Sunday, May 4, 2008

Kölsch Ale

Update 7/31 - After about 2 months of waiting I hit this with the CO2 and it's very nice. Light in body and alcohol. Has that German lager aroma.
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I think the first Kölsch I had was the Pyramid Curveball. It was light, refreshing, grassy, and delicious. Gordon-Biersch also makes a decent Kölsch, which I found a little odd since it's technically an ale, and they tend to stick to lagers. Cool fermentation and a lagering period makes the style a really clean session beer perfect for slow summer days. This one I picked up as a kit from MoreBeer. It should be pretty decent with mild bittering from the Glacier and a noble aroma from the Vanguard. I tweaked the boil time on the second hop addition for a little more bitterness to more closely match the style's profile.

Batch #13
Kölsch Ale (extract)
White Labs German Ale/Kölsch Yeast
--4 lbs German Pils (LME)
--2 lbs Light Malt (DME)
--4 oz Maltodextrin
--8 oz Crystal 15L
--0.5 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (60min)
--1 oz Vanguard 4.4%AA (5min)
--1 Whirlfloc tab (20min)
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4%
Calc. IBUs: 16

Grains steeped for 30min at 160±5F in ~4 gallons of water. Dry malt and dextrin added after steeping, along with additional 2 gallons water. LME added at boil. First hops after hot break. Cooled with wort chiller, yeast pitched at 65F.

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