2nd Homebrew, 1st All-Grain & BIAB, My Take on Biermuncher's Orange Kolsch

[JonathanG]

Although I've recently joined the forums here, I've been reading and learning a lot from them for some time now. I finally brewed my first batch of beer in March, and it's carbonating in the bottle right now. It was an extract and steeping grains American IPA kit from The Brew Hut here in Colorado.

I had so much fun with that experience that I thought I'd attempt going a step farther and go the BIAB route for my 2nd batch. After reading the entire BIAB thread on here, as well as going through the biabbrewer website, I went ahead and purchased a voile bag from Jeff at bagbrewer.com and got myself a big potato masher to use as a mash paddle.

After reading through lots of recipes, I decided I want to do something similar to BierMuncher's Orange Kolsch. I have yet to brew this, although I did go and get all my grains and yeast yesterday, and I'll be getting my spices from a local spice shop sometime in the next few days. I plan to brew this next Monday 5-7-12. I think I have everything I need to brew this as a BIAB recipe. I have an 8.5-gallon kettle (I know this is a slight limitation for BIAB, but it's what I have for now) and plan on doing this on my kitchen stove, straddling burners. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

5-pounds Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) (milled twice)
2.5-pounds Pale Malt (2 Row) Belgian (3.0 SRM) (milled twice)
1-pound White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) (milled twice)
0.5-pounds Honey Malt (25 SRM) (milled twice)
0.19-pounds/3-ounces Acidulated Malt (3.0 SRM) (milled twice)
1-pound Flaked Wheat (not milled)
0.5-oz. Hallertauer (4.6%), 60-min.
0.25-oz. Hallertauer (4.6%), 20-min.
0.25-oz. Tettnanger (4.8%), 20-min.
0.5-oz. Tettnanger (4.8%), 10-min.
0.5-oz. Cascade (8.0%), 10-min.
1.5-oz. Dehydrated Orange Peel, 10-min.
2.0-grams Grains of Paradise, crushed, 10-min.
.25-tsp. SuperMoss, 10-min.
1-pkg. Wyeast Kolsch II #2575, I will use a starter.

I have no idea what to expect for efficiency, so I plugged 72% into Beersmith. I probably should've gone with 5.0-pounds of US 2 Row Pale Malt, but it's too late now! I just changed my hops schedule, lowering the quantities slightly during the flavoring addition. I originally had the Hallertauer and Tettnanger at 0.5-oz. at 20-minutes. Not sure if I should change the orange peel or seeds of paradise amounts? I was going to go with an American Ale yeast like US-05 or something, but when I saw the Wyeast 2575 Kolsch II in-stock, I figured it'd be a good excuse to try my hand at making a starting and breaking-in my stir plate.

Hopefully this isn't a train wreck waiting to happen! The grains are milled and mixed together, with the wheat flakes sitting on top, so I can't change any of that now. The only thing I could do would be to mash at a little higher temperature to produce less fermentable sugars, but I'm guessing my ABV is still going to be above 5% unless I really screw this up. It doesn't seem like too many people have used the Wyeast 2575 strain, so any pointers on that would help too. Hopefully it won't take forever to attenuate. I figured I'd keep it in the primary fermentor for 2-weeks, then rack to secondary for another couple of weeks, keeping an eye on the gravity. I may end up having to try some sort of ice bath setup, as my basement is in the mid-60s right now. I'd like to try and harvest the yeast as well to save for future use. I have read the yeast washing sticky here, which was very helpful, but haven't yet attempted harvesting and washing.

Thank you, in-advance, for all your insights regarding this recipe, and thank you to BierMuncher for posting the original recipe.

 

[fletchsj]

looks like a fine recipe... I think you will probably get a little lower efficiency that 72. My experience has shown around 60% for BiaB worst case just add some honey at flame out since it is a kolsch I'd definitely use a fining agent in the secondary (like gelatin) it will guarantee that crisp clear look. good luck!

 

[daksin]

I do a semi-BIAB style brewday and get about 85% brewhouse efficiency on medium gravity beers. I mash in the bag, squeeze the hell out of it for "first runnings" then do a single batch sparge by dumping all the grains into the sparge water (out of bag). After the sparge is done, I pour the whole thing through the bag and squeeze again (not dunking the bag in the first runnings). If you can squeeze the bag, the grain absorption is really low, and that makes calculating mash and sparge water volumes really easy. If you're concerned about make a beer that is too alchoholic, I would definitely mash higher, at 154 or above. It'll produce a pretty malty beer for a kolsch, but I can't say I've had one like that so it could be good.

