Brewing Kölsch

So my first attempt at Kölsch came out really delicious, but I over-hopped it a little for the style, leaving me with something more reminiscent of a German Pilsner than a true Kölsch. So the second time around (with the 5th generation of the same packet of yeast), I decided to hop it a bit less aggressively and give myself something more properly Kölsch-like. I did 10 gallons, and then kegged half of it unfiltered for an SF beerweek event, and the other half has received a longer lagering time in my freezer and will be the first beer put through my new (and not yet arrived) beer filtering system (thanks to my girlfriend's mom and stepdad for the gift certificate that led to the purchase).

Anyway, here is the recipe and I will post a picture of a glass of the Kölsch when it is all nice and filtered.


Climate Change Kölsch
Style: 6C-Light Hybrid Beer-Kolsch

Wort Volume Before Boil: 15.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.00 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.25 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.040 SG
Expected OG: 1.050 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.2 %
Expected ABW: 4.1 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 26.5
Expected Color: 3.5 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 77.9 %
Mash Efficiency: 85.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 18lb 8oz (97.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Aromatic Malt 8.00 oz (2.6 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (16.0 % alpha) 15 g Bagged Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Ultra (9.0 % alpha) 40 g Bagged Whole Hops used 20 Min From End
US Ultra (9.0 % alpha) 40 g Bagged Whole Hops used 5 Min From End

Yeast: White Labs WLP029-German Ale/Kolsch

Mash at 150 degF for 90 mins

Brewing for Yeast Propogation

Yeast is, far and away, the most important part of the brewing process. Yeast is so important that sometimes I will plan my brewing process around making my yeast happy. Just last weekend, I brewed up a Scottish 70/- Ale (a session-strength ale) for the express purpose of building up enough yeast from the slurry to give me a nice cake for brewing up the beer I really want to brew (a Black IPA).

When you know you need to brew a batch to build up a ton of healthy yeast, the best thing you can do is to brew up a low-gravity beer. Since I wanted to build up a propagator of Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite 50 yeast (an American-style ale yeast), I made a 2L stir-plate starter, and then pitched that starter into a 1.036 wort of Scottish 70/- wort. Why a Scottish 70 schilling ale? Because I was tired of brewing bitters. Ad I had never brewed this style before. And it's not the worst style to try to win a medal with. Also, a key part of this style is the long boil. So I gave the beer 120 min of boiling and did a pretty classic British base malt and Roasted Barley recipe, with just a pinch of crystal malt. Here's the recipe:

Campbell's Heavy 70/-
Style: 9B-Scottish And Irish Ale-Scottish Heavy 70/-

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 9.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.25 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.75 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.75 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.20 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.024 SG
Expected OG: 1.037 SG
Expected FG: 1.010 SG
Expected ABV: 3.5 %
Expected ABW: 2.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 19.9
Expected Color: 10.8 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 71.4 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 125.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 7lb 0oz (94.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 4.00 oz (3.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Roasted Barley 2.00 oz (1.7 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Ultra (9.0 % alpha) 20 g Bagged Whole Hops used 60 Min From End

Other Ingredients

Yeast: Wyeast 1450-Denny's Favorite 50

Mash at 156 degF for 60 mins

Lightening Strikes Twice (When Lightening is Failure)

So it took me two tries to pass the damn MPRE. It also took me two tries to pass the NY bar exam. And now I know it will take at least two tries to pass the CA bar exam, as I found out recently that I failed it the first time around. When you fail the California bar exam, but your score is really close to passing, they have another grader grade the exam. Then they average your two scores. In my case, the first grader failed me by a hair, then the second grader passed me by a hair, so they averaged the two scores and I failed by a half a hair - or .6%. Yes, out of 2000 points, where you need 1440 to pass, I got 1428.5. If I had just been assigned the second grader the first time around, I would have passed the bar exam. But I didn't. And so I have to pay a ton of money to take the damn test again. And since I scored fairly high (138 raw) on the MBE (the multiple choice portion of the exam that is the same in 48 states and several U.S. territories), I know that I have to focus my studies on the essays this time around - having severe problems with the formatting of legal essays since day one of law school.

But I brew on. I have brewed twice since finding out the bad news, and I plan to keep brewing at least once a month or so. I've neglected this blog lately, but I plan to post more during the next few months while re-acclimating myself to law-study mode. Now, as to those three most recent beers, I made another hoppy "San Diego Style" session ale (which is currently dry-hopping), which was made with WLP029 Wyeast Kölsch Yeast to build up enough yeast for the Düsseldorf Altbier that's fermenting as we speak. Additionally, I brewed a 5 gal batch of Duvel-like Belgian golden strong ale that will be delivered to a fellow Greenbelter, Andy Gray, for barrel aging with a number of souring bugs in a now-neutral American oak barrel.

