Koelsch Recipe

After tasting a Koelsch for the first time at a local micro I decided to try my hand at one. After not finding any good recipes I put this together myself and was wondering what everyone else thought about it before the brew day.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: kolsch
Brewer: Devon
Asst Brewer:
Style: Koelsch
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 3.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 83.3 %
1 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 11.1 %
8.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 5.6 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min) Hops 17.8 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 9.00 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 11.25 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F 75 min

I can't fault you recipe. It smoukd be good.
The recipe I like is:

7 lbs pale malt 2 row
2 lbs Wheat malt
3/4 lbs Munich Malt
1/4 lb Crystal 10

1 oz Pearle hops 60 min
1 oz Tetnanger hops 2 min
1 tsp Irish moss 15 min
1 tsp yeast nutreant 15 min

Wyeast Kolsch yeast
Mash 152 1 hr
boil 1 hr

Looks good to me also.

heres mine.....
its one f'in killer brew


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
85.0 17.00 lbs. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
7.5 1.50 lbs. Wheat Malt Germany 1.039 2
5.0 1.00 lbs. Vienna Malt Germany 1.037 3
2.5 0.50 lbs. Caramel Pils Malt Belgium 1.034 2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfruh Pellet 4.20 18.8 60 min.
1.50 oz. Tettnanger Pellet 4.50 7.7 30 min.
1.50 oz. Spalter Spalt Pellet 3.05 2.0 10 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 2565 Kolsch

cold conditioned for 8 weeks @ 45*

I'm doing an AHS recipe that I'm getting ready to rack.

7# Pils
2.5 # Wheat

1 oz. Perle at 60
1/2 oz. Tettnang at 15
1/2 oz. Tettnang at 5

WL029 Kolsch Yeast.

Very simple, yet elegant.

Thanks for the replies everyone -- maybe ill throw some cara-pils in there too 8oz or so.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how long and what temp to cold store this for? Ill be finishing up my kegorator this weekend and will have a spot for a third corny in it.

I ferment in a 61/2 gal corboy for about 1 week in my basement at 60F. Then I transfer to a 5gal corboy for about 2 weeks, then I bottle.
I've brewed about a dozen different ales and I like the Kolsch the best. It comes closer to being a lager than the others in my opinion. I don't have the equipment necessary to brew lagers.

We brew a Kolsch regularly, we let if finish fermenting at about 65F. Then turn the temp down to about 36 - 40F for 6-8 weeks. Let it warm up to bottling temp (48hrs)then bottle as usual. Not having kegged any beer before, you could probably keg it while cold.

I finally brewed that today -- missed my OG by 10 points but also ended up with a 6 gal batch. Dont think I boiled hard enough but im sure it will be fine in the end.

In regards to cold conditioning that long (6-8 weeks) is there any issues with yeast not being in suspension at bottling time? I am cold conditioning an AHS Kolsch clone at this time and wonder if I can just bottle like I always do. I think I read some place that most authenic Kolsch breweries don't use any wheat? anyone else heard of that? - Dirk

derogg said:

In regards to cold conditioning that long (6-8 weeks) is there any issues with yeast not being in suspension at bottling time? I am cold conditioning an AHS Kolsch clone at this time and wonder if I can just bottle like I always do. I think I read some place that most authenic Kolsch breweries don't use any wheat? anyone else heard of that? - Dirk

Click to expand...

I cold conditioned and had no problems with bottling / carbing. Don't know about what you read, but most every recipe I've seen (here or elsewhere) contains some wheat.

djamwolfe said:

I finally brewed that today -- missed my OG by 10 points but also ended up with a 6 gal batch. Dont think I boiled hard enough but im sure it will be fine in the end.

Click to expand...

I think it will be GREAT. Nothing beats a session Kolsch as a nice, crips, cold brew in the summer time.

BierMuncher said:

I cold conditioned and had no problems with bottling / carbing.

Click to expand...

BeerMuncher,
how long do you cold condition, what do you uses as priming sugar and how long does the carbonation process take for you. I'm just curious b/c I generally recommend the addition of some fresh yeast at bottling time when bottling a beer that has been cold conditioned for a long time. But I'm not speking out of much experience here.

With a Koelsch this might not be a problem since this yeast is a poor flocculator anyway.


I'm not sure about the wheat in Koelsch. The Purity Law allows it, but maybe many breweries want to claim compliance to the old RHG from 1516, which didn't allow for wheat.

Kai

Go with tettnang. Being a hop-head myself, I think saaz and hallertaur both suck - no hoppiness to speak of.

Kaiser said:

BeerMuncher,
how long do you cold condition, what do you uses as priming sugar and how long does the carbonation process take for you. I'm just curious b/c I generally recommend the addition of some fresh yeast at bottling time when bottling a beer that has been cold conditioned for a long time. But I'm not speking out of much experience here.

With a Koelsch this might not be a problem since this yeast is a poor flocculator anyway.
Kai

Click to expand...

I moved the Kolsch out of the secondary after 10 days and into a corny. I parked it out in my garage (this was February mind you) where the temp was a constant 37-42 degrees. It sat out there for three weeks then I moved it to the basement, let it get to room temp and racked into the bottling bucket.

I used the usual 3/4 cup to prime and moved the bottles to the upstairs room where it is always 72+ degrees (south side of the house, big windows...no I didn't expose to the sun... )

I gave the cases a tip-over rocking every other day before going to work and at three weeks exactly, they were carb'd perfect.

Tis the clearest beer I've brewed yet. I think this was a perfect illustration that there is plenty of yeast still suspended in beer, even after a lentghy cool spell. Maybe I'll pour myself one tonight and send up a pic.

Here's that pic I promised. THis Koslch was cold conditioned for three weeks and bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar...no additional yeast.

You can see it is well carb'd, though Koslch styles don't have a real "frothy" head...lacking Carapils and other special malts in the recipe. This head was full to the top about a minute prior and dissapated rather soon, but the beer itself had a nice crisp finish with plenty of carb "spark".