Beer Blogging - First Foray into Liquid Yeast and Kolsch

So, I spent last night brewing up a Kolsch. [I'm not going to waste my time finding out how to add the doo-hickeys over the 'o' in Kolsch.]

I'd brewed the BB Kolsch kit in February and that turned out to be a fantastic blonde ale that is an incredible thirst quencher. They really, really go down easy. I don't know how 'kolsch-like' it was because I've never tried an actual Kolsch.

What makes this a blond ale vs. a true Kolsch? Well... it used Nottingham dry yeast and fairly warm fermentation. I didn't cellar the beer at 60 deg. at all because I don't have the facilities for that. Without the right yeast and cold-conditioning I guess its just a nice blonde ale. It has some bitterness up front, but its sweet-ish on the finish and reminds me a lot of an easier drinking Grolsh (with Grolsch having a stronger taste of honey sweetness).

Regardless, what I brewed was great and I wanted to try some more. Mainly because I will be running out of this stuff very quickly.

So, instead of doing the BB kit again I found this recipe for "Maryland Kolsch" from Brew Your Own Magazine at http://www.byo.com/stories/recipes/recipeindex/article/recipes/105-koelsch-a-altbier/1771-maryland-koelsch .

I went to my local homebrew shop and gathered the following:
2 cans of Muntons extra light LME
1/2 pound malted wheat
1 pound carapils
and 2 ounces of Mt. Hood hops. They didn't have the Spalt variety and frankly even if htey did, the AAU's of today's Spalt is not what it used to be. The Mt. Hood is a decent replacement based on AAU, and the general noble-like flavor.
Whirlfloc
Corn sugar
Muslin Bags.

And my first liquid yeast - The White Labs European Ale strain and some DME for the starter. That was the entire point of this exercise: to find an easy, simple, appealing beer that I could try with a liquid yeast and starter set-up.

On the Thrusday before brewday I crafted the starter from .5 cups of DME and 2 cups of boiling water.... boiled for 10 minutes, then cooled to room temp. Using a sanitized 22 ounce bomber, I added the cooled wort, pitched the yeast, covered with sanitized tin-foil and put the mess on a high shelf out of reach of the kiddies.

I agitated the starter every time I walked by and by Friday afternoon it had a distinct yeasty-bread odor. I set it aside for use on Sunday/brewday.

On Sunday Evening (April 26), I followed the recipe with the following variations:
I used a 3.5 gallon volume to steep the grains and then a 4 gallon boil when the LME was added. I added the first round of hops (bittering) as instructed and then added 3/4 ounce for the flavoring, and then in the last 3 mins, I added the remainder as an aroma addition. It won't do much, but I hoped it would improve the nose of the beer.

This was a 40 minute boil overall. I siphoned the wort off the solids after cooling to around 85 degrees. I added 1.5 gallons of store bought drinking water (chilled) and then added my yeast starter (wort and all). That was at 11:20 Sunday evening.

By 7:30 AM Monday morning fermentation activities had commenced and the airlock was bubbling vigorously.

Update in June:
I let this sit in primary for 11 days. Then I moved it to Secondary on May 7th. I bottled it in late may. During fementation it had a horrid sulphur smell (something that people on HBT.com reassured me was normal). On bottling day the beer was somewhat sweet with a nice hops charater and no off tastes. I think that once carbonated it will be slightly less sweet and an awesome beer.

For Reference:
The original Recipe for Maryland Kolsch from the Brew Your Own Magazine site:
"Maryland Kölsch
(5 gallons, extract with grains)
OG = 1.055
FG = 1.012
IBU = 32

This is a nice, refreshing, not-too-hoppy golden ale.
Don Breton