Your biggest limitation is going to be boiling on a stove. Don't mean to be pessimistic, but I don't think you can do it. I heat my sparge water over two burners on my stove and it takes a while. I definitely couldn't get 7 gallons boiling.

I wouldn't worry about the size of your kettle, though. I work exclusively with a 7.5 turkey fryer and with a thick mash, I can mash up to 18lbs of grain in the thing. If I wanted to go super thick like 1qt/lb, I could do more. That's IIPA/barleywine territory.

 

[JonathanG]

looks like a fine recipe... I think you will probably get a little lower efficiency that 72. My experience has shown around 60% for BiaB worst case just add some honey at flame out since it is a kolsch I'd definitely use a fining agent in the secondary (like gelatin) it will guarantee that crisp clear look. good luck!

Do you dunk sparge, or even just pour another gallon of sparge water over the grains? What about squeezing the bag? Or do you simply let it drain back into the kettle by tying it up or putting it in a colander, then not doing anything else?

I plan on squeezing the heck out of it, and may do a small dunk sparge or pour a gallon of 165-170F water over the grains once I pull them. Good idea on the gelatin in the secondary. I'll give that a go as well.

 

[JonathanG]

I do a semi-BIAB style brewday and get about 85% brewhouse efficiency on medium gravity beers. I mash in the bag, squeeze the hell out of it for "first runnings" then do a single batch sparge by dumping all the grains into the sparge water (out of bag). After the sparge is done, I pour the whole thing through the bag and squeeze again (not dunking the bag in the first runnings). If you can squeeze the bag, the grain absorption is really low, and that makes calculating mash and sparge water volumes really easy. If you're concerned about make a beer that is too alchoholic, I would definitely mash higher, at 154 or above. It'll produce a pretty malty beer for a kolsch, but I can't say I've had one like that so it could be good.

Your biggest limitation is going to be boiling on a stove. Don't mean to be pessimistic, but I don't think you can do it. I heat my sparge water over two burners on my stove and it takes a while. I definitely couldn't get 7 gallons boiling.

I wouldn't worry about the size of your kettle, though. I work exclusively with a 7.5 turkey fryer and with a thick mash, I can mash up to 18lbs of grain in the thing. If I wanted to go super thick like 1qt/lb, I could do more. That's IIPA/barleywine territory.

When I did my first batch of beer, I was able to get 5-gallons to a rolling boil, although it did take a while. If I remember correctly, it took around 20-25 minutes to go from 150F-202F? I'll have to look back at my notes, as I took times on everything so I'd have it for reference. Being in Denver, water boils at a bit lower temperature.

I thought I'd give it a go before going and buying an outdoor propane burner, as we are going to be running a gas line outside sometime fairly soon for our grill, so I'd like to get a burner that runs on natural gas, rather than having to deal with propane, which I've grown tired of doing with the grill. The natural gas will be much more economical, and I don't have to worry about running out!

I thought 72% was a decent average to go by, since I plan on at least squeezing the bag, if not doing a dunk/mini sparge of some sort. Maybe it'll be 60%, or maybe it'll be 85%... I guess I'll find out soon. I don't know that I want to mash at 154F or above, as I don't want it overly malty. I wonder if 152F might be a good number to shoot for?

 

[tre9er]

I can boil 6.5 gallons on my stove on a single burner with a very wide pot. It's not a special stove, glass-top in fact. From cold faucet temps (~58*) it took hours to boil. From sparge temp it took under an hour. Takes much longer...hence why I installed two 1500w elements and went electric...but possible nonetheless.

 

[smyrnaquince]

I get 80% efficiency with BIAB doing half batches on the stovetop. I would have suggested assuming 75% for your first BIAB. Do a 10-minute mashout at 170 F to let the sugars flow more easily, then drain and squeeze the heck out of the bag. I never do an additional sparge, just the full-volume BIAB, so I can't guess how much that might help.

I would use whatever mash temp the recipe calls for.

 

[Newbeerguy]

... I guess I'll find out soon. I don't know that I want to mash at 154F or above, as I don't want it overly malty. I wonder if 152F might be a good number to shoot for?

I agree, I would actually shoot for 147-150. Kolsch's are supposed to be clean and crisp with some dryness, mashing at above 150 wouldn't be proper for this style.

 

[JonathanG]

I get 80% efficiency with BIAB doing half batches on the stovetop. I would have suggested assuming 75% for your first BIAB. Do a 10-minute mashout at 170 F to let the sugars flow more easily, then drain and squeeze the heck out of the bag. I never do an additional sparge, just the full-volume BIAB, so I can't guess how much that might help.

