BeerBorg

Yeah, I haven't come up with a name yet, sue me.

mashani may be the only person that care about this one, as I don't recall a lot of people talking about brewing a kolsch, but who knows....?

Anyway, I finally got around to brewing this earlier today using the Kolsch Malt from MoreBeer that I've been wanting to try. I used the same hop schedule as before so I could see the difference, but to be fair it's been a year since my last kolsch so I'll be working from memory in terms of comparisons.

Pretty easy recipe, but I posted here simply because it's AG:
Kolsch malt
Wheat malt
Saaz and hallertauer @ 60
WLP029

My mistake today was multi-tasking and combing through stats for the volleyball team I coach (we had a tourney yesterday). I thought I had set this a 3G batch, but somewhere along the line I set it as 2.4G so I ended up with more, weaker wort than planned. When I realized the mistake (while transferring to the carboy) I quickly boiled up some wheat DME I had on hand to make up the 6pts I missed. Normally I wouldn't worry about missing gravity, but this would have put me below the style range, and I wanted to have an apples-to-apples comparison to the last batch at the target gravity.

So, it's been pitched and the blowoff tube has been set. I'm leaving town for a few days in the morning so I don't want to chance a stuck airlock and projectile while I'm away.

I'm curious to see if this turns out with a "slightly sweet, biscuit flavor and aroma" like the malt description claims. It will be a while before this one is ready, as it's likely an April drinker.

Kealia wrote:So, it's been pitched and the blowoff tube has been set. I'm leaving town for a few days in the morning so I don't want to chance a stuck airlock and projectile while I'm away.

I know you travel and do this quite often, but I don't know that I could. I'd bug the sh*t out of my wife, "Is my beer ok, is there activity in the airlock, I'm on my way home".
With your nerves of steel you could call it, "Meh, should be beer".

What exactly do think video chat is for?

Kealia wrote:What exactly do think video chat is for?

"Move your head dear, I can't see my airlock"

I love me some kolsch. Will be interested to hear how this turns out. It's a style definitely on my short list, as it's one of my favorites. Blackstone here in Nashville makes a pretty good one... did you try that when you were here in Nashville?

I think I had one at Cool Springs, but not Blackstone. I'm sure there are nuances that I'll miss (water profile, etc.) but I was happy with last year's batch so I'm looking forward to this one, too.

Like lots of others, I like having a range of beers on hand, instead of a lot of one style so this will be nice to have on those spring evenings when the weather starts to warm up a bit and I don't want anything too heavy.

I'll keep ya posted.

Just realized that I brewed this today while wearing my Antler Brewing t-shirt. I think I'll have to incorporate that into the name somehow.....Elkolsch?

I'm very interested in how the Kolsh malt works out. I've always used Pilsner and Wheat. I like a little bit of wheat in my Kolsh for the extra head retention/mouthfeel, and don't worry if it's crystal clear personally, although even with some wheat it does still tend to clear nicely with age. I don't like to mash pilsner because it adds 60+ minutes to my brew day, so I've been using MoreBeer pils for them recently, but I would mash some Kolsch malt that is kilned a bit higher and shouldn't need the extra mash and boil time.

I'm brewing another Kolsch as soon as my temps get back to where I an make the washed WLP029 I've got happy. Too cold in my basement for it right now. I'd have to pick up some Wyeast Kolsch, but I've got a bunch of the WLP029, so I don't wanna. BTW, Santium hops make nice Kolsch too if you want to try something different one day. So if this works out for you I might take a stab at it myself.

really? I knew you had to boil pilsner longer, I didn't know you had to mash it longer. probably going to be good to know information later.

It depends on the mash temps really but my experience in the past suggest 75-90 minutes is needed for full conversion depending on the mash temperature (lower = longer). But I've always used German/Belgian pilsner when I get the real thing. Maybe American stuff is more modified and will fully convert quicker, I dunno.

mashani wrote:I'm very interested in how the Kolsh malt works out. I've always used Pilsner and Wheat. I like a little bit of wheat in my Kolsh for the extra head retention/mouthfeel, and don't worry if it's crystal clear personally, although even with some wheat it does still tend to clear nicely with age. I don't like to mash pilsner because it adds 60+ minutes to my brew day, so I've been using MoreBeer pils for them recently, but I would mash some Kolsch malt that is kilned a bit higher and shouldn't need the extra mash and boil time.

I'm brewing another Kolsch as soon as my temps get back to where I an make the washed WLP029 I've got happy. Too cold in my basement for it right now. I'd have to pick up some Wyeast Kolsch, but I've got a bunch of the WLP029, so I don't wanna. BTW, Santium hops make nice Kolsch too if you want to try something different one day. So if this works out for you I might take a stab at it myself.

I used some of the MoreBeer Pilsner LME in my IPL that is fermenting now based on your reviews of it.

Santium sounds interesting. I'll have to make note of that for a future rendition, thanks.
And PM your address and I'll send a bottle your way since it was your initial discussions about this malt that made me try it.

This one is starting to fall clear already. Started it at 65, it was 66 while I was traveling, and then I raised it to 68 when I got home for 3 days. I've now taken the heat off it and I'm letting it do its thing around 64/65 for one more week before I can cold crash it. My IPL is hogging up the fridge until the weekend.

This is getting bottled today and labeled tonight. I decided on the name "More Antler Kolsch".
I got the grains from More Beer and I was wearing a very cool t-shirt from Antler Brewing when I brewed this batch so it seemed fitting. I'm going to use a picture of one of the bull elk that we shot (with a camera) in Yellowstone last year for the art. I'll post up a picture of the label once it's ready.

I didn't get around to making the label last night but I did take a quick picture of the hydro sample at bottling time. No gelatin this time around (I used it on my last kolsch) but I'll be damned if it didn't drop crystal clear again with a 3-day cold crash, even with some wheat in the grain bill.

I was also surprised that it wasn't darker. The write up of the malt makes it sound like it is significantly darker than the standard kolsch, but from this sample it doesn't appear that way. It may be a tad darker than the style by the books, but it's much lighter than expected - which is a good thing.

That's a beaut Clark!!!! And some great ideas on the name also. Thanks for throwing some kudos to the Antlers!!!

Can I ask what the ratio of the two grains were?