Kölsch Bee Cave Brewery Kölsch

[rossi46]

Anybody have problems with this being cloudy??

yep, the kolsch yeast take a few weeks of lagering to clear, i like to leave it alone in the keezer for a month before drinking.

 

[-BB-]

Should I lager this or no? I have the equipment but am lacking the patience. Also noob question... How will that effect my ability to carb in the bottle?

 

[YeastieBoys]

Bottle condition like you normally would, wait until they are carbonated, then lager in the bottle for two months. It will make a difference.
If you're too impatient, brew another batch of something and another batch of something else to keep your mind off of the kolsch.
Just my two cents.


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[browder]

Just finished boiling my 7th batch of this--have two cans in the fridge now everybody really likes this beer a lot-also a can of Edworts Heffe on tap--Thanks for all the good recipes Ed!

 

[Blackcurrant]

When I put the recipe details into Brewer's Friend, it comes up with 30 IBUs. In Beer Engine I get 29 IBUs. Should I shoot for 36 IBUs as per the original recipe and change the stated hop quantities, or should I stick to the stated hop quantities (with some adjustment for different AA levels)? Something doesn't add up.

 

[Mythos13]

Brewed this last nite. Hit 1.056 post boil (adjusted for temp). Used a yeast starter from wyeast kolsch. 5 hours into it and it was chugging away. Had to remove airlock and use tube since the pressure pushed the stopper up. Plugged air lock. Took a sample from thief and it's very good. Can't wait till this one's on tap. I did the 90 min boil and ended up with 5.3 gallons. I'll post pics when I keg it. Slainte

 

[Keith_O]

Sounds like another winner from EdWort!
Really need to get down to Bee caves and meet you! lol

 

[browder]

Brewed this last nite. Hit 1.056 post boil (adjusted for temp). Used a yeast starter from wyeast kolsch. 5 hours into it and it was chugging away. Had to remove airlock and use tube since the pressure pushed the stopper up. Plugged air lock. Took a sample from thief and it's very good. Can't wait till this one's on tap. I did the 90 min boil and ended up with 5.3 gallons. I'll post pics when I keg it. Slainte

I've had the same thing happen with the Kolsh yeast quite a few times--last batch I run a line into a growler--wait till you open the bucket
Make sure to harvest some yeast--I've got 7 batches off one smack pack I'm doin one more batch and I'll have to give this Kolsh a break for awhile

 

[Mythos13]

I've had the same thing happen with the Kolsh yeast quite a few times--last batch I run a line into a growler--wait till you open the bucket
Make sure to harvest some yeast--I've got 7 batches off one smack pack I'm doin one more batch and I'll have to give this Kolsh a break for awhile

Roger that. I did this one in a glass carboy this time since my son thought my fermentation bucket would be good to put beach sand in. At least I didn't have anything fermenting in it.

 

[Yellowirenut]

In no way is this a bookmark...nope..not interested at all in the recipe...

My local HBS is opening a MUCH larger store on July first. I will be walking in there will this recipe in mind and written down.

 

[ClemTiger0408]

So I brewed this today as a number of firsts.

1. First time using water from my hose. I bought a water-safe hose and a whole house filter and I did about a 50/50 blend of RO water from the grocery and my home's garden faucet.
2. First time using pH stabilizer. I've had problems getting mash consistency using only RO water, so I used this stuff to try to balance out.
3. First time using hop bags during the boil instead of simply dumping hop pellets into the wort during the boil.

And of course, there always comes the problems.

1. Went to the restroom during the boil and came back to discover the flame had blown out on my burner. Wasn't sure how long it had been out for but it took longer than I anticipated to get back to boil.
2. When doing the final hop addition, I had trouble pouring the hops into the bag and dumped about 25% of the last addition on the ground. Didn't want to risk infection with only 5 minutes left in the boil so just threw them out.

3. This one I don't understand. I nailed my pre-boil gravity. It was around 78% efficiency which is really good for me. However, my OG after boil and chill was only 1.046. And if anything I came out low on my final volume. About 5.1 gallons as opposed to 5.5. No idea how this could happen! I know that's not a lot of points so I'm not too worried about this specific beer, but I'd like to know how to avoid that in the future.

So I'm excited about the final product but bummed about the mistakes I made, which I've never made before.

 

[Mythos13]

Just took my first pull of the keg. Cold crashed for over 8 days due to family trip. Great tasting beer. I have a real spicy note after taste on this. For those that brewed this before...is this common on the kolsch?

 

[Mythos13]

Here's a pic of the second pint.

 

[cbehr]

For some reason my last few BIAB batches have turned out less than stellar including this which I have made three times before successfully.

I haven't brewed in 8 months and want to try again with this recipe. Is the extract version very similar to the all grain being that this is a fairly simple lighter beer?

 

[agentindemand]

Missed my mash temps big time. At mash out it was 143f. Ouch. I guess it will be even drier than expected.

 

[YeastieBoys]

Missed my mash temps big time. At mash out it was 143f. Ouch. I guess it will be even drier than expected.

I guess you're not in demand any longer.

 

[agentindemand]

I guess you're not in demand any longer.

I'm pretty sure a 5 gallon batch of home brew won't change that.

 

[ChefDougAU]

I opened my first attempt a couple of days ago. I like it a lot.

 

[zamo27]

If I use dark wheat is that sacrilege? Not so dark but darkish?!


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[RQDanno]

I saw this asked a few times but don't know if it was answered... The question was whether or not it was OK to use plain 2-row, rather than pilsner. I did this two weeks back. Just kegged it today and the brew tastes great. Don't have any comparison to using pilsner as I haven't tried that way yet. However, you can certainly get a damn fine beer by substituting 2-row for pilsner in the original recipe!

