Best grain bill for a authentic Kolsch

[Roxhambrewshed]

I’m gonna’ have to try OK-II on my next Kolsch. I used the Dieter since reviews said it cleared much better than (and faster) other Kolsch yeast like WLP-029. That was what I found, especially with a dose of Biofine.

My default for Kolsch hops are Tett and Mittelfruh. I also like Pearle, but Saaz was the closest I could find most ‘noble’ in an oil or distilled format.

My favorite yeast for the style (and for many other ales) is Wyeast 1007. Ferment at 58 - 62f and you will get a very clean and crisp beer.

 

[bwible]

I want someone to please explain to me where the addition of wheat came from for Kolsch? Did it come from one of those horribly out of date brewing series books from the 80s and 90s? And so everyone took that as truth and kept it going?
Because it doesn't seem likely to me that wheat is a common addition to light beer styles in Germany. Kolsch is essentially a helles brewed with ale yeast.

BJCP, so you’re not wrong.

Characteristic Ingredients: Traditional German hops (Hallertau, Tettnang, Spalt or Hersbrucker). German Pils or pale malt. Attenuative, clean ale yeast. Up to 20% wheat malt may be used, but this is quite rare in authentic versions. Current commercial practice is to ferment warm, cold condition for a short period of time, and serve young.

So I had a keg kick and I want to brew something else to put on. I have an expired pack of Lallemand Koln, the date says 2021. I know these usually work after they’re expired, but what do you think - is 4 years pushing it? Well, probably 3+ anyway. I made a starter with it. If it comes up then tomorrow I’m going to re-visit my Kolsch recipe and change it up.

I understand this yeast is gone - not being produced anymore. Figured I’ll at least try instead of just throwing it away.

I have Montana MCM Pils - this is my
second sack and I really like it. Also nice that I can say I’m buying something made in USA. I have Spalt hops I’m going to use.

 

[balrog]

I have an expired pack of Lallemand Koln, the date says 2021. I know these usually work after they’re expired, but what do you think - is 4 years pushing it? Well, probably 3+ anyway. I made a starter with it. If it comes up then tomorrow I’m going to re-visit my Kolsch recipe and change it up.

I've used Lallemand Koln 3 times, two in hoppy things and 1 in a Spotted Cow clone (kolsch-isch thing).
The two hoppy pales were 94% MO 6% C10, both 150F mash; the other was 2row, pils, corn, and smattering munich, C20, flaked barley, 152F mash. I made starters for all, Gen 1, 2 & 3, from 1 packet, overbuild then new starter. Ferment at 61F. They all attenuated quite a bit, 1.048-1.009, 1.050-1.008, 1.052-1.008, or 81% 84% 85%. None of them cleared appreciably. Yeast was up to two yr old, kept in "freezer" of small dorm fridge, and worked fine. Because it did not clear "quickly" I've never gone back to it, preferring WY1007 for most things, and the now-extinct Giga-021 for the soft white wine Kolsch flavor profile for a Kolsch.

In short, if you're making a starter, you should be fine for yeast age, expect attenuation, and don't expect rapid/extensive clearing.

 

[Broothru]

BJCP, so you’re not wrong.

Characteristic Ingredients: Traditional German hops (Hallertau, Tettnang, Spalt or Hersbrucker). German Pils or pale malt. Attenuative, clean ale yeast. Up to 20% wheat malt may be used, but this is quite rare in authentic versions. Current commercial practice is to ferment warm, cold condition for a short period of time, and serve young.

So I had a keg kick and I want to brew something else to put on. I have an expired pack of Lallemand Koln, the date says 2021. I know these usually work after they’re expired, but what do you think - is 4 years pushing it? Well, probably 3+ anyway. I made a starter with it. If it comes up then tomorrow I’m going to re-visit my Kolsch recipe and change it up.

I understand this yeast is gone - not being produced anymore. Figured I’ll at least try instead of just throwing it away.

I have Montana MCM Pils - this is my
second sack and I really like it. Also nice that I can say I’m buying something made in USA. I have Spalt hops I’m going to use.

Lallemand Koln is now officially a thing of the past. Too bad, because it actually was a nice Kolsch yeast. Cali Yeast brand markets a dry Kolsch strain (maybe picked up the abandoned Lallemand product; supposedly Lallemand is producing the new line of White Labs' dry yeasts), but the Cali Kolsch only comes in 1kg (?) bricks and cost $200ish. You'd really have to like Kolsch to invest in that!

When it comes to yeast, anything's possible. A couple of weeks ago I came across a pack of OYL Bayern liquid yeast, lost in the dark corners of my beer fridge. It was one of the first of the DKO series of yeasts that Omega Labs produced, and this one was one of the 'originals', pushing close to 2 years since date of manufacture. I was culturing and propagating a bunch of other yeasts at the time and figured "What the heck..." I started it near the end of January on 200ml of 1.020SG starter wort. It's now on the second of two 1.040SG step ups, doing remarkably well.

