How to brew Früh Kölsch from the Brewmaster

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

So I e-mailed Früh brewery in Köln, Germany about how to brew a top notch Kölsch beer, and he answered! Here is his email reply:

Hallo Justin,
excuse me that we don't answer your request about Kölsch earlier. We are lucky you enjoy our product. Früh-Kölsch recipe was grown for a long time - 104 years. The production are a historical development.
Many things are necassary to get a high quality product. Here a lot of things for example:
1. Best raw materials like water, malt, hops and yeast (overfermantation Kölsch-yeast)
2. Sheer wort production - less solid from the bruised grain in the wort - original gravity 11,6 %
2. Take care - less oxygen after the fermentation
3. The ferment temperature range should be 18-20° degC up to end fermentation (ca. 1,8% - 2,0% Eapp)
4. The fermantation will be end in max. 4 days - than you moved it to near 0° degC and take this temparature 10-16 days
5. The yeast you can harvest at the bottom for the next time and than you can storage the beer or you start filtration.

If you take this instruction you will produce a more Kölsch-Bier than before.

Good wishes from Cologne


i.V. Jürgen Duys

Leiter Qualitätssicherung der Cölner Hofbräu Früh KG

Robert-Bosch-Straße 15

50769 Köln


Angaben nach EHUG: Cölner Hofbräu P. Josef Früh KG, 50667 Köln, HRA 396, Amtsgericht Köln

I do have a few questions, that maybe we can answer here. What do you think he means by 11.6% SG? I think he is using Plato right? In addition, what does "ca. 1,8% - 2,0% Eapp" mean?

Früh is one of my favorite Kölsch beers and I thought it was really cool these guys wrote back. If anyone has comments, please chime in.

Prost

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

3. temperature range should be 64-68° degF up to end fermentation

 

[Brewtopia]

2. 11.6° plato tranlates to roughly 1.046

 

[Kaiser]

I do have a few questions, that maybe we can answer here. What do you think he means by 11.6% SG? I think he is using Plato right? In addition, what does "ca. 1,8% - 2,0% Eapp" mean?

11.6% SG means 11.6 orignal extract content. This is roughly equal to the Plato scale and you can see it as 11.6 *P

1,8-2,0 % Eapp (note how German's use kommas as decimal points) means apparent extract and is the final gravity in *P

German brewers don't use *P or SG scales, they work with a weight percentage scale (extract / (extract + water) *100%). But for practical purposes this is pretty close to Brix or Plato.

Früh is one of my favorite Kölsch beers and I thought it was really cool these guys wrote back. If anyone has comments, please chime in.

Nice to hear that you got a reply, but not much new here. Basically the same you would hear during a tour. The fermemtation temp was fairly warm, which was a surprise for me.

What I would like to know are mash schedule, grist, hops, limit of attenuation ... and more. Basically the brewing notes. Those you won't get .

Kai

 

[malkore]

yep, the grain bill, mash schedule, and hop varieties/quantities and timings are really what's going to distinguish this Kolsch from another.

 

[jtkratzer]

Anyone have anything new on this? Früh is one of my favorites of the bigger Kölsch breweries. I like Reissdorf, and have a recipe for it in Beer Captured, but I'd love to find something for Früh.

 

[Calmbrews]

Will keeping the beer at 0deg for 14 days be ok if i was to bulk prime?

will the yeast end up dropping out and only be good for kegging?

 

[tre9er]

I am pretty sure you won't lose all of the yeast unless you filter. Think of lagers...they age for a very long time at very cold temperatures and people are still able to bottle them.

 

[Bulls Beers]

So has anybody had any luck brewing a good example of a Fruh?? I haven't made a Kolsch in a while and It's gonna be my next brew day.

 

[Bigfly]

I'd be curious too.

 

[Montdawg]

So has anybody had any luck brewing a good example of a Fruh?? I haven't made a Kolsch in a while and It's gonna be my next brew day.

I know this is old thread but i was at the früh shop last week and saw that they use pilsner malt and carramalt, no idea of percentages (think about 3% carramalt as a guess). 3 hop additions of bitter, bitter/aroma, and aroma and no idea what hops are used. Hope this helps. I plan to make some when i get back to Australia. By the way the früh kölsch there was increfible!