On the positive side, this is exactly the kind of mess you want to sample and learn from. The take-away: don’t trust the garden hose for anything sanitary in brewing, rinse and sanitize your chillers properly, and pay serious attention when you’re seeing haze when none should be there.

According to industry sources, microbial spoilage in beer often comes in via water, equipment surfaces and minute sanitation lapses.

Bottom line: two beers down, one major brewing lesson learned. We’ll get back on the horse and brew better.

Until then — brew on, learn your mistakes, and don’t let the garden hose jack up your batch.

Cheers.

Most Hops SMaSH Beer Tasting and Review

By John Krochune

On October 15, 2025

In Hops, Videos

We continue our work with SMaSH beers to learn more about hops. For this one, we decided to put a spotlight Most Hops (a Czech-bred hop variety). We brewed a one US gallon batch, push it through a quick turnaround, and see and taste what this variety is all about. Is it a bridge between UK and Czech styles? Let’s walk through the process and share our impressions.

The most.

Process Notes & Commentary

We used our typical our SMaSH beer ingredient list: spring water, Rahr 2-row hops, US-05 yeast. For the hops, I split the 28 grams evenly across the schedule, with equal measures.

I added 7 grams at the beginning of the boil, then at 15 minutest to go, at flameout, and for a 24 hours cold addition before packaging.

Because the alpha acids were modest, I figured it would lean more subtle and nuanced than punchy.

Tasting Notes and Opinions

Aroma and First Impressions
Right off the bat, Mike and I both detected something like cream or vanilla, which was weird and unexpected. Underneath that, there was a faint hint of green melon or some vegetal note. It struck Mike as “odd”. It was not bad, but peculiar. The descriptions I found online touted black currant, pineapple, grapefruit, spicy/herbaceous notes, even bubblegum. According to Yakima Valley’s materials, it’s a “dual purpose” hop with a lot of flavor possibilities. We did not smell or taste black currant or grapefruit notes in any obvious way.

Flavor & Aftertaste
On the palate, that creamy / vanilla vibe intensified. The fruit notes were soft and dull. If we were forced to pick something, there was a hint of melon or the outer rind of grapefruit, but nothing bold. Instead, I was more drawn to herbaceous, peppery, slightly bitter edges. The finish leaned spicy, with a sort of herbal bite more than a fruity one.

Verdict
Would I use Most hops as a standalone in a big hop-forward beer? Probably not. I think it has more of a supporting / complementary role: something to soften or add nuance in a lager or lighter ale, or as a layer in a blend. If you’re into weird, subtle, creamy / vanilla-ish / herbal hop characters (think along the lines of Sabro), you might enjoy what Most hops bring. But if you want bold fruit or citrus, this one isn’t going to shout it out. Worth experimenting? Absolutely.

Brew ON!

Imperial Stout Tasting – Two Years Later

By John Krochune

On October 8, 2025

In Experiments, Style Profiles, Videos

Sometimes, we have beers that we can age and taste again for the first time. In this post, we rediscover Mike’s Imperial Stout from way back in late 2023 that was a part of our beloved “Jar of Destiny” series.
It has been in a keg for two years, buried in a corner, and doing mysterious aging things. We got many requests to retaste it so we tapped the keg again. Learn more about how flavors changed after 24 months or so.

Getting You Up To Speed

Mike’s 7th pick of the Jar of Destiny series was American Imperial Stout. He built it on a base of Golden Promise and Munich malt, with flaked barley for body and layers of roasted barley, chocolate malt, and Carastan for depth. His secret ingredient was a pound of dark brown sugar. It added a touch of molasses sweetness and helped push the gravity north of 1.096.

He hopped the beer with Cryo Columbus for backbone and Cascade and Willamette for subtle aroma. It was fermented with a blend of Cellar Science Cali and English yeasts harvested from a smaller beer.

The result was a rich, malt-forward stout with spicy bitterness around 8.4% ABV.

Aging Gracefully

Here are our notes from our most recent tasting.

Aroma & Appearance
Holding the pint up to the light, it is still pitch black in color. There is not an inch of brown or ruby showing. The aroma opens with unexpected elegance: dark cherry, molasses, maybe a whisper of liquor-soaked oak, tobacco leaf, roasted chocolate. There is no hint of cardboard or phenolic funk. After two full years at room temp, we are feeling pretty good about the aroma.

Flavor & Mouthfeel
This thing is full, rich, velvety, and still sticky in the best possible sense. The roast isn’t sharp or ashy. It’s folded into dark chocolate, plum, and black fruit. The hop bitterness that we chatted about when we first tasted it is gone. In fact, none of hop character remains. The alcohol presence feels more confident now (maybe creeping toward 9–9.5 %) than in its youth. The aftertaste carries a sweet-dark tobacco, lingering dark fruit, and a molasses sweetness. The palate shifts beautifully between chocolate, dried fruit, and a soft roasted edge.

Evolution & Surprises
What surprised us the most is how the beer mellowed without losing complexity. It didn’t turn into some dull, oxidized monster. The flavors morphed, mingled, and deepened. The flavor notes from our original tasting (graham cracker, dark toast, aggressive roast) have settled into something grander.

Also, the gravity crept downward (Mike measured for this second tasting ~1.025 vs. 1.032 for the first tasting), which points to continued maturation.

Imperial Stout Tasting Conclusions

It’s elegant, complex, bold but not punishing. It shows what happens when you’re patient and let a high gravity stout settle, mellow, and find balance. This beer turned out to be one of the better surprises we’ve had in the BrewDudes lab. Mike may bottle some and enter it in a competition. Either way, thanks for pushing us to revisit this. If you ever brew a monster like this, don’t rush the first sip. Give it time.

BREW ON!