I’m also in the vienna camp, but I don’t use wheat in my kolsch.
I shoot for an OG of 1.048, use 87% pilsner, 10% vienna, and 3% acid malt. I think you can push the vienna as high as 15%, though. Low alkalinity water, in the neighborhood of 50ppm each of Ca, Cl, and SO4. Step mash at 131 for 15 minutes, 147 for 30 minutes, 158 for 45 minutes. 22 to 25 IBUs total, with a 1 oz flavor addition at 10 to 15 minutes and another 0.5 oz at flameout. I like tettnang or spalt for my kolsch. I like to pitch a big healthy starter of WLP029 and ferment at 62 to 64 F for a week to 10 days, letting it ramp up to about 68 near the end of fermentation. Crash, fine with gelatin, put on gas for a week, serve.
Mine is Pils, Vienna, and a little dextrin malt. Bitter with Perl, and flavor with Crystal. I’m using Giga yeast 021 for the first time. Love the style, not sure why more breweries never brew it.
So i would assume that finishing hops may be a bit much? thinking just a 60 min addition however my gut is saying a small 15 min addition for a bit of flavor but with such a simple malt bill i am sure i will get some flavor from the 60min addition. so wonder how many of ya actually do finishing hops?
The finishing hops are optional, but beers like Fruh and Reissdorf do have some noble hop aroma. You don’t want it over the top, but a kolsch with a low to moderately low hop aroma and flavor is better than a kolsch with no hop presence, IMO.
German beers have more hop aroma and flavor than we give them credit for. Get your hands on some fresh Weihenstephaner Original, and you’ll see that the benchmark beer for the Munich helles style has a very noticeable noble hop aroma.
I can’t get vienna organically on a regular basis so I go with a smaller dose of Munich and the rest pils. Hallertauer Mitt at FW and maybe a small shot at flameout.
My recipe that I have used was 84% pils, 6% munich, and 10% wheat. I used German grown Northern Brewer for bittering and add a bit at flame out. It went over pretty well.
Wyeast 2565 is allegedly Weihenstephan W-165. W-165 is actually an altbier strain.
The Weihenstephan Kolsch strain is W-177.
I am not aware of a single propagator in the U.S. that holds W-177 in its collection. I inquired about importing W-177 on slant from Hefebank Weihenstephan, but the combined culture and shipping costs were ridiculous, which is saying something because I usually spend a c-note or more on a culture. For example, I recently spent £115 (~$180.00) acquiring a strain from the NCYC that I plan to study in the fall. The price that I was quoted by Hefebank Weihenstephan for W-177 dwarfed that figure. Maybe I can start a crowdfunding effort to bring W-177 into the country?
BSI supposedly has W-177, among other interesting things like Augustiner, Ettal, and Weltenburg lager yeasts, to name just a few. BSI doesn’t sell to homebrewers, though, but if you have a friend in the business you could ask them really nicely to order some… ;D
I have been extremely happy with my results from WLP029, but it would be interesting to know how W-177 compares. Does anybody have a clue as to which of the breweries in Cologne might use the W-177 strain?
BSI supposedly has W-177, among other interesting things like Augustiner, Ettal, and Weltenburg lager yeasts, to name just a few. BSI doesn’t sell to homebrewers, though, but if you have a friend in the business you could ask them really nicely to order some… ;D
I have been extremely happy with my results from WLP029, but it would be interesting to know how W-177 compares. Does anybody have a clue as to which of the breweries in Cologne might use the W-177 strain?
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There is a very high possibility i can get this yeast from brewing science. My local brewery/buddy orders through them for all his yeast
I can’t believe I have never brewed this style! Thank you for the feedback/guidance. I called it my twisted kolsch. I really dig the mandarina Bavaria hop in this. It reminds me of my childhood afternoons hanging out in Florida gorging on tangerines ruining my dinner. It’s a subtle tangerine/citrus character. Color didn’t turn out to dark either with 70% kolsch malt and 30% bestmatz pils. 100% RO water. OG 1.048 FG 1.009. No sparge 90 min boil. Hersbrucker 4.3aa at 60min for 18.9 Ibu, mandarina Bavaria 7.3aa at 15 min for 4.2ibus and mandarina Bavaria 7.3aa 10 min whirlpool for 2 ibus. Wyeast 2565 at 60F. Boil PH 5.4 room temp. Finished beer PH 4.1 room temp, lower than I expected fro, this strain but nice. Still a bit young brewed 7/11 but I couldn’t help myself. Sorry about condensation its pretty clear
Agreed on the Kölsch malt being similar to Vienna, and that’s how I’ve approached using it. To me it brings a nice subtle biscuit quality. I’ve been happy keeping it in the 7-8% range.
Here is my Kolsch recipe.
92% Pils malt
8% Munich ( 6 L )
Tettnanger - 60 min addition - 23 ibu
Wyeast 2565
75% RO - 25% dechlorinated tap water
I tried WLP029 but didn’t like it. 7 days @ 59 F then @ 64 F until done. Takes over 7 days to clear with gelatin, I assume it is the yeast. To me, it is a toss up between a Kolsch and a Pils. Love them both.
I find it interesting that you guys are having trouble with WLP029 flocculating. I brewed 11g of Kolsch and split it between WLP029 and WY2565. The WLP029 was dropped clear at 68F and 11 days in the fermenter but the WY2565 was (and is) still quite cloudy.
