Rye in Oktoberfest?

[NateBrews]

I can do the 2 step mash, so I will take that course of action. I have all the stuff I need for the ferment ( Oxygen, stir plate, temperature control chamber) so I think that the ferment should be "easy" enough to pull off. I don't have access to white labs yeast very easily. I could order it online, but it is still pretty hot out so I would rather get some Wyeast at the shop down the street (at least it appears that they keep things cold and reasonably fresh).

The lager method you describe is similar to one that I have done before, but I have to confess that I have used the faster lagering technique often referred to as "the Tasty method" (but really a modified Narziss fermentation) to get things done in a shorter time and the quality has been pretty good.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[NateBrews]

So the primary ferment finished up on this and I tasted it out of the fermentor and was really surprised at how bold the rye character of it is for only an 8% addition. The layering seems to work ok, you get the munich and pilsner bread/cracker flavor followed by the spicy rye following up behind it and a pretty dry finish.

I fermented using 2206 Bavarian Lager, which took much longer than I expected it to. I had a nice big pitch and lots of O2, at 50F then up to 58 after 7 days and then 62 at 10 days and it still took 3.5 weeks to finish out the last 1-1.5 plato and clean up the byproducts.

I will be interested to see how the flavors develope after lagering for a month and fining.