bc23

Recipes 

I'm looking at the Northern Brewer kits, and trying to decide between the Kolsch and the Honey Kolsch. Any thoughts on these, and which to brew? Anyone try either of them? Thanks much

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Primary: IPA Harpoon Clone
Secondary 1:
Secondary 2:
Bottled: Honey Weizen, Belgian Trippel
Kegged: American IPA

Paulinuke

Recipes 

I brewed the honey Kolsch kit a while back and just had it on tap for our engagement party and that beer was the biggest hit of everything I had to include commercial beer. The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the color, I was hoping it would have come out a little lighter. This is a common problem with LME though. Be aware that this was the most violent fermentation I have ever had, I had a ridiculous amount of krausen. I plan to brew it again. Paul

Gord-o

Recipes 

I helped a friend brew the regular Kolsch. I haven't tried the finished product yet, but the yeast supplied with the kit is pretty stinky. He called NB to ask, and they said that the yeast supplied is supposed to be stinky like that.

Money Pit Home Brew

Recipes 

I brewed the NB Kolsch 6 weeks ago and had the same crazy fermintation. It was EXTREMELY active, I ended up having to use a blow off tube for a week or more. It also ferminted a lot longer than most of my others, I ended up leaving it in the carboy for a month before I started getting consistent hydrometer readings.

It's only been in the bottles for two weeks, but the last hydro sample I tasted was pretty good. I will probably brew the honey kolsch later this year just to see how the addition of honey affects the final product.

The Kolsch yeast does give off some "sulphery" smells during the fermination, but according to what I've read here and the yeast profile from Wyeast, the "sulphery" smell is expected.

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Primary: air
Secondary: air

Conditioning: Chris Colby's PM ESB, English Bitter with all the wrong hops, Kolsh

Drinking: NB Fat Tire Clone, English Pale, California Common, and NB Tongue Splitter

IndependentBadger

Recipes 

I brewed the NB Honey Kolsch three weeks ago. At the last second I chucked the Minnesota honey they use and substituted locally made Wisconsin light honey made all naturally, etc, from a co-op. I also tossed the Vanguard hops and used Strisselspalt hops with a 2.9% alpha, 1 oz. at 60 min. and the other at 30 min. I added the honey with 5 minutes to go, and was wondering if that was what made it so dark? But then I read on here about LME and it makes sense. I also chucked the yeast NB plugs, and used WLP 029 because it was a Kolsch yeast. I left it in the primary bucket for nine days, then I transferred it to a glass carboy secondary about 12 days ago. I'm thinking it's about time to prime it. Is it true one can prime with honey instead of sugar as long as one uses a ratio of 1.31? I read one could do this due to the ratio of fermentables between sugar and honey being about 75/98. I didn't quite get five gallons, so I'm thinking a typical dose of sugar will overprime it. How long did you guys put it in primary, secondary, conditioning, etc? My yeast was stinky too (but I love it, haha)...