Brewing with Equipment

I finally got some fancy equipment, a pump, and a fancy chiller. And yesterday was they day that they got their first use. The beer was a variant of the porter I typically brew - this one being slightly different in that I used Belgian Special B malt instead of British Extra Dark Crystal and an American yeast rather than a British yeast. My only real issue was that it took me about half an hour to figure out how to get my pump working right in the beginning, which got the strike water's temerature down enough that, rather than a 154F mash, I mashed at 150F. Now this isn't the end of the world - but combined with the more attenuative American yeast, that low mash temperature may lead to an overly dry and low-bodied porter. I am sure the beer will be tasty either way, but I hope this yeast doesn't eat too much and leaves me enough residual sugars to have that creamy malty goodness I like about this recipe.

Brewing With Homegrown Yeast

After I brewed last Monday, I forgot to clean out my graduated cylinder full of wort and a hydrometer... until today when I noticed active fermentation going on in the cylinder out in the backyard. Naturally, I decided to pour that fermenting wort into a sanitized mason jar, where it has continued to ferment. I am not a major sour beer enthusiast, but this seems too good to pass up, provided there are no major risks (a bad 5 gal of beer is not enough of a risk for me).

My thought has been to brew a 10 gal batch of something and split it after primary fermentation into two carboys - dosing one with orval dregs and the other with some of this... to get an idea of what I am working with. I am assuming there is a combination of lacto and brett, but does anyone have a better idea? And should I build up a starter of the stuff, or just pitch the little 4 oz plug of slurry and wort? The way it is fermenting, it almost reminds me of ordinary sacc, which makes me think maybe I ought to use is as the primary strain...

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.

Brewing with Homegrown Wet Hops

I'm hating myself for forgetting to take a picture of this one! I had about 8.7 ounces of whole wet cascade hops grown out of my hop plants in my mom's backyard. Supposedly wet hops are 4/5 excess water and thus equivalent to one fifth as much dry hops - which left me with the equivalent of 1.75-2 ounces of hops. That's really just enough for a single hop addition in a hoppy beer, so I decided to use them all for aroma, and to do a 5 gal batch so as to get the greatest impact from these hops. Boy oh boy was it fun to brew with them, though. The color was different from regular hops - much more vibrant. And the aroma, while mild, was great.

I decided to go with a hoppy amber ale, so that the beer would be hop-forward, but wouldn't totally rely on the hops for flavor, since I wanted to keep the non-wet additions as neutral as possible, while still producing a hoppy beer. I overshot my efficiency a bit, as I was trying to reduce my efficiency (since I heard lower efficiencies lead to a soother malt profile and want to test this). But it is still within the style guidelines, and since I overhopped it intentionally, I think the increased gravity will likely lead to more balance.

I used Pilsner malt just because I had that available and didn't feel like tearing into an unopened sack of regular 2-row. And I used magnum and glacier hops because they are both smooth bitterers and they have a fairly neutral aroma/flavor. I think the glacier addition will "back up" the cascades, rather than compete - much like Willamette and Goldings tend to do. I also added a small addition of pelletized cascades at 30 min just to pump up the bitterness a bit and give the beer a slight "cascadey" quality in its bittering profile, so as to maximize the percepted impact of the fresh hops.

I used a pint of dense, hoppy, 10-day-old WLP001 yeast slurry I got from Triple Rock, and that's fermenting at a cool 60F right now. Since I am not dry hopping this beer, as soon as it is finished in 2-3 weeks, I will crash cool it, fine it, and keg it. Hopefully that way I will get as much fresh hoppy aroma from it as I can.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe: Wet Hop American Summer
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale

Wort Volume Before Boil: 8.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.25 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.25 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.041 SG
Expected OG: 1.059 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 6.1 %
Expected ABW: 4.8 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 43.9
Expected Color: 13.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 77.7 %
Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 8lb 0oz (66.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Munich Malt 10L 3lb 0oz (24.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC/65L) 1lb 0oz (8.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special III 1.00 oz (0.5 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 90 Min From End
US Cascade (5.3 % alpha) 20 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 30 Min From End
US Glacier (5.6 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used 10 Min From End
US Cascade (5.0 % alpha) 55 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off

Other Ingredients

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 150 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
Flameout Cascades in this recipe were an early August harvest from my own hop vines. Alpha acid % is merely a guess. Name courtesy of Corn Dog