It's amazing how resilient yeast can be. The shelf life of dry yeast is measured in years when kept refrigerated, maybe 4 or 5 years IIRC. But its true viability is likely quite a bit longer. Maybe try rehydrating it with a 'gentle' viability wort to see if it rises from the (near) dead?

 

[bwible]

Extra credit : My wife has been wanting a flavored wheat beer, like cherry wheat or peach wheat. It looks lke Kolsch yeast is a good option for that. If you look on Wyeast’s site under 2565 and styles they recommend they list American Wheat beer. So that might be my next brew now. I have wheat dme on hand and I have some Apex cherry, apricot, and orange flavors all left from other projects (mead). Easy extract brew day.

 

[Broothru]

Update on my search for WLP-4061 "Rhine Kolsch". Here's the reply I just got from White Labs' Yeastman folks:

"Apologies for the delay as I was checking with our Planning team about the restock of the WLP4061. We don't have a restock planned for 2025 during the quarterly Vault/Cellar release at this time. We can do a special prop however, the minimum order quantity is 25 x units. I will forward your request for the Rhine Kolsch to the management team for potential inclusion into the 2026 seasonal run."

So basically it's not on their radar (for home brewers at least) any time in the next two years. <But> They'll do a special propagation if they receive an order for 25 or more. I interpret this to mean 'one order for 25' rather than '25 orders for one', but who knows? I obtained 2 PurePitch sachets in December and was really impressed with the yeast both from a performance standpoint as well as aromatics. If you're interested in brewing a Kolsch anytime in the near future, I'd encourage you to shoot off an email to Customer Service at White Labs to at least show that there's an interest and demand for this product. Maybe talk it up at your next club meeting, or with your LHBS person and encourage them to give it a test order of 25 units. Compared to the venerable WLP-029, they're not even in the same universe, even though both seem to take forever to settle and clear.

From my limited experience with this yeast (two propagations) I think its superior to Wyeast 2565 (can't get any 2575-PC), as well as just about any other Kolsch style yeast I've been able to get my hands on. For this season at least I'll be mostly going with this Rhine Kolsch and W2565, not only for Kolsch but also any warm lager/cold ale that finds it's way to the top of my To Brew list.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Extra credit : My wife has been wanting a flavored wheat beer, like cherry wheat or peach wheat. It looks lke Kolsch yeast is a good option for that. If you look on Wyeast’s site under 2565 and styles they recommend they list American Wheat beer. So that might be my next brew now. I have wheat dme on hand and I have some Apex cherry, apricot, and orange flavors all left from other projects (mead). Easy extract brew day.

I use real fruit in a couple styles and wheat is my favorite. I have used the fruit extracts too. There's some local orchards I will get cherries, tart or sweet and raspberry. The fruit is cleaned and frozen, cherries are pitted.

Bonus on your wife wanting a wheat with fruit. All my ideas come from me.

 

[Broothru]

Extra credit : My wife has been wanting a flavored wheat beer, like cherry wheat or peach wheat. It looks lke Kolsch yeast is a good option for that. If you look on Wyeast’s site under 2565 and styles they recommend they list American Wheat beer. So that might be my next brew now. I have wheat dme on hand and I have some Apex cherry, apricot, and orange flavors all left from other projects (mead). Easy extract brew day.

A few years ago SWMBO'd and I were traveling in the RV in Page, Arizona, and had dinner at a local restaurant/brew pub. I was looking for a repeat performance of a beer we'd had while visiting the Grand Tetons called Trout Slayer. They didn't have it, but the bartender recommended their local offering of a Blood Orange Wheat beer. I'm usually not big on fruited beers, but I took a chance on this one and it really blew me away. I tried to replicate it, though my attempt fell well short of the mark.

Your idea sparked an idea that might work for a partial mash. Steep a half pound of pils or 2-row and a handful of Munich or Vienna in with your Wheat DME, hop it with some Liberty, flavor gently with Orange, ferment low 60sF with a Kolsch yeast. Makin' my mouth water!

 

[bwible]

A few years ago SWMBO'd and I were traveling in the RV in Page, Arizona, and had dinner at a local restaurant/brew pub. I was looking for a repeat performance of a beer we'd had while visiting the Grand Tetons called Trout Slayer. They didn't have it, but the bartender recommended their local offering of a Blood Orange Wheat beer. I'm usually not big on fruited beers, but I took a chance on this one and it really blew me away. I tried to replicate it, though my attempt fell well short of the mark.

Your idea sparked an idea that might work for a partial mash. Steep a half pound of pils or 2-row and a handful of Munich or Vienna in with your Wheat DME, hop it with some Liberty, flavor gently with Orange, ferment low 60sF with a Kolsch yeast. Makin' my mouth water!

Apex makes blood orange flavor and thats actually the one I have.

 

[Broothru]

Apex makes blood orange flavor and thats actually the one I have.

Perfect! Looks like you're just up the road from me in PA. Let me know when the keg gets tapped.