 

[sunshine22]

EdWort, i figured you'd be good to ask since you have experience with this yeast. I wanted to try brewing a simple recipe i made using wlp 029 yeast. I was thinking of going with a slightly hoppy pilsnerish beer with a kolsch yeast:

9lbs german pils malt
3lbs german vienna
.75lbs carapils

1.5oz saaz @ 60
1.5oz saaz @ 15
.5oz saaz @0

Mash at 150 for 90min
Wlp029 with a starter



My question pertains to the yeast, how do you make a starter for this yeast? I planned to ferment in my carboy in a rubbermaid bucket filled with cold water so probably around 58nto 60*F

 

[Malty_Dog]

Hard to believe I've gone this long without checking this recipe. Looks like a must-brew. Could be the crowd pleaser for the BMC crowd I'm looking for.

 

[MelsBigOleBrew]

Hi Ed,

I'm new at this and jumped right into all-grain brewing. I saw this recipe and the positive feedback, and I love lagers so I want to do this one first. I have a couple of questions I hope you would answer:

Are you batch sparging for this recipe? If not, I understand that I need to adjust the grain bill in order to get the efficiency that the recipe calls for. What say you on this topic?

and

the most important question: How much water do I need to use with a batch sparge to get to the 5.5 gallons post boil? I tried to kind of figure all this out on Beer Smith, and I think I could get it close, but I figure it's best to get it right from the horse's mouth.

 

[JUST_BREW_IT]

putting this one on the list

 

[zazzzler]

I brewed the original recipe on 2/28/2015. This is my second all grain brew and I was pretty excited to give it a shot.

Mashed at 151 for 60 minutes, I fly sparged at got 7 gallons for pre-boil volume. After the 90 minute boil, I got 5 gallons (4.5 in the fermenter).

I took a reading before pitching the yeast, my OG was 1043. Going to check March 10 and cold crash. Will post an update.

Thanks EdWort!

 

[browder]

Boiled a batch of this yesterday we like this a lot at our house been almost a year since the last batch--I'll be doing a few more as soon as I can harvest some yeast---

 

[rockytoptim]

So i went to LHBS to get some pils and they were out but had Kolsch malt. So i bought that instead. Do I still need 90 minute boil.

 

[mlstarbuck]

So I snapped a two year hiatus from brewing today and gave this one a shot. To say my all grain skills are rusty is an understatement... Ended up with almost 6 gallons at 1040 OG (I'm kicking myself for not bumping up the grains more from Ed's recipe). I bumped both up proportionally by a total of 0.5 lbs, but should have bumped up the grain even more.

I kicked around the idea of adding some light DME to get it closer to 1.052. I pitched about two hours ago. The more I think about it, I think I'll just let it ride. Should finish at around 4.1 ABV. I'm thinking it will be hoppier than the original recipe, not quite as malty, and might be thinner bodied. Might resemble a german pilsner even more than Ed's recipe?

Thoughts?

 

[rossi46]

Congratulations on getting back to brewing. Anyways, you will end up with beer. I did this recipe again for the 100th time. I change it all the time. I dropped it down to a og of 1.043, it's cold crashing right now, and will keg in the next day or two. I'll let you know how it turns out, but I'm sure yours will be just fine.

 

[browder]

Brewed this again Friday and have it on tap--good recipe

 

[Moose_MI]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429300269.017170.jpg

My first kolsch....followed recipe and very happy. Great recipe....I will not change a thing. It's far far far from clear....but only 2 weeks since bottling and my clarity effort on this batch was mediocre at best.....great beer! If u care about clarity per the style you will need to work at it a bit.

 

[browder]

Give it some time mine is almost always clear with bright white head--this recipe hardly ever last's more a couple days when I hook up a keg--need to brew a couple batches back to back around this nieghborhood

 

[Giagie]

Ok so I used the WLP029 and only saw/ heard it bubbling for 18 hours. Should I pitch some more yeast ? After brewing I did my best to get all of the yeast out of the tube but left behind a small chunk and I'm wondering if this has had an effect on the fermentation.

 

[rossi46]

If it was a 2 gallon batch, you will be ok. If it was 5 gallons you really should have made a starter.
There could be a small leak in you fermentation vessel letting co2 escape easier than the air lock. Check the gravity, I'm sure your fine. How long has it been ?

 

[Giagie]

Thx Rossi46. The first day after putting the wort in the bucket we could see the pressure building. But it only bubbled for around 18 hours. Now I see there is no pressure in the bucket. We did use liquid yeast but didn't do a starter. We never do a starter. Is it safe to add more yeast to the wort so there is enough fermentation or will that ruin things?

 

[rossi46]

You could add more, but fermentation may be over. Check your gravity.

 

[monkeyman1000]

Well tomorrow will be 11 days in primary and my sample tonight was 1.010 and tasty. My question is this. Since I carbonate with priming sugar in the keg, should I cold crash it for 3-4 days then transfer to another keg with priming sugar and let carb at room temp for 2 weeks OR transfer tomorrow to another keg with priming sugar, let carb for 2 weeks at room temp then cold crash and serve? Sorry if this has already been covered but this thread is a long one ( That's what she said ).

 

[rossi46]

I would cold crash because it is a low foc yeast, so drop as much as you can

 

[mlstarbuck]

Congratulations on getting back to brewing. Anyways, you will end up with beer. I did this recipe again for the 100th time. I change it all the time. I dropped it down to a og of 1.043, it's cold crashing right now, and will keg in the next day or two. I'll let you know how it turns out, but I'm sure yours will be just fine.

It did turn out fine, thanks! Nice warm weather beer.

 

[rossi46]

Good, mine turned out great also. I'm doing it again Friday, going to drop the gravity again in hopes of a 4% beer.