Basically 2lb 4oz dry golden malt extract, 1 oz Amarillo hops boiled 7 min (23 IBU), 2 3/4 oz maltodextrin, and safale K-97 yeast. I think this is a kolsch yeast, but I don't really know. I got it from Brew Bros. and it is a repackaged dry yeast that I think is only available from safale in 500 g packages. Anyway it is a nice pretty neutral yeast. I only call this kolsh-ish cause I think the yeast is a kolsch ale yeast, if that even makes sense.
BeerSmith says it should be about 4.3% which is right where I like them.
Anyone know anything about this K-97 yeast? Mashani, I am looking at you
I've never used K-97, I've never seen it available anywhere I've shopped. But many German Ale yeasts and Kolsch yeasts are somewhat interchangeable, IE if it makes a good Alt it probably makes a good Kolsch too. As in Wyeast German Ale works well as a Kolsch yeast if you can't get the real thing.
Based on temperature ranges, it sounds more like a relative of the White Labs Kolsch / German Ale strains they the Wyeast ones. The Wyeast ones are colder fermenting. But all make good beer. And all make huge rocky krausen. So watch out for that. You might even bottle from under krausen unless you cold crash. It likely will be very cloudy when bottled unless you cold crash, the German Ale strains are usually low floc. But it will clear in the bottle with age.
With that short boil of Amarillo it will taste juicy and nothing at all like a Kolsch, but that's ok. It will be tasty lawnmower beer I'm sure. Nice to see others embrace the short boil. I've had great results with them, although I don't think I've ever done one quite as short as that.
And as far as short boils, I (and the couple of friends that like my beer) do not like bitter after taste or real bitter beer. So I shoot for about 20-25 IBU's when I make a blonde ale (or variation). According to BeerSmith, 7 minutes of this 9%-ish hop yields 24 IBU. Now I do a first wort type of hop boil in that the hops are in from the beginning of the heating of the wort and I only time the actual boil. I boil 1 gallon of wort (1 gal water/1 lb DME) for this, then after the boil, add the rest of the dme/maltodextrin while it is still hot, then cool, and add to enough water to make 2.25 gallons in the LBK.
So I don't know about short boils, but if I were to boil these hops for like an hour, I'd get 80 IBUS or something. At least according to BeerSmith. I just figured that all the people that boil hops for an hour must want really bitter beer. Even in a darker beer, like after steeping some roasted barley, I might go as high as 40 ibus. But even then, you're only talking about 15 minutes with a high alpha acid.
The beer turns out great, me and my taster friends think anyway, so I don't know if I backed into something or what, but short hop boils are all I've ever been doing. Since I don't mash, and do extract, I just figured the 1 hour boils was for the mashed wort and DMS.
If using high enough AA hops, I typically do a small bit at 15-20 to get stable bittering and a bit of flavor, then anything else as a hop stand with the lid on these days to add more flavor/aroma, slight extra bittering contribution, unless I'm following a recipe I did in the past and want to keep it "the same" so I can see difference in a single ingredient (like the blonde I just bottled to try out abbaye yeast).
My only fear with a shorter boil then that is that some of the bittering would fade over time - I know it does not with the schedule above. Some folks argue that too short of a boil the IBU contribution is "unstable". Now those same folks would argue that you need to boil even longer then I do above for them to be stable, so that all might be hogwash - more of the what we know because someone told us so like DMS, HSA, etc... which doesn't really happen to us for real. So as far as I am concerned if you have good results with that 7 minute boil, great!
FWIW, there are people reportedly doing AG with a 20 minute boil and making good beer too. Without DMS. So, more myths busted there it seems. I've done PMs with a 20 minute boil without issue, but never tried full on AG that way. (and I could point out that a traditional Berliner might even be done without any boiling at all, beyond raising it to a simmer for just a couple of seconds and tossing in some hops).
RE: Kolsch, German Noble hops are traditional, think spicy/floral, not fruity/citrusy. Or French hops like Striesselspalt. But they tend to be low AA, so you'd have to use too much with a short boil like you did to get the bittering, and the flavor/aroma contribution would be overwhelming for the style. Kolsch isn't supposed to be really "hoppy" tasting or on the nose.
French Armais, which is very streisselspalt like, would work better for a short boil hop schedule like yours as they are very high AA, so you will get the IBUs with the short boil. Santium hops are a good choice for a shorter boil too, as they tend to be higher in AAs but you might need to push the boil length up to around 20 minutes. The trick to doing a short boil Kolsch (or Belgian) is to find hops with the right flavor/aroma, and high enough AAs that you don't need to use a whole lot of them to get the results you are looking for - otherwise you end up with a Belgian IPA, or German/American Pale Ale Hybrid, or the like instead of something more true to the style.
no if I had a lower alpha hop, I'd boil it longer. I can do about 1 oz of hops in my spider, so I vary the boil time based on how many IBUs I want. Since I almost always to 1 oz of hops, if I need 30 IBU but the alpha is 3%, I would boil it longer than the 7 minutes here with a 8.8% or so alpha.
I never knew that the hop bittering would fade like you are describing. I have a ton of lower aa% Saaz, so I'll use that next time.
monsteroyd wrote:I never knew that the hop bittering would fade like you are describing. I have a ton of lower aa% Saaz, so I'll use that next time.
Monty
Honestly I don't know that it will, it's just that's what's "supposed" to happen if you don't boil long enough according to "commonly held wisdom".
I know that 15 and 20 minute boils have not "faded" for me even with 6 months of age.
So, only way to know in your case it to keep one of those bottles around for a while (say 4-6 months) and then try it. And then let us know if the 7 minute boil stayed stable, or suddenly tastes more sweet or not.
One thing to be aware of - hops with higher levels of beta acids are more stable with age too. That would include any noble hop. Beta acids oxidize with age into bittering compounds. So if the alpha acids fade due to age/oxidation, the beta acids turn bitter, it keeps the balance intact. Any beer with a noble hop or other high beta acid hop tends to be much more "stable" in this regards even at very old ages. Like years.
