Cinco de Mayo Kolsch

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Beerrific

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2007
Messages
5,536
Reaction score
65
Location
Georgia
Recipe Type
Partial Mash
Yeast
WLP029
Yeast Starter
YES!!
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.046
Final Gravity
1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
28
Color
3.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
10 @ 66F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
3 weeks @ 40F
3lbs pilsner malt
1 lb vienna malt
1lb white wheat malt
3-3.5 lb DME (enough to get to 1.046 OG) Added with 15 minutes remaining.

1 oz Tettanger bittering (60 min)
.5 Spalt flavoring (30 min)
.5 Saaz flavoring (30 min)
.25 Spalt aroma (5 min)
.25 Saaz aroma (5 min)

Single infusion mash, 154 for 60 minutes. Mashout at 168.

This has nothing to do with Mexico except that I brewed on May 5th.
 
Primed with 5/4c. DME. Bottle conditioned for 3 weeks. It has come out fantastic. Best beer to date.

100_2523.jpg
 
Thanks so much for this recipe. It tastes great, and is mild enough to be popular with the friends. This is going to turn into a regular, as I can't keep it around very long.
 
Okay, let's say that someone loves this beer. Let's also say that all of said person's friends love this beer. Let's say that said person has moved on to all grain, and has swore off partial mash recipes, still wanted to make this fantastic beer, but didn't know how to convert it to an all grain recipe. What should said person do?

Can someone please help a relative newb remake this excellent beer as an all grain. My friends are bugging the crap out of me about this stuff, but I am all out.

Thanks!
 
At 70% efficiency, I would say go with:
8lb pilsner malt
1 lb vienna malt
1lb wheat malt
Mash at 150. Boil 90 minutes to drive off DMS.

Glad to hear you like this one. I only have a couple bottles left. I plan to make it again later in the winter. It is much hoppier than a traditional Kolsch and I have been tempted to change the hop schedule, but I think I will give this one another go as is then make changes if needed.
 
Here's a newb question for you. What's DMS?

I'm planning on brewing this one this weekend. Thanks again!
 
Dimethyl sulfide. Its precursor MMP is present in grain but is converted to DMS and driven of at higher temperatures. Most domestic/English 2-row it is killened at a high enough temperature to drive it off, pilsner malt is not. So, most people say to boil for atleast 90 minutes when using pilsner malt.

This is why you should boil with the lid off and cool quickly. You need to cool quickly since DMS can be formed at and temperature above 140F and when boiling it is carried off with the steam. You should leave the lid off during the boil and until you are below 140 since the steam will collect and drop back into the wort.

DMS has a cooked vegetable, corn flavor. I have been told that this flavor is common in Rolling Rock beer.
 
Brewed it today. The only hang up I had is the 90 min boil evaporated my 6 gallons down to 4.5 instead of 5 like I'm used to. I suppose if I had taken a minute to think about it I'd have collected 6.5 gallons.

She's in the primary right now doing her thing. When it comes time to rack over to secondary, I might boil and cool .5 gallon of water and add it to the secondary carboy before racking to make up for the lost water.

What do you think, is that a terrible idea? I haven't decided yet. I may just leave it a alone.
 
wolf08gang said:
Brewed it today. The only hang up I had is the 90 min boil evaporated my 6 gallons down to 4.5 instead of 5 like I'm used to. I suppose if I had taken a minute to think about it I'd have collected 6.5 gallons.

She's in the primary right now doing her thing. When it comes time to rack over to secondary, I might boil and cool .5 gallon of water and add it to the secondary carboy before racking to make up for the lost water.

What do you think, is that a terrible idea? I haven't decided yet. I may just leave it a alone.

Depends on what your OG was. I would probably not unless you could add it before the start of fermentation.
 
I ended up leaving it alone. The AG variation turned out great. This beer likes to age for a month or two. I've been drinking this one off and on over the last month. I have the majority sitting under my stairs in the hopes that I can actually see what it tastes like six months from now.
 
Update!

