Brewing for NCHF

Corrine and I are going to NCHF this year, and I plan on making a big showing. The trouble is, this means I have to brew a lot of beer between now and September. The good news is that I have a reason to brew a ton of beer and no limitations on what I have to brew. I have decided to brew a Kölsch, a Black IPA, and a Rye Red Ale (I will also be brewing a Sticke, but that will not be ready in time for the festival).

So now that it's just in the planning phase, I will say this about these beers:

My Kölsch will be primarily Canadian Pilsner Malt, with a pinch of German Melanoidin Malt, and a small amount of German Saurmalt (Acidulated Malt), to balance pH. I will also be using 100% American hops, but the yeast strain will be authentically from Cologne.

My Black IPA will be brewed in the tradition ofd my first black IPA - with tons of new school domestic hops, balanced by some classic C hops and a substantial dose of Canadian 2-row, a touch of Munich malt, and a nice bit of British Crystal. The difference is that this one will be brewed to about 1.066 and 80 IBUs. This will me more of an, "I'm not fucking around" kind of in-your-face hop assault with that creamy-smooth malty backbone. I will be using a shitload of WLP001 slurry for this guy - leftover from the fresh hop amber ale below.

My Red Rye Ale will basically be a nugget-and-cascade 50 IBU 1.055ish beer that will be 25% rye malt, dry-hopped in the keg with cascade and summit, and very heavily late-hopped. I will bitter with Nugget, which will also be used late in the boil beside some Cascade and Summit. Basically, this one will be a 10 gal batch brewed with close to a pound of hops, but kept down to 50-55 IBU's - a monster of a sessionable beer and exactly what Northern California beer culture is all about.