Brewing a Kolsch tomorrow. Any advice?

[njohnsoncs]

I'm brewing a 5 gallon partial mash BIAB Kolsch tomorrow. I'm using Wyeast 2565 which I currently have as a starter cold crashing in my fridge. The recipe consists of the following.

- 3 lbs. Pilsner Malt Extract
- 3 lbs. German Pilsner Malt
- 1 lb. German Vienna Malt
- 4 oz. Carafoam
- 1.5 oz. German Hallertau (Bittering)
- 1 oz. Hersbrucker (Flavor)

I'm planning on mashing with 2 gallons of water at 158 F for 60 minutes then sparge with 1.5-2 gallons of water at 168 F. The boil will last for 60 minutes with the schedule

At 60 minutes remaining: add 1.5 oz. German Hallertau
At 30 minutes remaining: add 1 oz. Hersbrucker
At 15 minutes remaining: add extract and whirlfloc tablet

I've never brewed a Kolsch before so does anyone have general tips? I'm going to try to ferment it at 60 F with a swamp cooler for at least a week if not 2 and then see where things are.

Let me know what you think.

 

[rhys333]

Recipe looks good, but I might go with a 60 and 15 minute addition to optimize hop usage and flavor. Traditionally, it's just pils and maybe a bit of Vienna or wheat, but that carafoam should help improve head retention for you. Kolsch is pretty dry, so you might consider going with a low 148-150F mash instead of a full bodied 158F.

It's a tough time of year to brew kolsch if you don't have temperature control. If you're using Wyeast 2565, it's can be a bit finicky too and can take 4-5 weeks to complete. Ordinarily you can set it and forget it in a cool basement, but with summer heat you could be fighting higher temps for a while..

 

[njohnsoncs]

Recipe looks good, but I might go with a 60 and 15 minute addition to optimize hop usage and flavor. Traditionally, it's just pils and maybe a bit of Vienna or wheat, but that carafoam should help improve head retention for you. Kolsch is pretty dry, so you might consider going with a low 148-150F mash instead of a full bodied 158F.

It's a tough time of year to brew kolsch if you don't have temperature control. If you're using Wyeast 2565, it's can be a bit finicky too and can take 4-5 weeks to complete. Ordinarily you can set it and forget it in a cool basement, but with summer heat you could be fighting higher temps for a while..

So you're suggesting adding the 1 oz. Hersbrucker at 15 minutes rather than 30? I like the idea of mashing at 148-150 F. I will probably try that.

My apartment has AC so it is always a comfortable 70 F so the summer heat won't affect things.

 

[rhys333]

So you're suggesting adding the 1 oz. Hersbrucker at 15 minutes rather than 30? I like the idea of mashing at 148-150 F. I will probably try that.

My apartment has AC so it is always a comfortable 70 F so the summer heat won't affect things.

Yep, as long as you can get the IBUs to balance out where you want them. If its a bit low, you can move a small portion of that hersbrucker back to 60.

 

[NSMikeD]

nice

that recipe looks like the Lloyds Krispy Kolsch (BIAB) on BeerSmith I brewed (all grain) in the Spring, For dry crisp he recommends mashing at 145° , ferment at 57° or 65 for fruitier ale.

I was able to keep mine 55°-65° over two weeks outside with a very nice string of steady temps . I used dry yeast, nottingham, which did well

Splitting hairs, Lloyds recipe calls for hopping at 60 and 20, fwiw.

This beer is about celebrating subtle balance of malt and noble hops. My neighbors sampled and even the BMC drinkers loved it.

Enjoy. I really liked this recipe (albeit that you are using Hersbrucker where Lloyds is all hallertau) and was on craigslist looking at mini fridge today so I can brew it again.

 

[njohnsoncs]

Little update. I brewed this yesterday. Mashed at 149 F as suggested by rhys333 and ended with a preboil gravity of 1.030 which gives ~56% efficiency which is pretty bad. I'm not sure what happened, my temperature was between 145-149 for the entire hour (it slowly decreased). I wonder if I should have mashed longer than an hour...

Oh well, the DME helped and I topped off with water to get about 4.5 gallons in the fermenter. I also used a hop bag during the boil so that I could remove the hop debris before pouring the wort into the fermenter. I was expecting about 0.25 gallon loss from that so I'm about 0.25 gallons short probably due to the bad efficiency.

On the flip side, the starter I made seemed to have worked really well as the airlock showed activity almost immediately and has not stopped. I started fermenting at 70 F and have steadily brought the temp down to 58 F. Will I get any off/fruity flavors from fermenting for < 12 hours at the higher temperature?

Thanks for the input!

 

[TungstenBeer]

On the flip side, the starter I made seemed to have worked really well as the airlock showed activity almost immediately and has not stopped. I started fermenting at 70 F and have steadily brought the temp down to 58 F. Will I get any off/fruity flavors from fermenting for < 12 hours at the higher temperature?

Thanks for the input!

I think you may get some. Usually the bulk of the esters produced by yeast happy early on in the fermentation cycle. This is also part of the reason why a lot of people might raise their ferm temperature starting 48 hours or so after pitching yeast (the other main reason being fuller attenuation).

But! You may not get any. Or you may get some and like them.