My first attempt at a Kolsch

[DavidHatton]

Decided to brew an all grain kolsch for the visiting brother in law at christmas, I went with 5kg pilsner malt, 440g munich malt and 440g wheat malt! used whitelabs kolsch yeast, 20l batch and after 3 weeks in the cellar at 16c
Starting Gravity was 1.066 and ended at 1.008 giving me a 7.6% abv
still trying to get my efficiency numbers right as i only done 4 all grain brews so far, managed 82% efficiency according to Beersmith, this is three times out of four i have reach this percentage other all grain was biab.

very happy indeed,

will bottle on saturday, any tips about the next stage!! very welcome

Thanks D

 

[MyQul]

You could lager some of them and can actually lager it in the bottle. Plus you dont need to lager as long as you think. Put a few in the fridge(domestic, if you dont have a brew fridge - as many as MrsHatton will allow), and leave them their for 5-7 days. Drink, and put a few more in there

 

[DoctorMick]

7.6% our of less than 6kg of grain? I need your secret. :thumb:

 

[Zephyr259]

That's 88% attenuation! My Scottish Ale yeast did something similar in a simple malt bill of just pale and munich. What temp did you mash at? I went for 66c so no clue why mine dried out so much and not got round to reusing the yeast yet.

Looking forward to hearing how the kolsch turns out, it sounds like a tasty style I'd like to try, heard you can get winey esters going.

 

[Braufather]

Decided to brew an all grain kolsch for the visiting brother in law at christmas, I went with 5kg pilsner malt, 440g munich malt and 440g wheat malt! used whitelabs kolsch yeast, 20l batch and after 3 weeks in the cellar at 16c
Starting Gravity was 1.066 and ended at 1.008 giving me a 7.6% abv
still trying to get my efficiency numbers right as i only done 4 all grain brews so far, managed 82% efficiency according to Beersmith, this is three times out of four i have reach this percentage other all grain was biab.

very happy indeed,

will bottle on saturday, any tips about the next stage!! very welcome

Thanks D

what hops did you use. i am doing one on saturday and was looking to use magnum and stirling but coudln't get any so went for colombus and saaz

 

[DavidHatton]

You could lager some of them and can actually lager it in the bottle. Plus you dont need to lager as long as you think. Put a few in the fridge(domestic, if you dont have a brew fridge - as many as MrsHatton will allow), and leave them their for 5-7 days. Drink, and put a few more in there

would like to lager them all, can i bottle and store at cellar temp (16c) then chill for the 5 -7 days closer to xmas or do they need that cold chill as soon as bottled?

getting a second fridge is defo on the cards :lol:

Thanks for the advice...

 

[MyQul]

would like to lager them all, can i bottle and store at cellar temp (16c) then chill for the 5 -7 days closer to xmas or do they need that cold chill as soon as bottled?

getting a second fridge is defo on the cards :lol:

Thanks for the advice...

I think you should be ok to to lager for 5-7 days when your near to xmas

 

[DavidHatton]

That's 88% attenuation! My Scottish Ale yeast did something similar in a simple malt bill of just pale and munich. What temp did you mash at? I went for 66c so no clue why mine dried out so much and not got round to reusing the yeast yet.

Looking forward to hearing how the kolsch turns out, it sounds like a tasty style I'd like to try, heard you can get winey esters going.

I mashed at 64c for 60 mins, then sparge water was at 75c but i bought a perferated sheet for the mash tun as well as a copper system of draining, i have put it down to this! and i drain very slowly. so far it is total experimentation, i aim for 70% eff but as i mentioned seem to be getting 82%
i did a black ipa of 6.5kg grain bill and got 9% with just safale 05 :thumb:
basically i am a novice getting great result.

 

[DavidHatton]

I think you should be ok to to lager for 5-7 days when your near to xmas

Great, Thanks a bunch!
next brew the black ipa again as it was dynamite. :-o

 

[DavidHatton]

what hops did you use. i am doing one on saturday and was looking to use magnum and stirling but coudln't get any so went for colombus and saaz

I used Hallertauer mittelfrueh 40g at 60, 12g at 30, 12g at 15.

:thumb:

 

[DavidHatton]

7.6% our of less than 6kg of grain? I need your secret. :thumb:

so far i seem to be getting very good results, i brewed a black ipa 6 weeks ago and that came out at 9% all i know is its the devil's business :twisted: