HOMEBREW Digest #6094 Thu 26 June 2014
FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
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Contents:
Kolsch Tips? (Adam Arndt)
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Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 21:52:45 +0000
From: Adam Arndt <adama at microsoft.com>
Subject: Kolsch Tips?
My home brew club is doing a group brew of a pretty simple Kolsch recipe; I
figured I'd share my Kolsch / light beer tips and I'd solicit any others that
people have.
As you can see I'm very much interested in a Kolsch without any HINT of
graininess or lingering / harsh bitterness and that is bright / clear.
Grist:
* As always if you want to go traditional a simple grist is the way
to go and always use German ingredients; a blend of mostly Pilsner with some
light malted wheat and a small bit of light Munich if desired
* Dough-in: I find the German Pilsner + wheat malt combo to really
result in a lot of dough balls so be ready to really spend some time getting
doughed-in properly if you're mashing in above the gelatinization temp
* Milling: Conditioning your malt will help keep husks from getting
shredded; shredded husks release more tannins/ polyphenols which ruin light
beers, IMHO (use 2% water by weight sprayed with a fine mist and thoroughly
mixed; -let set for 10 min before milling
Water:
This is an area I'm looking for tips; I have EXTREMELY soft Seattle water
that I treat with double stage carbon block filters.
* 1 Tbsp calcium chloride added directly to the mash (to help the
mash ph, aid clarity and to focus on soft, malty flavors)
Mash:
* I like to mash light beers on the thinner side to have less sparge
water to decrease the likelihood of extracting tannins
* Mash low for that high fermentability that you want in a kolsch;
alternatively multistep infusion mash or upward infusion mash (the upward
infusion mash starting from below the gelatinization temp will avoid dough
balls as an added bonus) -I target 63C which I guess is 145.4F
* Recirculation mash for 60 min; if not recirculating a 90 minute
mash will give you that extra bit of fermentability
* Avoid oxygen pickup especially if recirculating -oxygen will
increase color of this VERY light beer style
Sparge:
* Again limit oxygen pickup
* I batch sparge my kolsch to reduce the risk of over sparging and
extracting grainy tannins
* Acidify sparge water to avoid extracting grainy tannins
* Heat the initial runoff (First runnings) to 68C and hold there to
"super charge" enzymes and to essentially perform a 2nd step
* Target a lower-than-normal 1st batch sparge temp of 68C to "super
charge" enzymes left in the mash as an essential 2nd temp step
Boil:
* At home brew scale 90 minute boils for DMS from pilsner malt are
largely unnecessary; this especially holds true with my 1:1 height to width
kettle geometry and high boil off rate
* I use an electric low heat density element and turn the heat
output down to 60% for all but the last 10 min of the boil to keep the wort
darkening to a minimum
* With 10 min left to the boil I add both whirlfloc and polyclar
(PVPP) the combination is GREAT at helping both hot break and tannin
flocculation but results in lots of fluffy trub and large wort losses
Chill:
* Chill rapidly below 140F to prevent DMS formation
Fermentation:
I'd love some discussion on temps with the different kolsch strains
* The colder you're fermenting the more yeast you need but target in
between ale and lager pitch rates, depending upon fermentation temp
* Transfer off of the trub, prior to pitching, as in the German
tradition
* Pitch at fermentation temps -don't pitch high and wait for it to
chill; upward fermentation ok; flat fermentation temp profile ok; downward ==
bad
* Personally I simply ferment at 60-63F
* Either skim off the "braun hefe" -brown fermentation crud or let
it blow off via blow off tube to avoid harsh bitterness
* Lager: cold and long (-1C for as long as you can stand it)
I'm very much interested in tricks to get this thing to drop bright when you
only have 3 weeks to lager. Should I just give up hope with a Kolsch strain
and clarity without filtering; any finings recommendations?
Thanks,
Adam
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End of HOMEBREW Digest #6094, 06/26/14
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