Beginner's Kolsch

[ICzed]

Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking about doing a Kolsch for a little while now in time to welcome in Spring. I haven’t done a whole heap of research other than having a few Kolschs and browsing forums & LHBS recipes. However I’ve “crunched” the numbers on IanH’s sheet and come up with this. I could be well off the style but the sheet gave me all green lights :)

 

1.7 kg TC Wheat Beer

1kg liquid LME

500g light DME

200g Crystal

15g Nelson Sauvin @ 15 min

MJ’s Workhorse Yeast

23lt

 

I’ve only mentioned Nelson Sauvin because it sounds like a hop that would appeal to me and wouldn’t mind giving it a try. Has anyone got a kits & bits or extract recipe?

 

Cheers & beers, Mark.

 

[PhilboBaggins]

Hi Mark.

 

Having never brewed a Kolsch I'm hesitant to say this, but I'd probably change everything.

 

Here are a few pointers after doing some reading:

 

- Kolsch rarely has any wheat, and when it does, it makes up a very small portion of the malt used (5% or less). The TC wheat kit will be way over that. Most examples would be at least 95% pilsner malt.

- Kolsch would generally use a noble hop like hallertau, NS would not be found in this kind of beer.

- Kolsch is known for its pale straw colour. Crystal malt will make it too dark.

- You would want to use a Kolsch yeast like Wyeast 2565 and ferment from 13c - 20c or so.

 

Not to say that you wouldn't make a nice beer, it just wouldn't be a Kolsch.

 

If you were wanting to brew a Kolsch from extract, I'd start with the Pilsner kit, try and find some VERY pale malt extract to go with it, use some Hallertau or Hersbrucker (not too much, as these aren't meant to be a hoppy beer) and ferment with a Kolsch yeast.

[Hairy]

Listen to Phil if you want a traditional Kolsch.

 

But you can experiment if you like. I quite like the 4 Pines Kolsch which is a modern take on it with Motueka hops.

 

Also if you want a dry yeast then you may get away with Safale K-97.

[PhilboBaggins]

Never tasted that one Hairy (or any other Kolsch TBH, I just did some quick reading to try and help Mark out.)

 

K-97 certainly seems to fit the bill temperature wise, but the web site says it's a low attenuator. Once again, the reading I've done on Kolsch says you want them extremely well attenuated. Maybe even Notto?

 

Anyway, Mark, don't let a pedantic prick like me distract you from making beer! Have at it, and whatever you make I am sure you will enjoy.

 

K-97 actually slipped under the radar for me, and I had never heard of it until this morning. It sounds like it has some interesting possibilities?

[Hairy]

I have tasted a few kolsch before but there isn't a huge variety available commercially in Aus. I have never brewed one though.

 

However, I have used K-97 before and it worked well in a hoppy German wheat ale.

[ICzed]

Thanks Philbo & Hairy for putting me on the straight and narrow.

 

I’ve found some Kolsch yeasts which I can purchase online, 73-77% attenuation. And I’ve got a better idea of the extracts I might use but I’ll do a bit more research before I purchase anything.

 

Would Tettnang be a suitable bittering hop (15g @ 10 min)? It is one I’ve been thinking about trying for a little while now.

 

I was starting to think “you idiot you’ve got your next 2 brews lined up when are you going to have time to do a Kolsch?”…. Until I remembered I bought a second FV on the weekend

 

Thanks again blokes. Watch this space.

- Mark

 

(PS I’ll be trying that 4 Pines Kolsch ASAP Hairy).

 

[ICzed]

Alrighty everyone. The stars have aligned for a Kolsch

 

Last night I bought a 4 pack of Quiet Deeds Kolsch for the weekend (which is a tasty drop) and this afternoon when I visited my LHBS to stock up for the Beekeeper recipe the new manager (who is a top bloke) was kind enough to give me a packet of Wyeast 2565 Kolsch yeast for free - it has about 1 month left before the best before date and he reckons no one would have ever bought it.

