So I plan on brewing a Kolsch soon. I was wondering what someone could suggest for additions of Sterling Hops ?
It’s actually going to be a lemongrass koslch. Thanks in advance for the help
Yeah an ounce or two should work fine at flame out/WP. I use crystal in mine and love it.
I actually brew a lemon grass kölsch and a tangerine kölsch commercially. It breaks my heart to add anything every time. Just destroys that wonderful “kölschiness” … 
Here is my kolsch with 5% carahell. I used a 60 minute addition of Hallertau mittlefruh to 22ibu.
I would think any clean bttering hop will do. Now about that lemongrass…
Which kolsch yeast did you use on that?
2565
Thanks.
I had a “kolsch” at a place last week that used saaz in it, and US-05 for the yeast. The saaz character was nice. I think they said they had two additions, one early and a small one at 15 minutes (or there about). Alas, it was a nice blonde ale but it didn’t have any of that kolsch yeast character.
I made a lemongrass hefeweizen and that does very very well in competitions. This time I wanted to change it to a kolsch.
Sterling gets a bit of a lemony character if you push the hopping rates - maybe 2-4+ ounces in the whirlpool for a 5 gallon batch. Motueka is another option, as it straddles the line between lime zest and lemongrass, and has a very similar noble hop character to Sterling at more moderate hopping rates.
Nice looking beer. Any other hop additions other than 60m?
No, with a soft boil and low oxygen you get plenty of bitterness, aroma and flavor for most German styles with a single 60.
Cheers!
[/url]kolsch2 by majorvices1, on Flickr[/img]
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IMG_1096 by majorvices1, on Flickr[/img]
Here’s mine, homebrewed around 2009. I have always added a small amount of flameout hops, this would have been mittlefrùe most likely
Certainly nothing wrong with adding lemon grass or whatever flavor you want, like I said I commercially produce a lemon grass and a tangerine kölsch commercially. It’s just that I love the delicate aromatics of kölsch yeast so much and just about any flavoring agent overwhelms that.
Thanks, I appreciate the info you’ve been sharing. Most of my next 8 or so upcoming brews are German styles.
No problem!
I was really enamored with Sierra Nevada’s American kolsch they put out a couple of years ago in their summer pack. I made a kolsch recently in homage to that , and I following their stated ingredients I added a small amount of simcoe (didn’t have strisselspalt though) late boil and during short whirlpool.
The lemony and piny aroma from the small amount of simcoe along with the winey pear aromatics of the yeast complement each other well, and those all together almost smell like lemongrass to me.
just sharing.
looks awesome.
I have been looking for something like this to do on a “kolsch event” day I am planning. Thanks for sharing.