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Shug

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After a very pleasant weekend in Köln, and falling in love with the brauhaus's where beer keeps coming automatically til you either say no more, or fall over, I've decided to have a bash at making it. I think the favourite was probably the Früh Kölsch.
My brief googling shows it uses top fermenting yeast, and is lagered, and uses mostly pilsner malt.
The rest of grain bill seems to differ on various sites. some using wheat, some munich. A lot seem to go for hallertauer hops, and I've seen spalt? mentioned.
Has anyone made a Kölsch-style thats pretty close to the real thing (apart from not being made in Köln!)



(oh, and I've just found out the keyboard shortcuts for umlauts which is why I used the proper german names! :D öööüü )
 
I've only had bottled Kolsch not draught and understand it's as different as bottled and draught British bitters. However a friend had been there and complemented mine on it's similarity.

I've had a stab at making it though and was one of the best beers for summer I've made.

The white labs or wyeast Kolsch yeasts seem to be the key to it - and are cracking yeasts then mid-temp femrntation around 14-15c works really well (which is my cellar temp in summer hence trying to make it last year!)

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... oductId=98

I used Spalt hops which were superb (Copper Kettle and The Homebrew Shop have them in at the moment) and I believe are the fruh hops though they may be saaz, else tettnang or mittelfruh are also popular.

Recipes are super simple: pilsener malt (can't recommend the Weyerman Bohemian Pilsener malt highly enough: http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... ductId=109 )+ single hop + kolsch yeast... Ferment mid temp 14-15c then crash cool, cold condition a couple of weeks and then serve on draught - awesome!
 
Yes - with lancsSteve all the way there. Got one in the FV right now coming to the end of its first week. It's the kolsch yeast that makes it taste as it should - one pilsner or similar malt is enough - and to ferment out just right. But! Leave plenty of room for krausen as kolsch yeast is a lively top fermenter. Also - the yeast does take a long time to clear. Best rack it to secondary or a keg after say 10 days and be patient. 15 - 20 C for the fermentation. 5C or less in secondary or keg to lager

There are a couple of good videos on youtube that might bring back happy memories for you too

Delicious :D
 
Mark1964 - can you post it here? I'd be interested to see how you go about it too please

Cheers
 
kolsch 1
Date:
Gyle Number:
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Munich Malt 20 EBC 1 lbs. 1.6 oz 500 grams 8.2%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 0 lbs. 15.8 oz 450 grams 7.4%
pilsner malt 3.9 EBC 11 lbs. 5.6 oz 5150 grams 84.4%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Hallertauer Hersbrucker Whole 2.9 % 70 mins 0 lbs. 0.9 oz 25 grams 45.5%
Hallertauer Mittlefruh Whole 4.3 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 54.5%


Final Volume: 24 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 5.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 35.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 20.2309301562881 EBU
Colour: 10 EBC
 
That's really interesting - thanks

I used Tettnang hops (though they had lower acidity than the recipe specified) - and no wheat, mainly because there are recipes with and recipes without :wha:

I'll give yours a try next - thanks again
 
Cheers fir the recipe mark! Just got an order n from malt miller. Just need to hop (no pun intended!) to lhbs for some wheat malt and I'm good to go!
 
Ive got 4 different versions for the kolsch one of them uses tetnang

kolsch 2
Date:
Gyle Number:
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Munich Malt 20 EBC 1 lbs. 5.1 oz 600 grams 9.8%
pilsner malt 3.9 EBC 11 lbs. 7.4 oz 5200 grams 85.2%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 0 lbs. 10.5 oz 300 grams 4.9%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Hallertauer Hersbrucker Whole 2.9 % 70 mins 0 lbs. 2.5 oz 70 grams 70%
Tettnang Whole 4.3 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 30%


Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.049
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 5% ABV
Total Liquor: 36.6 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 23.8501481341875 EBU
Colour: 10 EBC
 

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