After finishing out my last competition beers for 2016, I had a little gap before brewing my NHC 2017 beers so I wanted to brew a couple beers to have on draft while I wait for all my NHC lagers to finish up.  I was looking through the category list and realized in all the years I’ve been brewing I have never brewed a Kolsch.  I’m not a huge Kolsch fan but I like it so why not 🙂  I looked through all the old NHC recipes and my library of books and just hodgepodged it all together for this recipe.  The one are I would probably change is that the hop aromatics we’re a bit too floral and too much so if I brewed it again I would switch the hops to a classic german noble hop and cut the late addition from 1 oz to 0.5 oz.

Recipe Info
Recipe: kolsch 3v v1
Style: Kölsch 5B BJCP 2015
Date: 11-13-2016

	Recipe	Guideline Min	Guideline Max
OG	1.051	1.044	1.050
FG	1.010	1.007	1.011
Color	3.5	3.5	5.0
ABV	5.3	4.4	5.2
IBU	26.0	18.0	30.0

Brewery Info
Efficiency: 70 %
Attenuation: 80 %

Mash Info
Weight: 13.0 Lbs
Thickness: 1.25 Qt per Lb
Deadspace: 2.0 G
Strikewater: 6.06 G
Volume: 7.1 G
Temp: 150.0 F

Boil Info
Kettle Gravity: 1.042
Predicted Mash Run-off: 4.89 G
Target Starting Boil Volume: 7.75 G
Boil Duration: 60 min
Evaporation Rate: 1.25 G per Hour
Final Boil Volume: 6.5 G

Fermentables

Weight	% by Weight	Name	Yield	SRM
12.000 Lb	92.0 %	Pilsen (BestMälz)	78.3	1.5
1.000 Lb	8.0 %	Vienna (BestMälz)	76.1	4.1

Hops

Weight	Name	AAU	Time	Use	IBUs
1.6 Oz	Liberty	5.2	60 mins	Boil	26.0

1 oz Liberty @ 5 mins

Yeast

Amount	Name
1.000 unit	German Ale/Kolsch White Labs WLP029

Misc

Amount	Name	Time	Use
1.000 tablet	Whirlfloc Tablet	15 mins	Boil
1.000 tsp	Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast)	10 mins	Boil

Water

Predicted Mash Ph: 5.40

	Ca	Mg	Na	Cl	So	Bicarbonate
Water	7	3	21	11	24	46
Mash	96	3	21	96	122	46
Sparge	7	3	21	11	24	46
Final	89	3	19	89	113	43
Target	75	0	0	0	0	0

Mash Water
Total Water Treated: 6.000 G
Percent RO / Distlled: 0 %
Water Used: 6.000 G

Mash Water Adjustments
Gypsum: 4.0 g
Calcium Chloride: 4.0 g
Lactic Acid: 5.0 ml @ 88.000 %

Sparge Water
Leftover Mash Water Used: Yes
Total Water Treated: 2.856 G
Percent RO / Distlled: 0 %
Water Used: 0.000 G

Sparge Water Adjustments

Notes

Mash 131F 10 min
145F 45 min
158F 20 min
168F 10 min

Ferment 58F 4 days
68F through 2 weeks

Lager for 2 weeks

11/15/16 starter WLP029
hybrid pitch rate -> 4G 1.049
185 billion cells -> .75L starter 75g DME
11/17/16 2nd 3V HERMS brewday.  went a lot smoother than first time.  no issues.  pitching @ 55F @ 1pm.  12 hrs -> 58F for 4 days -> 68F till 2 weeks
11/18/16 thin kreusen and slow steady bubbling @ 8am
11/19/16 1″ kreusen and solid bubbling
11/20/16 ”
11/22/16 kreusen dropped but slow steady bubbling
11/23/16 ~9 sec dropping clear
11/24/16 ~12 sec
11/25/16 no activity
12/4/16 racked to keg FG 1.012 pH 4.16 (seems low)
clean.  nice round malt character.  fruity esters.  a bit of a green yeast flavor but should clean up.  maybe low level sulfur.  promising but needs lagering time.
12/21/16 it has dropped super clear.

My Kolsch vs Sunner Kolsch

aroma:
me: low grainy sweet.  med/low floral hop.  med/low esters.  clean
sunner: grainy.  no hop aroma.
different but fairly similar

appearance:
me: yellow.  very good clarity.
sunner: gold with excellent clarity
sunner is noticeably darker

flavor:
me: grainy sweet.  med/low esters.  low floral hops
sunner: oxidized.  bummer.  sweet.  a bit grainy.
mine is much brighter and a bit hoppier

mouthfeel:
similar.  med body and carb.

overall:
kinda similar but mine has more hop presence and much cleaner malt character and all around better but this sunner is clearly oxidized.

My Kolsch vs Gaffel

aroma:
me: low grainy sweet.  low herbal and floral hop.  low esters (berry)
gaffel: low grainy.  med-low herbal.  a little sulfur?
mine is more estery and floral.  gaffel is almost german pilsner like with a very clean malt character and a classic german hop aroma.

appearance: similar.  gaffel is a little more golden and has better clarity.

flavor:
me: grainy sweet with low berry esters and floral notes
gaffel: malt character is similar but with a bit more bready notes than mine (munich vs vienna?).  hope character is very different.  gaffel is much more classic noble hop character w/ more herbal and less floral.  esters are very restrained to non-existent in gaffel w/ just a bit of sulfur.

mouthfeel:
similar

overall:  kinda similar but noticeable differences
– malt character is close but gaffel is a hint more bready
– gaffel has a better more classic noble hop character.  should switch mine from liberty to hallertauer or tetnang
– gaffel has very low esters.   not sure i like that.  almost too clean.
– gaffel has a little sulfur that nicely rounds out the beer and gives it a nice dry finish

My Kolsch vs Reissdorf

aroma:
me: generic malty sweet and grainy.  floral hops w/ a bit of herbal.  low berry esters.
reissdorf: low malt character – just sweet.  low herbal hop.  very low sulfur – just a hint.

appearance:  almost exactly the same color and head.  reissdorf is crystal clear and mine has good clarity but not as good as reissdorf.

flavor:
me: graham cracker, sweet grainy malt -> low.  floral / herbal hops.  low ester.
reissdorf: similar malt character.  hops are more restrained w/ just herbal no floral character.  yeast esters are similar.

mouthfeel: same.  med body and carb.  nice lightly dry finish.

overall: very similar.  reissdorf is the beer my kolsch is most similar too of the try I tried side by side.  main difference is hops.  reissdorf has classic noble hop herbal earthy profile and mine is more floral.  and mine is not quite right.  also reissdorf is a little more bitter or maybe more carbonic bite?  there is a difference in the finish where mine has a sweetness and reissdorf has a little bite.   maybe bitterness.  maybe sulfur.  but carb looks visually the same.

overall reissdorf is the most similar.  gaffel has more hop flavor and more bready flavors and it a bit more german pilsner-ish.  sunner was hard to compare since it was clearly oxidized.