I would use whatever mash temp the recipe calls for.

I upped my efficiency to 75% in BeerSmith and it's now showing 5.5% for the ABV. Guess it'll be a high-gravity Kolsch (by Kolsch standards). Probably a good idea to forego any sparging, especially since it's my first AG/BIAB, and see how the chips fall. I will still drain and squeeze the daylights out of the bag though.

Having based my interpretation off of Biermuncher's Orange Kolsch, he mashes at 155F, so by mashing at 152F, it'd still be below his temp. but I guess I'd rather have it drier with a bit higher ABV. I'd rather err on the ABV side, than the malt side, at least at this point, so maybe I'll shoot for 150F.

 

[JonathanG]

I agree, I would actually shoot for 147-150. Kolsch's are supposed to be clean and crisp with some dryness, mashing at above 150 wouldn't be proper for this style.

Yes, I'd rather have it a bit crisper/drier than maltier/sweeter, so 150F sounds good, even if I am over the upper Kolsch limit of 5.1%ABV. This certainly isn't for a competition, and I guess I can lighten the grain bill by a pound or more next time, depending on how my efficiency numbers turn out, to bring the ABV inline.

This should be a good learning experience, no matter what.

If I end up liking this, I may substitute about 0.3-oz of Summit hops where the 0.5-oz. of Cascade is at 10-minutes. I've got the Cascade though, so I might as well use it this time and see what happens, or simply drop the Cascade down to 0.25-oz. then add 0.25-oz. of Summit at 5-minutes, or so.

As a side note, I didn't think to ask where the Cascade I have originated from, but it would appear to maybe be from New Zealand since it's 8.0%AA. Seems a bit high for something domestically grown, right?

 

[smyrnaquince]

I upped my efficiency to 75% in BeerSmith

I'd say that is a reasonable starting point. You'll want to keep track over the next several brews to see what your process gives you. Repeatability means much more than high efficiency.

 

[JonathanG]

I'd say that is a reasonable starting point. You'll want to keep track over the next several brews to see what your process gives you. Repeatability means much more than high efficiency.

I agree completely. I'd rather hit 65% every time, rather than 70%, then 80%, then 75%, etc. Consistency is key! I learned that a long time ago when I used to shoot competitively. As long as your grouping is consistent, you can adjust the sights. Same thing obviously applies here: as long as your processes, efficiencies, etc. are consistent, you can adjust your grain bills, hops, etc.

I tried to take really good notes on my first batch, so that I'd be in the habit of documenting things from the get-go.

 

[JonathanG]

I brewed this up on Monday, 5-7-12, with the help of my brother. I kept everything the same on the ingredient list, except I changed the 2-grams of Grains of Paradise to 3-grams.

I started with 7.0-gallons of water at 156F, which came down to 150F after mashing-in. I covered the kettle with some towels, then added more towels after a bit. After 45-minutes, the temperature had fallen to 146F, so I removed the towels and turned the heat back on, lifting the bag a bit. I let the heat rise to 151F and turned off the heat. The temperature rose way more than I thought to 156F, which began falling immediately. I left the towels off and the temperature was above 150F for 15-minutes. After a 75-minute mash-in, the temperature fell to 147F before I turned the heat back on to mash-out. It took 10-minutes to go from 147F-168F. I killed the flame at 168F, and the temperature rose to 169F briefly. The temperature stayed between 167F-169F for 10-minutes of mash-out. I collected 6.5-gallons of wort, pre-boil, and squeezed the bag pretty thoroughly. My hydrometer reading was 1.0305 @ 146F, corrected to 1.048 using BeerSmith. It took 29-minutes to raise the 6.5-gallons of wort from 145F-202F when boiling started, and rose a couple of minutes later to 204F where it held. I added 8-drops of Fermcap at the beginning of the 60-minute boil, which almost immediately leveled the foam cap, and kept it under control for the entire boil. Additions were as follows:
0.5-oz. Hallertauer (4.6%), 60-min.
0.25-oz. Hallertauer (4.6%), 20-min.
0.25-oz. Tettnanger (4.8%), 20-min.
0.5-oz. Tettnanger (4.8%), 10-min.
0.5-oz. Cascade (8.0%), 10-min.
1.5-oz. Dehydrated Orange Peel, 10-min.
3.0-grams Grains of Paradise, crushed, 10-min.
.25-tsp. SuperMoss, 10-min.
(wort chiller added at 10-minutes)

Hydrometer reading was about 1.051 at 70-degrees, corrected to 1.052. I forgot to measure the post-boil, pre-pitch volume precisely in the kettle. Once racked to the fermentor, there was about 5.5-gallons of wort (hard to tell from the in/out sides of the Better Bottle). Racked wort to the fermentor using ball valve at bottom of the kettle this time, instead of siphoning, like I did with my first batch. Covered the fermentor with sanitized foil and shook it for 4-5-minutes to aerate. I pitched the yeast starter into the fermentor, but forget to hold the stir bar with a magnet, so it's now sitting in the bottom of the fermentor.

