Brian was back in town for the holidays, and we needed something to do, so we decided to brew another batch of beer. We chose to make another Kolsch style beer as the last one we made (Gun Closet Kölsch) turned out pretty well, and we wanted to do another lager process. We headed down to Larry’s Brewing Supply and picked up some ingredients.
| Grains | |
| 0.5 Lb | Victory |
| 0.5 Lb | Munich Light |
| 0.5 Lb | Carapils |
| Extract | |
| 5.5 Lb | Light Malt Extract |
| 0.5 Lb | Wheat Malt Extract |
| Hops | |
| 1 oz | Tettenang (5.5% AA) |
| 1 oz | Vanguard (5.4% AA) |
| Yeast | |
| 1 package | Wyeast 1007 German Ale |
| Other | |
| 1 tsp | Brewing Salts |
| 3/4 cup | Priming Sugar |
Process:
For this beer we used water collected from an artesian well near Black Diamond, WA. The water comes up from a garden hose, hence the name “Hose Water Kölsch”.
Activated the yeast packet. Heated 2 gallons of water with brew salts to 155F. Added the grains to a grain bag, then steeped at 155F for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. After 30 minutes, removed the grain bag, let the juices drain into the wort, and then started heating the wort to a boil. As the wort heated we added our malt extract and let it dissolve in the wort. We didn’t add any extra water at this point in hopes that having a smaller wort volume would allow us to cool the wort quicker after we were done with the boil.
When the wort began to boil, Brian added 1 oz Vanguard hops to bitter the beer, total boil time 60 minutes. At 15 minutes left in the boil ½ oz of Tettenang hops were added, and another ½ oz of Tettenang was added at 5 minutes left in the boil. These hops are for aroma and flavor.
After the boil the hot brew was put into a 5-gallon bucket for primary fermentation. We added some freezer-chilled water to get up to 5 gallons and to cool the wort. When we got to 85 degrees F we pitched the yeast, sealed the bucket, and put on an airlock. Unfortunately our local brew store was out of Kölsch yeast, so we substituted the German Ale yeast instead. The flavors will be a bit different, but it should turn out just fine.
Put into primary on 12-31-09. Original Gravity measured at 1.052 (6.87% potential alcohol). Bitterness came out to be 21.8 IBU. Will let sit in primary for about two weeks, and then will put into a cool closet in our basement (~55 degrees F) to lager for 6 weeks or more.
Racked to 5-Gallon carboy on 1-13-09. Specific gravity measured to be 1.012. Placed the carboy in the cool closet in the basement, and now will let it sit for around 6 weeks before bottling.
Bottled on 2-27-10. Specific gravity measured at 1.01, making this beer 5.1 %ABV. Added 1/2 cup of priming sugar instead of 3/4 cup, hoping to keep this beer from becoming over-carbonated like the last few batches have become after sitting for a while. Will let it condition for a week or two in the bottles before drinking.
Tags: beer, brewing, home-brew, Hose Water Kolsch, kolsch, lagering, recipe