Brew Session: Kolsch

Even though my experience is limited I love Kölsch. I was told by my German buddy that the word Kölsch means Cologne-ish or from Cologne ( Köln-ish depending on where your keyboard is from). In fact the Kölsch convention of 1986 states that Kölsch must be brewed in the Cologne region of Germany.

A glass of Kölsch is tall and beautiful, much like my German friend. It should be very bubbly, have thick crown of foam and served in a small (4-7oz) glass called a Stange. The people of Cologne must have a bubble fetish(who doesn't?). This tiny glass insures that beer is fresh from the tap and still has a lot of spritz in it.

This is a light bodied beer with a delicate malt/hop balance and quite a challenge for the home brewer. There is no place for any off-flavors to hide. It is much easier to make a roasty dark beer or a IPA bursting with hops than a delicate beer like this. This means a good tasting Kölsch has to be fussed over at every stage.

My first recipe (in the picture) was very similar to this one except I used wheat malt in place of Vienna and Carapils malts. This was a very tradition recipe from the 1800s and it turned out very tasty. In fact, this beer was included in the best of show at a local home brew fair. Nowadays, Kölsch is almost never brewed with wheat malt. Wheat lends a tangy quality which I haven't tasted in any of the versions I have tried so I modernized my recipe. During the first brewing it rained and on this brew day it hailed, hence the name.

Come Hail and High Water Kölsch

Recipe for 6 gallons
9.75 lbs German Pilsner Malt
0.75 lbs Vienna Malt
0.25 lbs Carapils Malt
1 oz Hallertau 3.3% @ 60 minutes
1 oz Saaz 3.0% @ 60 minutes
1 oz Saaz 3.0% @ 10 minutes

Mash in at 147F and hold for 60 minutes (the temperature actually wondered from 145-149F during brewing). Step up to 159F and hold for 15 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes. I do a modified batch sparge but any style show work. Ferment at 57-59F, then lager for a month.



The first picture here is just before the hail started pestering, you can see I put 2 kegs to good use as a table. The seconds picture is 2 days later when the fermentation was in full swing. Check out the foam on that baby and it has a nice aroma, this tells me the fermentation is very healthy.