Kolsch Malt

[DaleJ]

Decided I'm going to brew a Kolsch next, so I began the recipe formulation with Pils and Munich, etc., and in the middle of the process I found some of the vendors now have a "Kolsch Malt."

Any one have experience with this malt?
How does it taste?
What ratio Kolsch/Pilsner is appropriate?
etc.

 

[Windigstadt]

I have not used it and personally don't see the point of it. According to Eric Warner's Classic Beer Style book on Kölsch, brewers in Cologne use pilsner malt and a little wheat to brew their Kölsch. Doing a quick internet search, it appears that the malt you've found (Global Malt Kölsch Malt, I assume) is a slightly darker Pilsner malt made in Cologne (4.5° L as opposed to 2° L with a normal Pils). Beersmith suggests that if you made a Kölsch with 100% Kölsch malt, it would be just a hair too dark (5.8 SRM, while the BJCP suggests an upper limit of 5). Personally, if I wanted to add a little depth to my Kölsch I would just add 10-15% Munich malt, and that seems consistent with what one brewer said over at the morebeer forum: "I've used it once just to try it. It reminds me of when I use a touch of Munich in a kolsch. A little darker color maybe a touch more malty backbone. It is kilned a little higher than pilsner. Since I keep pils on stock and brew kolsch regularly it is not worth it to me to use it more often."

 

[DaleJ]

Thanks for the info and research.

All seems to confirm my thoughts and suspicions...gonna go with my initial thoughts on pils/wht/munich.

Much appreciated.

 

[steinsato]

Raising the dead, I've brewed kolsch in the past with pils/munich/wheat and won numerous awards with it, but I'm studying the guidlines for it right now and nowhere does it say that munich or vienna is acceptable as an ingredient. In fact I've even read that wheat was only traditionally used by one of the original 20sh kolsch breweries and that brewery is now out of business. Apparently they only use pilsner. It seems that a lot of people just know very little about this style of beer. Maybe the Germans should quit being so damn secretive about their beers I guess, to answer my own question, the BJCP really has no say in how this beer should be brewed...especially in Koln.