Hello all,
I’m submitting a Kottbusser for AHA competition and have been trying to determine which Category the beer is best placed in. Could you please advice.
Thanks
This is a style that I am very interested in after having one commercial example. I would think this would need to go into the specialty category. Which guidelines are being used?
Kottbusser is a sour German style much like an Imperial Berliner weisse, yes? You could just enter as a Berliner weisse, maybe the judges won’t notice the extra flavor and alcohol and/or you just might win the category as a result of that anyway.
It’s basically a strong wheat beer with some honey, molasses, and oats.
From the site of the brewery which makes the one I have had, the label says honey wheat ale and is 7.1% ABV.
“Once upon a time German beer was only deemed pure if it contained the four orthodox ingredients of brewing: water, barley, hops, and yeast. During this time, an ale known as Köttbusser was outlawed because it contained oats, honey, and molasses. Over the centuries since its prohibition, Köttbusser became a lost brewing style. At Grimm Brothers, we’ve resurrected this refreshing ale with a kiss of hops. You don’t need a magic mirror to know that Snowdrop is the fairest in the land. Recommended by dwarves everywhere!”
Thanks for the input. It’s a fabulous beer to brew and serve. It requires some cold conditioning but it’s worth the extra wait. All input above are true and could fall within those categories. The categories for this competition i believe are the standard AHA categories. The kicker that I keep stumbling on is that it’s fermented with a Kolsch yeast. Does that therefore make it a kolsch?
I have been wanting to brew one for a while. What is the recipe and the stats? That will be most helpful at this point. Like others will note if it tastes like a kolsch, enter it as a kolsch.
I think if you enter it as a specialty you can just note that it is a Kottbusser and be done with it if it doesn’t fit well into another category.
It’s a Honey Kolsch. Thanks for the advice. I’ll let you know the judges feedback.
Calculated & Measured Statistics
Measured O.G. 1.060 (68% Actual Efficiency)
Measured F.G. 1.012 (80% Actual Attenuation)
ABV 6.5%
IBU 26.9
SRM 4.7°L
Malt Bill
Malt Name Weight PPG SRM Type
Pilsen - 1.7°L 16.00 lbs 1.036
Wheat Malt, White - 3°L 8.00 lbs
Flaked Oatmeal– 1°L 2.00 lbs
Honey, Wildflower - 4°L 0.50 lbs
Molasses, Mild Flavor - 80°L 0.05 lbs
Mash Rest Profile
Rest Temperature Time Type Details
Mash in 144°F 30 min Initial Strike Mash-in with 32.0 qts of water at 164°F
Saccharification (Medium Body) 152°F 60 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min
Batch Sparge with 1 batches of 10.90 qts water at 170°F
Hop Bill
Hop Name Time Added Weight AA% Type
Columbus 60 min 0.75 oz 15.4% Pellet Hop
Hallertauer Mittelfruh 60 min 2.00 oz 3.0% Pellet Hop
Saaz (Czech) 5 min 2.00 oz 3.0% Pellet Hop
Yeast Details
Yeast Strain Quantity Attenuation Flocculation
WLP029 White Labs German Ale / Kolsch 2 vials
Hmm. Either Ron Pattinson’s assertion that Kottbusser was a sour beer is a little off, or else the revival of this style does not require that it is soured. In my thinking, this probably really was a Lacto soured beer and predecessor of Berliner weisse. Since it’s all ancient history, I suppose the style today is whatever we imagine it to be. For the above recipe, it’s really somewhat of an imperial Kolsch. If you’re not afraid of Lacto, I would suggest adding some to at least a portion of the batch, to see how that turns out.
That recipe looks how I would imagine it…delicious
In the reading i’ve done I’ve not seen it referred to as a “sour”. Kotbusser is discussed in the Nov/Dec 2014 of Zymurgy. They provide a recipe for the Grimm Bros. The article provides good insights to the original and beer profile. After discussions I’m going to submit this as a Kolsch and see what happens from there. Cheers!
Grimm Bros is the example I have tried. FWIW, the won bronze at 2015 GABF for that beer in the ‘historical’ category.
It is not clear to me whether or not the style was sour, but I imagine it might have been. Ron Pattinson presents the idea that Kottbusser was a sour style in his Vintage Beer book (excellent book!). He gets all his information from actual historical research, not hearsay. He found an actual recipe and translated from German. At his blog he states:
“The proportion of the grains was 60% barley, 32% wheat and 8% oats. I got the OG to around 1090 with my calculation, which seems very high… The hopping rate is very low. The brew was about 14 imperial barrels. Six pounds of hops gives a hopping rate of just 0.43 lbs to the barrel. Not sure what effect the small amount of honey and sugar would have. It seems way too little to me to be worth the trouble.”
And here’s some more pages and recipe ideas for the sour version of the style:
I brewed the Kotbusser recipe in Radical Brewing. While tasty, it was nothing like a Kolsch.
I remember seeing that recipe and used it as a guideline for my own which I have not brewed. What yeast is it? 1007?
Yes, I used 1007.