Kölsch Krazy Kolsch

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permo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
2,979
Reaction score
76
Location
North Dakota
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP029
Yeast Starter
YES
Batch Size (Gallons)
17
Original Gravity
1.050
Final Gravity
1.010
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
23
Color
4
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 days at 65
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
two weeks in the keg
Tasting Notes
Light bread and biscuit with subtle malt sweetness. Perfect smooth bitterness
I have made many kolsch style beers in my day and I NAILED IT, this time. Seriously don't change a thing with this recipe and you will have a great beer. I have soft water with around 100 PPM total hardness and I think that might help give this beer such a beautiful smoothness. It tastes German. Enjoy!! For the batch of this size I used a 1 gallon starter. YMMV







Kolsch



Kölsch (6 C)







Type: All Grain

Batch Size: 17.00 gal

Boil Size: 19.18 gal

Boil Time: 60 min

End of Boil Vol: 17.68 gal

Final Bottling Vol: 16.50 gal

Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage





Date: 15 Oct 2015

Efficiency: 75.00 %

Est Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %









28 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 93.3 %

1 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.3 %

1 lbs Wheat, Raw (1.7 SRM) Grain 3 3.3 %

2.00 oz Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 16.7 IBUs

3.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 5.8 IBUs

1.0 pkg German Ale/Kolsch (White Labs #WLP029) [35.49 ml] Yeast 6 -





Bitterness: 22.6 IBUs

Est Color: 3.9 SRM



Measured Original Gravity: 1.050 SG

Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG

Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.2 %







Mash In at F 149.0 For 75 min
 
I love a good Kolsch "Permo" so I used your grain bill for a 5 gallon batch. Different hops that I had used with an extract recipe previously but very similar alpha acid %. Also I love the Wyeast strain of 2565 rather than the WLP.

10 LB's Breiss 2 Row
.5 LB White Wheat
.5 Munich Malt

75 Minutes @ 149 - Fly Sparge

1 oz. Perle (7.7%) @ 60 Minutes ( Start of Boil )
1 oz. Spalt (2.4%) @ 2 Minutes

Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes
Wyeast Yeast Nutrition @ 10 Minutes

Wyeast 2565 Kolsch Yeast

Lovibond = 4
IBU's = 27

OG - 1.050 Estimated Efficiency 79.56%

I'll update in a month or so with a picture and comments! Thanks again:mug:
 
I love a good Kolsch "Permo" so I used your grain bill for a 5 gallon batch. Different hops that I had used with an extract recipe previously but very similar alpha acid %. Also I love the Wyeast strain of 2565 rather than the WLP.



10 LB's Breiss 2 Row

.5 LB White Wheat

.5 Munich Malt



75 Minutes @ 149 - Fly Sparge



1 oz. Perle (7.7%) @ 60 Minutes ( Start of Boil )

1 oz. Spalt (2.4%) @ 2 Minutes



Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes

Wyeast Yeast Nutrition @ 10 Minutes



Wyeast 2565 Kolsch Yeast



Lovibond = 4

IBU's = 27



OG - 1.050 Estimated Efficiency 79.56%



I'll update in a month or so with a picture and comments! Thanks again:mug:


Funny as i absolutely love WLP029. I have three vials in my fridge. I find that avangard german pale malt works better than pils. More depth of flavor.

Your recipe will be awesome.
 
I really like Kolsch and I just made a pretty good one but I feel like I'm still missing a little something. Over the holiday my dad and I lined up my kolsch and an alt against commercial ones. We tried five kolsches and Sunner was the kolsch we liked the most (if I can brag here mine came in second). If I'm stacking mine against Sunner I think I was a bit less bitter and using the wrong hops. I used hallertau and saaz for my hops and my calculator said I was around 24 IBU.

Can you guys speak to the hop selections you used?
 
Can you guys speak to the hop selections you used?



I am a kolsch freak having made at least 100 gallons and i can tell you that noble or continental hops are just too subtle. I have settled cluster for bittering and tettnanger, perle, spalter or sterling to finish. I have also found pale malt to help so much in adding depth of flavor.
 
Thanks. I think that bit of hop bite is what I was missing. I'll give cluster a shot on my next batch.

Since wifey like this style too. I'll likely give 2 row a shot to do a comparison.

Thanks!
 
I used pils with a bit of wheat not because I know the difference but because that's what more of the recipes I found called for. I really liked my grain bill but I'm intrigued by using 2 row the way you put it.
 
Could you post some results if you try that 50/50?