So I was digging around under my stairs, having believed that I drank the last of my beer months ago, when I came upon a Christmas Miracle! Or at least a Memorial Day weekend surprise. Alas! One more sixer of Kolsch. Being that I was wrapping up my first brew day since winter, thinking all the while that it is entirely impossible to RDWHAHB without the crucial HB, I immediately hauled it upstairs, threw one in the freezer and set the timer. Fifteen minutes later... sheer heaven. This beer improves immensely with age. Not that there was anything wrong with it when it was fresh, but now it's the kind that I want to offer to my neighbors just to show off my (well Beerific's) brewing prowess. Trouble is, I only have five left, and my greediness outways my pride at least two to one.

From now on, when I make this beer it needs to go directly under the stairs to be forgotten for six months.

Once again Beerific, thanks for this superb recipe.

Wolfgang
 
I brewed this back in early June as my first all grain attempt in a 5gal rubbermaid MLT. Naturally I was off on some temperatures and thus the OG, but it still turned out to be fantastic. I had to modify the recipe a bit based on the hops I had access to.

8 lbs pilsner malt
1 lb white wheat
1 lb vienna malt

1 oz hersbrucker hallertauer ~4% AA, boil
0.5 oz hersbrucker hallertauer 30 min
0.5 oz saaz ~3% AA 30 min
0.25 oz hersbrucker hallertauer 5 min
0.25 oz saaz 5 min

Mashed at 148F (dropped to 146F) for 60 min
Batch sparge #1 at 159F
Batch sparge #2 at 166F

90 minute boil
OG: 1.036
FG: 1.009
Yeast: WLP029 Kolsch

I gave it 1 week primary, 1 week secondary each at 65F, then lagered at 39F for 7 weeks. Bottled, primed with dextrose. Surprisingly, the bottles were pretty well carbed after just one week, even after the fairly long lagering phase. The beer is GREAT. Unbelievably smooth and crisp. It could use a bit more body, but that's my fault for mashing at too low a temp.
 
the "white wheat malt" is 100% wheat?

just because - what a shame! - in italy it's quite impossible to find 100% wheat

That is strange, I wouldn't think they would mix the malted grains up.

Well, if it is like 50%/50% mix with pils malt, just use 2lbs and reduce the pils malt by 1lb.
 
That is strange, I wouldn't think they would mix the malted grains up.

Well, if it is like 50%/50% mix with pils malt, just use 2lbs and reduce the pils malt by 1lb.

i'm sorry, i made a big mistake:

you said white weat meaning "grains" but i was accidentally referring to dry extract, which is 55% wheat and 45% barley.
and,to cast more shadow upon all this (sigh!) we don't have at all malted/raw/white wheat for homebrewing....just Dried/liquid extracts mixed as i said with barley.......what do you suggest?

so the recipe would be

2 lbs pils
1 lbs vienna
2 lbs 50-50 wheat/barley?
 
i'm sorry, i made a big mistake:

you said white weat meaning "grains" but i was accidentally referring to dry extract, which is 55% wheat and 45% barley.
and,to cast more shadow upon all this (sigh!) we don't have at all malted/raw/white wheat for homebrewing....just Dried/liquid extracts mixed as i said with barley.......what do you suggest?

Just use 1 or 2lbs of the 55/45 mix instead of just using light DME/LmE. Just leave the wheat out of the partial mash (just mash some pils and the vienna).
 
Thanks for the easy recipe. I think I might try this one after a 7 month break from brewing. Plus..it's been a while since I've done a PM. Good to be back. :mug: :mug:
 
This turned out great! We had a heat wave when this was in the primary fermentation. Temps in the room got up to 80 but it still turned out great. Going to brew it again and will be able to primary with optimal fermentation temps. Will be good to compare how the temps effect kolsch yeast. Thanks for the recipe.
-leadingzero
 
So brewed this again this past Sunday while drinking the batch that I brewed almost two months ago. It cleaned up really nice and is perfect for post-hockey game/surf brews! I have one question. Why add the DME with 15 mins left in boil? Does this have any effect on the brew? Thanks,
-leadingzero
 
Why add the DME with 15 mins left in boil?

Prevents unnecessary caramelization of the extract. Not really needed if you are doing a full boil, but absolutely necessary if doing a concentrated boil IMO. Search for "extract late addition" or something.
 

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