Kolsch recipe from Beer Captured?

StudentBrewer · 03-31-2006, 01:10 AM

Has anyone tried this, its called Reissdorf Kolsch. Either that, or does anybody have a tried and true extract/grains Kolsch recipe.

My second question would be, how does Kolsch yeast tolerate higher temps (65-68F)?

Kaiser · 03-31-2006, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StudentBrewer

Has anyone tried this, its called Reissdorf Kolsch. Either that, or does anybody have a tried and true extract/grains Kolsch recipe.

The original Reissdorf Koelsch doen't use wheat since it claims to conform with the purity law of 1516. But than again this is a clone recipe and not the actual recipe. So I'd stick with the recipe. Wheat or no wheat, you will get a good Koelsch.

Quote:

My second question would be, how does Kolsch yeast tolerate higher temps (65-68F)?

not so well. Though Koelschs are trechnically ales, they are fermented at the lower end of the ale temps and lagered like lagers.

Kai

2nd Street Brewery · 03-31-2006, 10:36 PM

I did that recipe and was very happy with it. I fermented it in my primary at about 55 or so F and then lagered it in the low 40s for about 4 weeks before bottling. Came out great, am planning on it again in the next few weeks.

bigears · 06-08-2006, 08:56 AM

Just saw this post as I was doing a search. What temperature would you ferment the Kolsch at? The White Labs Kolsch yeast mentions 70F but I'm not sure if that's a 'one size fits all' label? I can either ferment at room temp which will be around the 70F mark or ferment in the fridge which will give me around 50F (8C)

NEPABREWER · 06-08-2006, 12:08 PM

I am doing mine at 64-62 (basement) primary and extended secondary meaning 3-4 weeks. No time for lagering now. Hopefully it will be drinkable.

bigears · 06-08-2006, 01:55 PM

NEPABREWER, Thanks for the advice.

I've since done a search and found this on the whitelabs faq page:

Quote:

Why do you recommend to ferment WLP029 above 62°F? I have seen in literature that some stains ferment at temps in the 55-60° degree range. Does this strain lends it self to lagering?

Some strains do ferment well in the 55-60°F, but this Kolsch strain works best at the 66-68°F temperature range. It has a very clean flavor profile at that temperature range. Some strains do not, so the lower temperatures produce better Kolsch. You can ferment WLP029 in the 55-60°F range, but we recommend against it because it is a difficult fermentation to keep going. Kosch can be cold lagered, and the flavor profile will be improved

Hopefully I might just about get away with the high end of this range.

I reckon you should be OK at your range too (above 62F)

NEPABREWER · 06-12-2006, 03:25 AM

I think you'll be fine - mine started at 68-70 then went into the basement for a week+ at 64 then I brought it back 68-72 for 2 days to burn off any residual sugars. My sample today was 1.018 and tasted nice, clean no signs of off or fruity flavors. Will transfer to the secondary tommorrow and pitch a new batch onto the cake. Cheers

Vermicous · 06-12-2006, 10:24 PM

My LHBS guy converted the Black Widow Kolsch recipe to an extract version. I have high hopes, this will be nice in August.

bigears · 06-13-2006, 02:50 PM

I had to play around with this slightly. I used the partial mash version and mashed 2.2 lbs of Pilsner Malt and 10.5 ozs Munich Malt for 90 minutes.

I don't have the recipe in front of me right now but due to the ingredients I had at hand I had to up the Wheat DME by half a pound and reduce the light DME by a similar amount. (Ended up with 2.2 lbs - two bags - of each).

Any ideas what effect the extra Wheat will have? One bag of each DME was thrown in as a late addition 15 minutes from the end in an attempt to keep the colour a little lighter.

The OG came out at 1.040 which was a few points lower than I expected - would this be because I mashed using a grain bag? This is my first partial mash and I was surprised that the recipe called for 170F for 90 mins. I thought a partial mash needed a rest at differing temperatures as part of the process.

Took about 24 hours to get going but it's bubbling away nicely now in the high 60s.