 

So here is a recipe I am going to use which I found in the May-June issue of Brew Your Own magazine (ingredients substituted for the Southern Hemisphere):

 

Thunder Island Brewing Company's Vitamin K Kolsch Clone

1.5kg Morgans Ultra Pale Beer Enhancer (unhopped)

340g LDM

900g Australian Ale Malt

230g Wheat Malt

230g Munich Light Malt

18g Magnum @ 50 minutes

0.5 tsp Irish Moss @ 30 minutes

0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 minutes

Wyeast 2565 Kolsch Yeast

19 litre brew

 

This type of brew is unknown territory for me but I'm looking forward to giving it a go - what would you call it? Brew in a Bag? Mini Mash?

 

These are some other questions which I would really appreciate some advice on:

- If I can't get my hands on Magnum what would be another suitable bittering hop, POR?

- The recipe says I'll need to have about 13 litres of wort on the stove, am I better off buying a 15 litre stock pot or an urn? At the moment I only have an 8 litre pot.

- Do I need to buy yeast nutrient or can I just chuck in a spare kit yeast from a Coopers tin?

 

Thanks for reading everyone.

Cheers + beers,

Mark

 

[ben 10]

Any high AA bittering hop will be fine.

As for the pot, what is the long term goal? Full size BIAB? Will you use the pot for other things if you buy it?

I have White Labs German Kolsch yeast and love it, currently 5 brews in with it. I have not brewed to style yet but it does make a refreshing lightly hopped pale ale. I have three brews that are half wheat, half pale or munich and they are so clean and crisp and summery.

BTW I think the 8 litre pot will be fine.

[antiphile]

I'm wondering if there's anything our B10 hasn't brewed?

 

Mark, depending on the way you want to go and when you want to put down the brew, I (and many others have) bought one of these BigW 19 litre stock pots for $20. I like it since it just gave, and still gives me, more flexibility as I progress through my feral fermentation fun.

 

Also, if you weren't wanting to put it down today, I'd make a starter out of the yeast. It's super simple and if you did it this morning, it'd be ready to go as soon as tomorrow after lunch. Lots of examples on YouTube etc.

[porschemad911]

This type of brew is unknown territory for me but I'm looking forward to giving it a go - what would you call it? Brew in a Bag? Mini Mash?

 

These are some other questions which I would really appreciate some advice on:

- If I can't get my hands on Magnum what would be another suitable bittering hop' date=' POR?

- The recipe says I'll need to have about 13 litres of wort on the stove, am I better off buying a 15 litre stock pot or an urn? At the moment I only have an 8 litre pot.

- Do I need to buy yeast nutrient or can I just chuck in a spare kit yeast from a Coopers tin?

 

Thanks for reading everyone.

Cheers + beers,

Mark

[/quote']

G'day Mark. I reckon you can do a 6 litre boil fairly safely in your 8 litre pot. That'll give you a bit of room to avoid boil overs for the hot break. My procedure is roughly similar - I do 8 litre boils in my 9.5 litre pot and I only get minor heart palpitations when the hot break starts to rise. Balance a wooden spoon over the top and it will help to prevent boilovers. Also turn the heat off for your hop addition, stir them in then whack the heat back on. I find throwing the hops in at full heat is a good trigger for a boilover.

 

If I calculate your partial mash grain @ 70% extract efficiency into a 6 litre pre-boil volume you will be about dead-on for a nice 1.040 gravity hop boil. So leave the beer enhance and LDM additions for the end of the boil

 

So what I'd recommend is:

• mash your grain in your 8 litre pot in a grain bag in about 5 litres of water. The more volume of water you have the better it'll hold temp. I'd wrap something around the pot for insulation.
  
• heat a couple of litres of sparge water in another pot or saucepan before your mash finishes. Pop your grain bag in a colander or something over your pot and pour the sparge water through the grain bag. That should hopefully bring your pre-boil volume to around 6 litres.
  
• Do your 50 minute boil with your hop and Irish Moss additions. I wouldn't worry about the yeast nutrient although you could chuck in a spare Coopers kit yeast if you have it on hand.
  
• At flameout stir in the Morgans Beer Enhancer and LDM. Let it sit for a bit to pasteurize.
  
• Cool in an ice bath.
  
• Pour with lots of spashing through a strainer into your fermenter, top up to your desired volume with cold water and pitch your yeast starter (as recommended by Phil).
  

 

I've done something similar to this for a few brews and they have all ended up very tasty!