I did make a Wyeast 2575 Kolsch II, 1-liter starter (maybe 30-oz. after boiling down) the day before and pitched it when it after about 27-hours on the stir plate. I meant to start it the day before I did, but didn't get around to it. It took somewhere between 3-4 hours before I noticed signs of fermentation in the primary, although I thought I caught a bubble only 2-hours after pitching, but watched for several more minutes without seeing anything.

Yesterday morning, there appeared to be a pretty active krausen, so I added 6-drops of Fermcap into the primary. Within a couple of minutes, the krausen had gone back down to about 1-inch. Within an hour though, it had risen again, so I decided to swap out the airlock for a blowoff tube run into my bucket of Starsan. I'm glad I did! I got home from work last night and the krausen was running through the blowoff tube!

The fermentation temperature has been between 66F-68F, so far. I know that's on the high side for this yeast. I am thinking about possibly trying to cool it off a bit, now that the initial fermentation onslaught is slowing down. I may try the swamp cooler trick, but I need to find a suitable tub first. I think I'll cut a hole in an old t-shirt so I can see the stick-on thermometer on the primary.

I just ran my numbers through the Brewer's Friend Efficiency Calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/ and got the following:

83.17% Efficiency
30.6 PPG

When using the calculator listed above, I had to combine the 2-Row malts together as all-American, as there wasn't an option for Belgian 2-Row, so that's a slight deviance, but it at least gives me an idea.

Does this calculation seem accurate? In my recipe of this in BeerSmith, it's giving me an estimated efficiency of 81.8%, but that's without accurate numbers, some of which I can't figure out how to change to the correct amounts.

 

[Transamguy77]

Do you dunk sparge, or even just pour another gallon of sparge water over the grains? What about squeezing the bag? Or do you simply let it drain back into the kettle by tying it up or putting it in a colander, then not doing anything else?

I plan on squeezing the heck out of it, and may do a small dunk sparge or pour a gallon of 165-170F water over the grains once I pull them. Good idea on the gelatin in the secondary. I'll give that a go as well.

I have a 5 gal pot that i heat up 2 gallons of water to 170 and dunk sparge in that for about 20 mins then squeeze the bag and add that to my BK which is a 7.5 gal turkey fryer, I typicall have 6,5 gal pre boil and boil about 1 gal off. I also have 85% brewhouse effency, I do crush my own grains with a Corona style mill.

 

[JonathanG]

I have a 5 gal pot that i heat up 2 gallons of water to 170 and dunk sparge in that for about 20 mins then squeeze the bag and add that to my BK which is a 7.5 gal turkey fryer, I typicall have 6,5 gal pre boil and boil about 1 gal off. I also have 85% brewhouse effency, I do crush my own grains with a Corona style mill.

Thanks for the information on your technique. My problem is, I don't have anything bigger than about a 2-gallon pot in the kitchen, so I can dunk sparge with about 1-1.25-gallons maybe. I suppose it'd be better than nothing, although if my efficiency numbers above are accurate, I'm not sure I need to increase my efficiency. The dunk-sparging would come in handy for a larger grain bill where I have to decrease my initial water volume to accomodate the grain bill, but then there wouldn't be much water in the second pot for dunking since the grain bill would be so much larger. If that's the case, it might be easier to just rinse the grains with an additional 1-2-gallons of 170-degree water.

I might try brewing a few more batches similarly to what I've done above, then maybe move up to a 15-gallon kettle. At that point, I'll either need to get a higher-output stove (more commercial-level), or move outside. I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade our stove, but it's probably more realistic to just move everything outside for now.

We will see how the beer turns out, but I must say that I'm pretty satisfied with the BIAB process, based on my first attempt at it. And for this batch being my 2nd brew overall, I'd say things are looking pretty good at this point.