I will surely do this. I just got a fresh batch of raw wheat from a farmer too.

I am out of munich but got a new bag of german vienna so I am going to mess with the grain bill a little bit but the original recipe as posted is amazing beer.....the pale malt takes it away from being so light and spritzy...gives it some depth.

propsed change:

40%pale
40% pilsen
7% vienna
3% raw wheat
same hops, mash and fermenting schedule and of course my favorite white labs 029 yeast.

Man, I just got done with a workout and I am thirsty....a nice huge cold mug of kolsch would be amazing right now.
 
I will surely do this. I just got a fresh batch of raw wheat from a farmer too.

I am out of munich but got a new bag of german vienna so I am going to mess with the grain bill a little bit but the original recipe as posted is amazing beer.....the pale malt takes it away from being so light and spritzy...gives it some depth.

propsed change:

40%pale
40% pilsen
7% vienna
3% raw wheat
same hops, mash and fermenting schedule and of course my favorite white labs 029 yeast.

Man, I just got done with a workout and I am thirsty....a nice huge cold mug of kolsch would be amazing right now.

Just got done brewing a partial mash version of this, with a few tweaks. Looks like a great recipe, and I hit my OG dead on. Really looking forward to it. My pipeline currently lacks a nice pale, crisp, light colored ale.
 
So I'm relatively new to all grain, if I wanted to down size this recipe to 5 gallons AG or 10 gallon AG, would the ratios remain linear?

Not sure if the OP is still subscribed to this thread but I'd really like to give this a try, as I have not made a very successful Kolsch to date.

Any help sizing this down would be greatly appreciated.

TIA
 
scaled down to 5 gallon batch

8 lbs 5.8 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 91.0 %
8.6 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.8 %
4.7 oz Wheat, Raw (1.7 SRM) Grain 3 3.2 %
0.68 oz Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 16.7 IBUs
1.01 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 5 5.8 IBUs


I cant tell you how popular this beer is at my house. The pale malt vs pilsen makes all the difference. It adds a touch more flavor and body to the beer. If you can get german pale malt you hit the jackpot.
 
Thanks so much,

I will see if the LHBS has German Pale vs US 2 row, not sure. I know they have English 2 row, and I am still learning the differences. All I know is that I get to CGN for work from time to time and I love the Kolsch. I tried a Extract version, is stunk to be quite honest.

I've only been brewing for a few years and only in the last 8 months has it been AG.

Also new to the forum, and I am always amazed at how helpful folks are in sharing their recipes. Thank you again, let you know how it turns out.
 
Thanks for the tip on the german pale malt.

I've always found my Kolsch beers paled in comparison to the German versions. Maybe this will help.
 
Ok, I'm back I on the Kolsch kick. I have my standard batch aging a bit now. Here in a week or two I'm gonna swap out a quarter of the pils for 2 row. I think I'm gonna try dropping the wheat. I'm a bit nervous that I'll lose that mouth feel and bit of richness without the wheat, even though it isn't much.

On my finished, bottled batch I used santiam hops, I was critical of it when the beer was fresher, but I think now that it has had another month or so of age, I think it pulls well on the sweetness on the pils malt.
 
Yesterday I bottled one batch of Kolsch and I just pitched the yeast for an other batch. I went with 7# or pils, 3# German 2 row and a # of light Munich. I'm looking forward to doing a side by side comparison.

Next batch I'll try pirmo's first recipe. Although it looks like premo used avangard, my LHBS carries Durst so that's what I'll likely be using.
 
Last night we cracked open a Kolsch with a 7# of pils to 3# of 2 row recipe to taste next to my standard all pils base malt recipe. Both beers have the same hop rates, a little bit of Munich in them and WLP German alt/Kolsch yeast. My standard recipe has a little bit of wheat and I omitted that from the one with 2 row.

First off they are both really good. The 2 row is very noticeable engender at just 3#. This 7/3# made a really nice drinkable beer that whent well with the hops and yeast. To me it tasted more like a German style blonde than a soft Kolsch. I would definately make this again. Especially for fall or early spring time day drinking. The 2 row gave a little more malt backbone without having to raise the ABV, which is nice. But for my taste that all pils base malt is key to a Kolsch.

This was fun to try two similar recipes right next to each other. Usually beers don't make it that long in my house!
 
Thanks for posting the play by play! Side by side experiments like this are always a great way to develop more knowledge on how to build a beer.

Ive got an all 2-row (for the base malt) Kolsch that's just about ready to head to the keg. It should be a great beer to enjoy the end of the summer with...
 
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