[SoggySam]

I'm wondering if there's anything our B10 hasn't brewed?

 

Mark' date=' depending on the way you want to go and when you want to put down the brew, I (and many others have) bought one of these BigW 19 litre stock pots for $20. I like it since it just gave, and still gives me, more flexibility as I progress through my feral fermentation fun.

 

Also, if you weren't wanting to put it down today, I'd make a starter out of the yeast. It's super simple and if you did it this morning, it'd be ready to go as soon as tomorrow after lunch. Lots of examples on YouTube etc.

 

So do you ferment it in the stock pot and then rack into the coopers fermenter to bottle?

 

Cheers , Sam

[antiphile]

I hate to disappoint you, but no. But then again, I've never emptied a 420 g can of creamed corn into a brew either.

[SoggySam]

I am disappoint.

[ICzed]

Thanks a lot for your help everyone (except SillySam). I'll read through it all a few more times over the next fortnight while I wait for the ingredients to come in and post up my plan of attack.

 

With the hops will Pride of Ringwood be sufficient or is a higher AA required? Unfortunately my LHBS doesn't have a wide range of bittering hops and I want return the favour of the free yeast by buying all the gear through my local bloke.

 

Has anyone bittered with Nelson Sauvin? The AA is in the same range as Magnum and I'm thinking it would put a nice twist on a Kolsch. Plus it's only 18g @ 50 minutes.....?

 

Cheers + beers,

Mark

[ben 10]

I love Nelson, many do not.

I'd throw a touch in late too - not to style but it'll make a nice beer.

[porschemad911]

G'day Mark, I have bittered with NS twice (once in conjunction with Pacific Hallertau and once on its own). Unfortunately I can't let you know how they turned out since one batch will still be in the FV for another week and the other won't be carbonated for another week. Gravity samples tasted good on the bottled batch and taste good on the fermenting one.

 

As for justification ... I wouldn't go so far as to say 'if I though it would be ok then it can't be that insane?' ... so I will go with, 'one of my local breweries does it' instead. They do it in conjunction (50/50) with a more traditional bittering hop though. And it produces a very tasty beer.

 

Cheers,

 

John

[ICzed]

I picked up all the gear yesterday for this brew and plan on brewing it next weekend when I have some spare time. I just want to put it on record that my new LHBS manager is an absolute champ - he lent me one of his own 19 litre pots for the brew and gave me the grain for free in return for some beers I've been dropping off for him to try. Here's my plan of attack:

 

- Steep crushed grain (900g Aus Ale, 230g Light Munich & 230g White Wheat) in 9.5lt of at 66 C degrees for 30 minutes.

-Remove grains from wort & rinse with 1.9lt of hot tap water.

- Add Morgans 1.5kg Ultra Pale LME & 340g LDM to the wort and start the 60 minute boil.

- Add 20g Northern Brewer hops at 50 minutes.

- Add Whirfloc tablet & sachet of Coopers yeast at 15 minutes.

- Cool, add wort to fermenter and top up to 19lt with cold water.

- Pitch Wyeast Kolsch 2565, ferment at 20 C degrees.

 

It looks fairly simple on paper but I'm sure something unforeseen will happen on the day. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Cheers + beers,

Mark

[antiphile]

G'day Mark

 

My only concern with your procedure would be the mash time. IMHO, I'd prefer if you did the single step infusion of the grains (i.e. The mash) for 60 mins rather than 30 mins to give the enzymes enough time to change into fermentable sugars. See, for example, John Palmer's section on single step infusion.

 

It's also very possible I'm wrong (again!), because I skipped school the day they did partials and I went straight to all grain. But just a heads-up.

 

Cheers, Phil.

 

Edit added: One day I'm going to think of putting everything in the post without adding an edit. (Dream on, Phil - like that's gonna ever happen). I'm guessing you're adding the pack of yeast at 15 minutes as a yeast nutrient. I've never tried that and would be very interested to see what the experts think. But I'm sure it can't do any harm.

