Which of these 3 pilsen malts for a Kölsch?

[Horseflesh]

I'm making a Kölsch soon, but my LHBS only carries these pilsen malts.

Best Malz Pilsen (1.6-2.0°L)
Chateau Castle Belgian Pilsen (1.7-1.9°L)
Weyermann Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsen (1.6-2.3°L)

Which do you reckon would be the tastiest?

 

[FunkedOut]

Never had Best, and never had Weyermann floor-malted.
But, I’ve had the Castle and regular Weyermann.
I found the Weyermann to be cleaner, sweeter and overall less flavor.
The Castle has a rustic hay type flavor.

I brewed 0.5 gallon SMaSH beers with all the base malts my LHBS carries.
That character carried in the Castle pale ale malt as well.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Best Pilsen also has a grainy, hay type flavour.

I'm sure any of the three will make great beers (even though I haven't tried the other two) - the only way to know the differences is to try all three yourself. Weyermann floor malted is quite popular (from reading on this forum).

 

[dmtaylor]

I'm making a Kölsch soon, but my LHBS only carries these pilsen malts.

Best Malz Pilsen (1.6-2.0°L)
Chateau Castle Belgian Pilsen (1.7-1.9°L)
Weyermann Floor-Malted Bohemian Pilsen (1.6-2.3°L)

Which do you reckon would be the tastiest?

All good. Munch on each one at the shop while you're there to see which one you prefer.

 

[Steveruch]

I was very happy with the pilsner that I brewed with best.

 

[Horseflesh]

Guess I will taste them and go from there. Leaning towards the floor-malted Weyermann just from reading, not sure if a hay note will be the best option in a Kölsch. Thanks guys.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Weyermann Barke Pils is another option. Of the three personally I'd use the Weyermann Boho Pils.

I haven't used Best and I wasn't impressed by Castle/Chateau.

 

[couchsending]

I wouldn’t make a Kolsch with just pilsner Malt personally. I actually wouldn’t make one witnmostly Pilsner malt. Weyermann makes a Kolsch specific malt called Cologne malt. It’s closer to a Pale Ale Malt or Vienna malt.

I’d use maybe 15-20% floor malted and the rest Weyermann Pale Ale Malt if you can’t get the Cologne malt. I’d do a single decoction too but that might be a different thread.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I would make a Kolsch withjust pilsner Malt personally. I actually wouldn’t make one witnmostly Pilsner malt. Weyermann makes a Kolsch specific malt called Cologne malt. It’s closer to a Pale Ale Malt or Vienna malt.

I’d use maybe 15-20% floor malted and the rest Weyermann Pale Ale Malt if you can’t get the Cologne malt. I’d do a single decoction too but that might be a different thread.

OP didn't indicate only Pils malt, but I agree I wouldn't do it 100% Pils either. Can't say I've used Cologne malt, but Weyermann Pale Ale would be an interesting choice too (although I see that as a continental malt designed for less continental more US/UK type character). I normally use a blend of Pils, Vienna, Munich, and a small amount of wheat in my Kolsch, but could probably replace some of the Pils and all the Vienna with Pale Ale. I think some Pils character is important in there. Don't know of Cologne malt supplies that, but the Pale Ale doesn't in my experience.

 

[Horseflesh]

Thanks again everyone, the selection has been made and I will be mashing in soon!

When I got to the shop and tasted everything, I found they had another choice, locally-made Skagit Copeland Pils. Staff said it was good and had more of a "hay like" or "grassy" flavor than some others. I had been resistant to that kind of flavor at first ... but since a Kolsch is supposed to be dry and have chardonnay-like notes, that did end up sounding better than a sweeter malt.

So, the final grain bill was 95% Skagit Copeland Pils and 5% Skagit Light Munich. I did want to try Schilling Kolsch malt but my LHBS had stopped carrying it.

I did lot of reading on the style and found more contradictory schools of thought than for most others I have researched.

• 100% pils is all you need!
• Add vienna/munich!
• You'll never taste the vienna/munich, don't bother!
• Add wheat!
• Never add wheat!
• Wheat is not traditional to the style!
• Wheat is traditional if you look back in time far enough!
• Use super soft pilsen-style water!
• Use 50 PPM Ca!
• Use 75 PPM Cl and SO4!
• Use no more than 20 PPM Cl and SO4!
• Use more Cl than SO4!
• Use more SO4 than Cl!

So... I guess there are no wrong answers, and I have a lot of variations to try, hah. Assuming my first batch comes out well I will try upping the percentage of secondary malts on the next run.

For this batch I split the difference on mineral advice, and have about 40 PPM of Ca, Cl, and SO4 in the mash. My tap water is very soft so it is hard for me to have ~50 PPM Ca while keeping those other minerals low, since everything comes from adding gypsum and CaCl2. I'll figure that out on another run.

I'll be using Wyeast 2565 and fermenting it starting at 60F; the yeast advice was pretty consistent.