Looking for ideas on my Oktoberfest lager yeast choice. interested in any pros / cons and recommended yeast. i have a controlled chamber, and the 12# grain, 5.8ga, 90-minute boil recipe is 50% vienna, 34% munich, and 17% german pilsner. Hop schedule is magnum (.33oz 60min), and hallertauer late additions (.75oz 20min, .75 oz 10min).
my first thought was wyeast 2633, however haven’t used it and i’m open to suggestions.
thanks
2633 is fantastic. If you can do a split batch, do so and compare 2633 to something else your curious about.
For malty lagers I use W206. (Wyeast 2206, maybe White Labs 830?)
Edit: According to Kris England’s chart it’s WLP820.
I really like WLP833…and 830 is a close second.
wyeast 2206 - any issues with burning up the diacetyl ? they even list it as high producer of D.
just curious
WLp 833 was my second choice…any grist consideration, chloride to sulfate ratio, or other considerations with this yeast? planning mash at 1.5qt per lb, 154F for 75 minutes.
2206 is my go to lager yeast because I not only love the malty flavor it gives, but I have never gotten diacetyl from it. I think it’s the most reliable, well behaved lager yeast I’ve used.
you ferment on the low end of the 46-58F range…46-48F?
Yep. My aim is to keep it below 50.
I used 2633 on my fest last year and was very happy with the results. I’m still just getting my feet wet in the world of lagers, but I will definitely be going back to 2633 again. I brewed mine using a swamp cooler in the middle of August, but it was still very clean despite a bit of temperature fluctuation.
wow good info…its going to be hard to choose. perhaps it’s time to do my first double batch and split it between two yeasts and see how each turns out.
double the fun…double the finished product 
I really like 2206 for my lagers too, however I side towards 2633 for my Oktoberfests. I hear a double batch calling you! 
Dave
since we are on the oktoberfest - i have a water chemistry question. using the munich water profile inbru n water, i need about 300ppm of bicarb. my well water is plenty high in bicarb, but also has too much sodium at 114ppm. therefore, i must use distilled water and add my minerals.
too bump my bicarb up, am I adding calcium carb? when i add the amount of calcium carb necessary to get bicarb ppm right, my PH shoots up - requiring lactic acid to drop the PH in range. however the lactic acid addition also drops the bicarb. how do i manage this…should i be adding acid malt to manage the ph and skip the lactic acid addition so i can just use moderate amount of calcium carb to hit the desired bicarb ppm?
for magnesium, what product should i be using…i only see magnesium flakes out there for sale…is this what i use?
Acid malt is just malt sprayed with lactic acid, so that’s not going to help with the bicarb. don’t know the answer to this though
magnesium, use epsom salts.
epsom salts - same calculation (1 for 1 substitute) used in bru n water for the magnesium addition?
I don’t remember cause I never bother with Magnesium, but I THINK it’s set up to use Epsom Salts as the magnesium addition yes.
I think it’s unlikely you need to add Mg. The grain should supply plenty, but I’ll leave it to smarter people to confirm that. Also, you might consider using the color/flavor profiles rather than a city profile.
If you use Epsom you need to account for the sodium it adds, too.
Munich was known for dark beers before water chemistry was figured out. Use the amber malty profile. With your grain bill you don’t want that much alkalinity, so amber malty.
Did a good on last year using 833.
You don’t need to add Mg, it will come from the mash. If you want to add, use Epsom salts MgSO4. No Na in Epsom salts.
I’ve had good results with WY2308, WLP833, and WLP830 but I think I like WY2206 best.