 

The other one of interest was getting the "whirlflocced" wort from the pot to the FV. This can be interesting too (and leaving the sediment from the whirlfloc at the bottom of the kettle) especially if you haven't a ball valve or some other way to leave the last bit. I've found the sediment is very easy to rouse and mix into the lower layers of the kettle even with the very slightest of movement like lifting up the pot and angling it to pour off the liquid. Not having had to try what you need to do, I'm trying to imagine the best way to do it. My approach might be something like (and assuming you may not have a chiller coil or similar):

1. At flame out, get the largest spoon you own, and start stirring in one direction around the wall of the pot. Slowly keep increasing the speed of the stir to create a whirlpool as fast as you can without allowing the wort to spill out. Remove the spoon and allow it to keep until at least the wort has stopped spinning and it certainly shouldn't be still boiling at all (i'd try to leave 5 mins if I could anyway).

2. Earlier on you could have made an improvised racking cane (maybe by bending half inch copper pipe into a very elongated S-shape and attaching a hose to the top) to siphon out the wort. The important thing is you don't siphon from anywhere lower than say 4 cm from the bottom to leave the sedimented junk in there. This will allow the proteins and other stuff you don't wish to make your end beer cloudy in the pot.

3. Once siphoned into another container, cool down in a sink of cold water, changing the cooling water as often as need.

 

I'm sure you think I'm an idiot (correct), and am fussing too much (correct again), but thought I'd just drop a few hints your way.

[porschemad911]

G'day Mark, sounds like you will have a tasty beer there!

 

Like Phil who beat me to it, I reckon you should mash for 60 minutes rather than 30. From my research into mash times, conversion will happen very quickly, but it takes time for the sugars to be dissolved. Given you have a 19 litre pot to use, I'd sparge with a bit more water - say 4 litres rather than 1.9. This might rinse a little more sugar out and lower your post-boil dilution factor somewhat. Probably wouldn't have much of an impact though, and you might be intentionally keeping your boil volume lower for faster cooling. Just a thought

 

You are more disciplined than me, keeping late hops out of your Kolsch - I would be so tempted to sneak some in. Just a teensy bit of a noble hop for some aroma

[ICzed]

Thanks for your help guys. Given I'm a mashing newb I was only going by the recipe in the Brew Your Own magazine which suggested a 30 minute mash. If I can keep the temperature constant on the day I'll try and stretch it out a bit longer.

 

With the hops I would love too give it something extra but my bittering hop alone registers 23 IBU which is pretty much the bench mark for all the commercial Kolsch's I've been looking at (and the magazine's recipe).

 

I have 30g of Summer in the freezer which I might just dry hop for some extra aroma.

 

PS - If anyone could find the 'Beerlust Brew Day' thread on these forums it would be appreciated. I haven't had any luck yet.

 

Cheers!

[Chezza]

You mean this one?

https://www.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/10522/

[ICzed]

Thanks champ - for some reason I kept typing in 'brew day' instead of 'brewday' :)

[ICzed]

Hey everyone,

 

I brewed this on Saturday morning. From memory I did a 5 litre mash & rinsed with 3 litres of 66° water. The 60 minute mash in the oven & 60 minute boil went really well – OG 1044.

 

The only real problem I had was what Phil alluded to – keeping the whirfloc’ed sediment out of the fermenter. In this aspect I failed miserably. See hydrometer pic for an example.

 

My only hope now is that the yeast will clear some of it up plus another week in a cube conditioning in the fridge. Will this be too much of a set back or should it turn out OK?

 

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

 

Cheers + beers,

Mark

 

 

[Beerlust]

Hi Mark.

 

Allow the brew to ferment out as per normal. Then take a look at the level of trub at the base of the fermenter. If the trub is up over or very near the tap inlet, you will transfer an increased amount of sediment if bottling/kegging straight from the primary FV. If this is the case then I would rack to a secondary fermenter, to take the bulk of the trub out of play, then crash chill/cold condition from there.

 

If however the height of the trub is nowhere near the tap inlet, then simply follow your usual processes.

 

For my partial mashing I use a fine weave wire strainer to remove the bulk of hop & grain matter from my wort prior to it entering my FV. I'm lucky if I have an inch of trub from brew to brew in my FV's when it comes time to bottle/keg & as an added bonus I know a good percentage of that is yeast.

 

Cheers & good luck with the brew.

 

Anthony.

[ICzed]

Thanks Anthony - I'll keep ya posted. I may need to invest in a second strainer too for next time.

 

Cheers + beers,

Mark