Cold Feet Kolsch

Our third, and hopefully final (depending on how many cases we bottle) batch of beer for our wedding is going to be a Kölsch. This beer can bevery deceiving since its looks and taste similar to a lager but is actually a top fermenting ale. The brew originated in Cologne, Germany at the turn of the century and is bright yellow in color. The beer can have an assertive hop presence and the maltiness often takes on a wine-like character.

Since many of our guests have not tried great craft beer, especially craft beer made in a NYC apartment, this beer will appeal to people who drink Budweiser, Miller, or Coors. This brew is clean, light, crisp and is perfect for a summer’s day. Kim and I won’t get cold feet, but if the brew is ice-cold it will definitely cool you down.

The recipe:

• 8 lbs of German Pilsner malt
• 0.5 lb of Carapils malt

• 1 oz Saaz at 60 minutes
• 1 oz Saaz at 10 minutes
• 1 oz Saaz at 0 minutes (flameout)

Mashed in at 150°F and batch sparged.

Cooled to 65°F and pitched a 1.2 liter starter of Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch strain)

OG: 1.040

Notes from Beersmith:

6/5/10: Brewday. Preheatred mashtun. Overshot mashtemp a bit: 152F  at 0 minutes. 150F at 30 minutes. Missed mashout temp – 155F even though I added 7 qts of boiling water. More efficient to do a temp step on the stove. First runnings at 1.061 while second runnings are at 1.037. Final runnings:  1.021 – the lowest I’ve ever got. “Fly sparged” with spray attachment for sink faucet at 170F with 5 qts. OG was 1.040 since I added more water to bring up to 4.75 gallons, efficiency was 63% but should have been closer to 70% since I left a large amount of trub in the kettle (3-5 quarts worth). Pitched close to 70F and installed in chest freezer set for 55F.

6/7/10: Temp holding steady at 56F with decent airlock activity. Chestfreezer is working great.

6/8/10: Steady activity with temp at 55F

6/11/10: Fermentation activity appears to have ceased. I will leave the beer at this temp for a couple of more days.