My second brew: Kolsch from Brewers Best

[bigken462]

After debating a few days on whether to spend the extra funds or not on another batch, I listened to the irresponsible voice in my head and headed to the LHBS to buy a new kit. Unlike my first brew, this one went much smoother.

Since my first brew was done, I was able to add several utensils to my equipment list. Stainless spoons, stir paddles, immersion chiller, wort strainer, sanitization tray and one brew day’s worth of experience more than the last time. Lol

So the first thing I did was fire the oven up and get a pizza cooking. Gotta eat ya know. Lol. Then I unboxed everything and made sure all was good. Which it was.

I got the water up to temp and started to steep the grains. All went well there. Brought the water up to a soft boil and poured the LME in and seen quickly that my stove was going to have a hard time getting this to a boil without a lid. During my last batch, I boiled with the lid on and was advised I might need to leave it off.

Anyway, finally, I decided to put the lid on and leave it partially open or I was never going to get a rolling boil. Eventually it was time to add 1 oz of Fuggle hops. I elected this time to use my left over muslin bag from the first batch. At 40 minutes came the DME. This would be the first time I have used DME and to prepare for a quick addition of this, I had previously opened up the DME and poured them both into a bowl. I think the steam and moisture in the kitchen may have absorbed into the powder because it seemed to be very clumpy before I could even pour it into the pot. On top of that, I was holding the bowl in the line of the steam, which was only causing more of a mess. Next time, I’ll just cut the dang bags and pour them in. lol Shortly later was the Tettnag hops and then to the sink.

At 15 minutes till the end of the boil, I added the IC to the pot to sterilize. I am wondering if just soaking this in the starsan would not be just as good because it killed my boil that I had going.

Without a doubt, having this small tray helped a ton with keeping my tools clean and kitchen cleaner. Very much worth the 4 bucks.

Eventually it got time to chill the wort down. This time I had 3 gallons of distilled water in the freezer getting cold to help with the process.

I filled the bucket up and got the temperature to settle at about 68 degrees and pitched the yeast.

There are a few things today that I will fix for next time. First off, my paint strainer fell into the bucket. Murphy got me this time, but this will be the last time. I’ll have a fix for that soon.

Lastly, I was torn on which set of instructions to follow regarding pitching the yeast. The instructions with the kit specifically states to sprinkle on top. However, the instructions on the yeast stated to rehydrate. Which gives? I elected to do what I seen on some previous videos for this kit. I gave the wort a good hard stir, then sprinkled the yeast on top to give it a good distribution. Sealed the bucket up and placed it in the pantry.

All in all, I think today’s brewing session was much easier than the first one. The jury is out on moving this to a secondary next week since I was able to keep much of the hops strained out. The wort went in the bucket looking pretty nice and clean. I’m kinda leaning on just leaving it alone for 4-5 weeks and seeing what happens.

Kenny T

 

[chrisgood1]

Nice work. More tools tend to help smooth the kinks out. As far as the yeast goes depending who you ask you will get both answers. I like to rehydrate mine after I listened to a podcast about yeast counts in rehydrated vs non-rehydrated and they found rehydrating to be better. To each is own so do what works for you. Cheers.

 

[bigken462]

Yeah, I've read so much on here and could go either way on the advice. I think there is as much division on that as is the racking to a secondary.

My only take from this all is this. If the instructions state to do something that may differ from something used inside their kit, at least they could add a line or two stating why it's better to do something as listed.

I dunno. As a new guy on the block brewing, I felt like I needed to trust the instructions. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[bigken462]

Bottling day is here. Thanks guys for all the help with the first two brews. Here is it the night before Thanksgiving when most people are busy stuffing turkeys for tomorrows fest and I'm bottling beer.

 

[Hackwood]

I like that bottling pic. Not the most room in a kitchen, but looks very organized.

 

[berrywise]

Bottling day is here. Thanks guys for all the help with the first two brews. Here is it the night before Thanksgiving when most people are busy stuffing turkeys for tomorrows fest and I'm bottling beer.

Got a dishwasher somewhere in there? One trick I've learned is open your dishwasher and then put your bottling bucket directly above the door, have your bottling wand butt right up against the spigot on your bucket. Fill your bottles above the dishwasher door and anything that drips falls on the door. When bottling is done just shut the door and your cleanup for that area is taken care of.

 

[bigken462]

Yeah, it can get kinda cramped. But with a lil patience, it went pretty smooth. The first batch I used the racking cane as I wanted to see what that was like, but after a few bottles today on this second batch, I quickly determined it was much better to just use the spigot with the filler attached.

Now to decide what to brew next.

Ken

 

[bigken462]

Got a dishwasher somewhere in there? .

I had actually tried that first. My back is a lil sore from lifting some heavy patients last night and I found it caused me to stoop over a lil more than I liked. Was kinda right there where I could not get comfortable. The wash tub was able to catch what few drips I had and was able to keep a posture that was not causing too much discomfort.