 

[bwible]

I use real fruit in a couple styles and wheat is my favorite. I have used the fruit extracts too. There's some local orchards I will get cherries, tart or sweet and raspberry. The fruit is cleaned and frozen, cherries are pitted.

Bonus on your wife wanting a wheat with fruit. All my ideas come from me.

I’ve tried real fruit a few times in beers and meads. I have an apricot mead I used real apricots. It has fruit bits in all the bottles, they were impossible to get rid of. And I never got the fruit flavor. It serms like the yeast just eat all the fruit sugars and don’t leave anything.

I found Apex, they make hundreds of flavors specifically for the alcoholic beverage industry. Their apricot flavor was much better in my mead than when I used real fruit. I have used a bunch of their flavors and yeah there were one or two I was disappointed with. But for the most part I have had good results with their stuff. I made a beer for this past Christmas. It was an imperial stout with candy cane and peppermint bark flavors. It was great.

 

[balrog]

A few years ago SWMBO'd and I were traveling in the RV in Page, Arizona, and had dinner at a local restaurant/brew pub. I was looking for a repeat performance of a beer we'd had while visiting the Grand Tetons called Trout Slayer. They didn't have it, but the bartender recommended their local offering of a Blood Orange Wheat beer. I'm usually not big on fruited beers, but I took a chance on this one and it really blew me away. I tried to replicate it, though my attempt fell well short of the mark.

Your idea sparked an idea that might work for a partial mash. Steep a half pound of pils or 2-row and a handful of Munich or Vienna in with your Wheat DME, hop it with some Liberty, flavor gently with Orange, ferment low 60sF with a Kolsch yeast. Makin' my mouth water!

Jacks Abby in Frammingham makes a great Blood Orange Radler.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Err chaps - kolsch?

Going back vaguely on topic, I see WLP003 is out of the vault at the moment.

Update on my search for WLP-4061 "Rhine Kolsch". ... If you're interested in brewing a Kolsch anytime in the near future, I'd encourage you to shoot off an email to Customer Service at White Labs to at least show that there's an interest and demand for this product. Maybe talk it up at your next club meeting, or with your LHBS person and encourage them to give it a test order of 25 units.

Given that the WLP4xxxx series are Yeast Bay strains manufactured by White Labs, it may be worth having a moan at Yeast Bay as well?

Compared to the venerable WLP-029, they're not even in the same universe, even though both seem to take forever to settle and clear.

Bit of extra calcium might help?

 

[Broothru]

Err chaps - kolsch?

Going back vaguely on topic, I see WLP003 is out of the vault at the moment.


Given that the WLP4xxxx series are Yeast Bay strains manufactured by White Labs, it may be worth having a moan at Yeast Bay as well?

Bit of extra calcium might help?

Yeast Bay has really stepped back from the Home Brew market, and their most popular yeasts are being marketed and sold by White Labs. I already looked into Yeast Bay, and got nowhere. They might be going the way of East Coast Yeast.

Re: calcium; probably not. I add calcium to reach at least 50 ppm for lighter beers and 100 ppm for hoppier or darker styles, with special attention when using distilled or RO. For Kolsch, around 60~70 ppm.

 

[mschoeffler]

Anyone try Isaria? Its profile looks really close to the Cologne malt. I’m gonna do 100% Isaria in April.

 

[mrcastellino]

Anyone try Isaria? Its profile looks really close to the Cologne malt. I’m gonna do 100% Isaria in April.

Yes I have done an Isaria SMASH lager (a country helles beer of sorts). Its a unique and flavorful malt but its too dark at 100% for an authentic kolsch. You could cut it with a pils base malt though to add more malt depth. Treat it like Vienna malt.

 

[Broothru]

Yes I have done an Isaria SMASH lager (a country helles beer of sorts). Its a unique and flavorful malt but its too dark at 100% for an authentic kolsch. You could cut it with a pils base malt though to add more malt depth. Treat it like Vienna malt.

I remember seeing the Isaria advertised (and actually available for order) while searching for sources for the grains I was looking for. It looked interesting as worth trying, but then actually found the Northern German pils I was looking for. A bit surprised to hear that it might be on the ‘dark’ side, maybe best suited for a Festbier or Dortmunder type beer?

 

[mrcastellino]

I remember seeing the Isaria advertised (and actually available for order) while searching for sources for the grains I was looking for. It looked interesting as worth trying, but then actually found the Northern German pils I was looking for. A bit surprised to hear that it might be on the ‘dark’ side, maybe best suited for a Festbier or Dortmunder type beer?

Yes it would certainly work in those styles to supplement or replace to a certain degree vienna and/or munich malts as part of layering your malt flavors . Isiaria actually has a lovibond of 3.1-3.8 so it is certainly a darker pale malt. Here is the 100% Isaria hydro sample to give you an idea of the color.

 

[mschoeffler]

I use it plus some munich 2 for my festbier, and it’s great. I will have some left over to use with a kolsch and helles. The darker color doesn’t bother me.