 

[JonathanG]

A quick update:

Fermentation has really slowed down, and the temperature has dropped to 64F. I'm getting 1-bubble every 6-seconds from the blowoff tube. I will be curious to see how estery this turns out to be since I am on the higher fermentation temperature side of things. I may still try and get the primary into a water bath this weekend and drop it down a bit, down into the 50s for the next couple of weeks now that initial fermentation has slowed down a bit, then maybe bring it back up into the 60s again so the yeast can clean things up a bit. I'm not necessarily counting on this to finish any time soon, and may just let it rest a bit. I'll probably end up racking to secondary, and then letting it finish out there. Would there be any potential issues with dropping the temperature 8F-10F, then raising it back up again? This strain is good down into the 50s, but I don't want it going dormant on me either. Should I have started off on the cooler side from the beginning, then raised the temperature a bit after a couple of weeks? Just trying to figure out the best approach for future brews, so any information is helpful.

Didn't really think about it at the time, with this being my first all-grain batch, but I did end up boiling with the lid partially on, so now I'm concerned about DMS falling back into the kettle. Too late now. Whether it's bad, or not, I'll consider it a learning lesson for next time and pull the lid off once I get a boil going!

I plan to try and harvest this yeast, and save it for future use. I will probably also try and pitch onto this yeast cake as well, assuming I can time my next batch accordingly. I'm thinking about doing some sort of fruit wheat beer, and figured this would be an excellent yeast strain for that.

 

[JonathanG]

This has now been in the primary for 11-days. There is still active fermentation, which I've been tracking the last few days, but until this morning, I had yet to pull a sample. The hydrometer is currently reading 1.018, so it's got a little ways to go. I hadn't tasted it until today either. All I can say is Wow! This is only my second batch of homebrew, but there seemed to be a huge difference between this and my first batch, which was an extract IPA kit, with steeping grains.

If I can expect this much difference between all-grain and extract, I'll be hard-pressed to go back to any extract recipes. There was a depth of flavor to the grain in today's sample that I just didn't get out of the extract batch. I think this is going to be a solid batch in another month or two, just in time for the heat of summer. I am really curious now how this is going to turn out, and am definitely happy with the direction it seems to be headed. The orange peel was there on the nose, but not overbearing, and the combination of grains of paradise and acidulated malt gave a light bite to the palate. Yes, I'm liking this BIAB idea! Is this the slippery slope leading to the dark side?

 

[JonathanG]

I finally got this bottled last night. The beer cleared-up pretty nicely in the primary in the last week or two! I have the yeast cake in the basement, trying to figure out what I want to do with it. I am toying with the idea of making my first batch of Graff this weekend, and re-pitching the WYeast-3575 from this batch to see what happens.

Final Gravity was 1.011, (1.010 at 70F), with my Starting Gravity at 1.052 (corrected from 1.051 at 70F) so my ABV came out to be 5.38%.

I ended up with about 5.4-gallons at the end of fermentation, and bottled 36-12oz. bottles, as well as 10-22oz. bombers, for a total of 5.093 gallons bottled. I had a couple of ounces left at the end, so I should've done 38-12oz. bottles, and 9-bombers.

I used 144g/5.0oz. of corn sugar to prime it. I toyed with the idea of adding a little more corn sugar to get closer to 2.8-atmospheres (the upper end of recommended pressure for Kolsch via BeerSmith), but thought better of it at the last minute, as I'd rather have slightly less carbonation and save all the bottles.

I am anxiously awaiting their outcome already, and have been really excited the entire way, as all of the samples tasted like they had a lot of potential. I'll post back with updates once it's carbonated.

 

[JonathanG]

After it's all said and done, I think I'm now going to call this a Blonde Ale, rather than a Kolsch, as it fits into the blonde ale guidelines better than it does the Kolsch guidelines. Wherever it fits, I'm anxiously awaiting the results and am looking forward to cracking open the first one in another 10-days.

 

[tre9er]

I have a hard time calling anything a Kolsch without using Kolsch yeast, personally.

 

[JonathanG]

I have a hard time calling anything a Kolsch without using Kolsch yeast, personally.

I definitely see your point regarding the yeast strain. I used the Wyeast Kolsch II 2575 for this batch. With that being said, I don't feel like enough of the other parameters were met to categorically label it a Kolsch, such as OG and ABV. Almost everything about it fits into the broader category of a Blonde Ale though, including OG and ABV.

I've been doing a bit of reading on entering beer competitions, and one of the articles I read suggested that you enter your beer in the category that fits it the best, rather than what you might have originally intended it to be. After reading that article, I tried to step back and analyze this batch based on how the numbers came out, and what that translated to, based on BJCP category guidelines and that lead me to categorizing this as a Blonde Ale, rather than a Kolsch.