Okay, so I am starting to think about brewing lagers because I finally have real temp control. but I am going to start slow, with a pseudo lager, I ahve been doing some research and it seems like the standard ingredients for this style are pretty basic, which I like.
Pils (or pale)
maybe a little wheat
maybe a little munich
some noble hops at 60
maybe a little noble hops at 30
I assume the wheat is there mostly for head formation/retention am I wrong?
I love munich but I want to keep this to style as much as possible so I am thinking, at least for a first stab;
100% pils
25 IBU of… I am thinking of trying mt hood as I prefer to use more local ingredients when possible. any other nobleish hops grown on the west coast of north america?
So, tell me why I should use some wheat, or munich, or why I really can’t brew this without some german hops.
Have you considered making a Steam Beer? Same temps, lager yeast…delicious beer. I’d say a steam with Willamette and Mt. Hood could be mighty tasty. Cheers to fermentation temp. control!
i did my first pilsner recently, and really love it. my temp controll when step mashing and lagering is not dialed i but it came out great. will definately be doing more soon. dont have recipe with me but it was mosly german pils with some vienna, munich and crystal 30?
My understanding is that most kolsch uses 100% pils malt. A few may use some wheat but it is a very few. I’m not sure how many add Munich or Vienna, but the point of the beer is to make it very straw pale, so why would any of them add it? Don’t get me wrong, I like a little wheat and Munich in mine sometimes … I’m just sayin’.
The real key to this ale is the yeast. Wlp029 and the wyeast2565 are both excellent kolsch strains IMO. The difference being mainly that the wyeast strain seems to do better at cooler temps but the wlp029 is much easier to clear. The wyeast strain can be a bitch to clear. I think I prefer the wlp029 mostly because of that - you can get a crystal clear product with a little fining and no need to filter in a fairly short tme. And it tastes great.
Thanks Major. I will stick with my first instinct on the grain bill and go with 100% pils. I will look into crystal hops as well. What’s your opinion on spalt select? so do you just do a FWH? I like that to. I love a super simple beer. I feel like it’s a test of my procedure like no other.
On the steam beer suggestion, I am still getting over a 6 month long period when I was developing, testing and brewing a s**t load of steam beer for some friends wedding, I just don’t have the desire right now, but I do have a couple of ideas in that direction for next year.
I love spalter for my alt, hallertauer cultivar for my kolsch. Spalt to me is a more “sturdy” hop. You probably want something more delicate for a kolsch. That’s why I like the crystal, it’s very delicate, especially for an American hop. I do all FWH crystal and a smal aroma addition at WP.
Yeah, I don’t really care for the select much. They have similar characteristics but the Spalter tastes better. I ordered a shipment of spalter from Hop Union last year and they sent me select. I bought a bunch of it and it took 6 months to go through it. As soon as I could I switched back to the spalter and my alt tasted much better to me.
Okay, so I am working under the restriction that I want this to be an organic brew. Looking at the available varieties, crystal is out. I could get some german hallertaur mittlefruh or tradition. kinda blows the local out of the water though huh? well If this beer is coming from germany anyway, is it worth an extra 0.30$/lb for german over north american pils malt? I can see how it might be, but again, if I can keep it local and still end up with an outstanding beer…
EDIT to ask more questions:
Mash schedule, probably thinking a 2 step infusion, 122 (30 min), 154 (30 min) then mashout 168 (10 min) am I doing more than I need to? do I really want a 30 minute protein rest?
Yeah, I already ordered 6 oz, seems the variety is really susceptible to pests so it’s not common. I went with the weyermann pils as well. so much for local.
41 g (29 IBU) hallertaur mittelfruh FWH
1 tsp irish moss at 15 minutes
90 minute boil
ferment with 1 liter starter of wlp029 at 62
‘lager’ at 34 or as close as the fridge can manage for a couple weeks
enjoy.
any more suggestions? does the mash schedule look reasonable?
Is it a problem to leave the hops in there for the full 90 minutes? gonna use pellets so there isn’t really any way to remove them, I would have to change from a FWH to a 60 minute addition.
I’m vegetarian so gelatin is out but I could try blending up some irish moss or agar in hot water to simulate that if need be.
A short protein rest is all you need really. 10-15 minutes. Then Id say for your sach temps go a bit lower, like 149-150.
Just brewed a Kolsch splitting the batch between the White Labs and Wyeast strains.
Used Weyermann Pils, mittlefrueh hops, and just 8 oz of vienna and 8 oz of wheat for a 10 gallon batch.
They have been lagering almost 2 weeks now. So far my preference is the White Labs strain for the reasons major mentioned. Both came out great though! Gona give it another couple weeks lagering though.
Just finished a keg of my first Kolsch ever. Came out alright. I think I need to use some kind of fining next time, as well as cold conditioning for at least 2 weeks. The following is based on a whole bunch of recipes I found online.
5 Gallon batch
7 lb. Pilsner
1 lb. Munich I
1 lb. Pale Wheat
Infusion mash:
122- 15 min.
138- 15 min.
151- 60 min.
168- mashout
60 min. boil:
1.5 oz. Hallertauer @ 0:00
0.5 oz " " @ 0:45
0.5 oz " " @ 1:00
What do you like for a fermentation schedule for your Kolsch? I’ve got a batch thats been at 60df for almost two weeks. Was thinking I would ramp it down to about 38 for another few weeks before kegging.
