Kölsch Tasting

About a month ago I brewed a Kölsch, intending to have a nice, easy drinking but tasty summer beer. I think I achieved that goal, thanks to a controlled fermentation temperature, enough time for the relatively non-flocculent Kölsch yeast to settle, and use of finings.

Appearance: Golden yellow, with a large white head that stay around a while. Slight chill haze and maybe a tiny bit of yeast, but still relatively clear for my beers.

Aroma: Soft, slightly bready nose, with the pilsner malt coming through. I don't really get any of the fruity quality that some of examples of the style supposedly have.

Taste: Again the grainy quality of the pilsner malt comes through. It's pretty dry, but has a slightly sweetness and so it's not as crisp as a Pilsner beer. The hop presence is low but it has some of the floral or earthy quality of German hops. The taste is subtle, good for a "lawnmower ale."

Body: Moderate to high carbonation, and light mouthfeel. The aftertaste is grainy, slightly sweet, and with a crispy hop character.

Overall:  A light, subtly flavorful beer with moderate alcohol, moderate-high carbonation, and a crisp grainy quality, but not as crisp or dry as a Pilsner beer. I think it is a better summer beer that the Ordinary Bitter I brewed a while ago. Overall I like it quite a lot. Don't think I would change anything. A German friend of mine, for what it's worth, said that he would not be surprised to have a beer like this in Cologne. Yay!

Kölsch Brew Day

Summer is coming up, and although the weather is getting warmer in the Boston area the basement of my parents' house is still staying a fairly constant 60F. That's a bit too cool for most ales but a "hybrid" yeast would do well at that temperature. So, I decided to go for a Kölsch. It's a nice, easy-drinking summer beer. Brewing Classic Styles says that it should be lagered to clear the yeast, which doesn't flocculate well. I can't do lagering at this point, but the guys at the LHBS suggested using some Isinglass instead.  I'm planning to keep it in primary for 3 weeks, add Isinglass for 1 week, and then bottle.

Sorry, none of my brilliant photography for this one.

Kölsch
3.25 gallons
6.13# German Pilsner Malt
6.1oz Weyerman Vienna Malt

1oz German Hallertau, 4.1%, 70 mins

Wyeast - Kölsch

Anticipated OG/FG/IBUs: 1.052 / 1.013 / 24 IBUs

Brewed May 26, 2013

Prepped a starter, pitched around 11am. It was bubbling by about 3pm. That was fast.

Performed a 90 minute mash at 150F, added mash-out water, waited 10 mins and collected 2 gallons of first runnings. Second runnings  were another 2.3 gallons.

Pre-boild OG was 1.043 @ 4.3 gallons, about 74% efficiency. Higher than usual. Yay!

Boiled 90mins to drive off any DMS formation. Ended up with slightly less than 3 gallons after cooling, but with the starter the total volume in the fermenter was exactly 3 gallons. That's a little more wort boiled off than usual. I'm not sure why.

Pitched at 60F and placed in some cold water.

Two days later it appeared as though some krausen had formed and subsided but there was no bubbling in the airlock, I suspect because my fermenting bucket isn't what it once was and has an airleak. I really gotta get a 5-gallon BetterBottle with one of those big orange caps.

6/31/13
Bottled today, aiming for 2.6 volumes of CO2. Final gravity was 1.012, about as expected. Yay! That sample tasted OK but a bit "green."