Kolsch Rebrew

This is a rebrew of the Kolsch I brewed several weeks back and ended up pouring down the drain. I documented the reasons in my last post, but my reasons for dumping essentially boiled down to stressed yeast and a sluggish fermentation (at a best guess). Hence my first step this time around was to put half of a WLP029 vial in a 1L starter on my stir plate. This finished last Sunday and has been in the keezer since. I drew off a 2.5L starter at the end of the brew day and pitched the yeast from the 1L stirred starter into this.

The main batch was no chilled so this big starter got a day to bump up cell counts before I pitched it. I was then pitching at a rate of around 14million cells/ml, which really is overpitching, but I'm taking no chances this time round. Fermentation temp is 16C.

The recipe remains unchanged. It's a very slightly modified version of Jamil's 'JZ Fruh' Kolsch from 'Brewing Classic Styles'. Getting hold of the White labs Kolsch yeast was not that straightforward as I mentioned before, but for me it's by far the best yeast for a Kolsch, and gives me the flavour profile I expect and enjoy. It should be mentioned that it's Kolsch yeast that makes Kolsch unique, trying this recipe with any other yeast would yield dramatically different results.

Instead of the local malts I used the last time round, I used Bestmalz for this brew. Actually I think it's the first time I've ever used German Malt. I noticed that there was a huge amount of hot break, I'm guessing from the extra protein in this malt.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe Specifics

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Batch Size (L):          22.50    Wort Size (L):     22.5

Total Grain (kg):         4.90

Anticipated OG:          1.050

Anticipated SRM:           2.8

Anticipated IBU:          26.4

Brewhouse Efficiency:       75 %

Wort Boil Time:             90    Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts

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Evaporation Rate:      15.00    Percent Per Hour

Pre-Boil Wort Size:   29.03    L

Pre-Boil Gravity:      1.036    SG          9.12  Plato

Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name

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 95.4     4.67 kg.  BestMalz Pilsener

  4.6     0.23 kg.   BestMalz Vienna Malt             

Hops

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time

---------------------------------------------------------------

 45.00 g.     Mt. Hood                          Pellet   3.90  26.4  90 min.

Yeast

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White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch

Water Treatment:

2 tsp CaCl2

2ml Lactic Acid 88%