Recipe Critique - Kolsch

[rilewedge]

I did a Brewers Best Kolsch kit (waiting for results) I read a lot before doing the kit and some of the ingredients in it had me questioning the results. 2 lbs. of wheat DME for one and the aroma hops. (I read somewhere that Kolsch has no wheat nor Aroma hops) I am waiting for a month of fermentation and then two weeks of Bottle priming and then into the fridge for a lager till I can’t bear to wait any longer. So with that said I thought hell I can run BeerSmith and see what I can come up with. Thought I would do my own Kolsch and see which I liked better. I know I am asking for trouble.

This was my first try at my own recipe.

Fermentables:
6 lbs. Briess Pilsen un-hopped LME 80% yield
8 oz. Briess DME Pilsen

Specialty grains:
1 lbs. Kolsch Malt grain from Global Malt

Hops:
1 oz. Spalt hops 5.3% Alpha

Yeast:
Kolsch Activator Wyeast ACT2565


Brew Day
Sanitize everthing!!!!
3 hours before target time for Transfer to Fermenter phase activate yeast per instructions on package.

Steep Grains:
Open Grain and put it in Boiling Bag.
Add 2 gallons of water to Boiling pot.
Heat water to 165°F - Lower burner to low.
Put grain in water and move it around for the full 20 min.
Sparge the grain bag in a strainer over the boiling pot with the half-gallon of hat water.
Temp at 20 min was 149°F

Boil wart: – 60 min
Add water to wart to get it up to 3 gallon target
Heat wart to Boiling while Stirring continuously.
Add DME and Hops.
After 60 min turn heat off and add 6 lbs. of LME Stirring continuously for 10 min.

Transfer to Fermenter:
Cool wart quickly to 70°F
Add one Gallon of room temp water to Fermenter.
Siphon wart to fermenter avoiding trob.

Add Water:
Added approximately 2.2 gallons to the fermenter to get final volume up to 5 gallons.
Add yeast to fermenter and stir well.
Put lid on fermenter and install airlock.

Now just follow the wait a month for fermentation and then two weeks of Bottle priming and then into the fridge for a lager till I can’t bear to wait any longer.
Anything I did obviously wrong?

I’ll update taste of both and which one I prefer.

 

[A4J]

What's with the kolsch malt? You won't benefit from it, so I'd skip.

What temp have you been fermenting at? It should be in the mid-low 60's.

 

[rilewedge]

Fermenting at 68°F in the coldest room I have, but stays constant.
Why won't I benefit from the kolsch malt? Overpowered by the other extracts?
According to BeerSmith I loose a lot of color with out the grain 3.1 SRM when it should be 3.5-5.0 SRM with 4.2 with it in the brew.

BeerSmith called out an ext Original Gravity of 1.050 and had a measured original gravity of 1.046 and I hit that dead on tonight 1.046 right on the dot.