Maggie Kolsch - Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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| The Magster |
Ingredients
11 lbs. Rahr
12 ozs. Munich I - ( seems to be a lot, may lower it to 8 ozs. next brew )
17.40 g Magnum at 60 min.
30 g Hallertau at 10 min.
30 g Hallertau at 0 min.
Escarpment Labs Kolsch - ( February 22/24 )
(59F - 72F) so I think I will raise it to 60F. WLP092 was always at 60 and they said to ferment it
at 62F. I think 60F is a good temp.
Boil a 1.5 L starter. After cooling, use only 1 L for your starter. When it is done, remove only 500 ml to your jar for an over build. You will still have lots of cells left to ferment with. Use 126 grams of DME. Even if you have more than a L of starter wort, use only 1 L for your starter. I am not used to making smaller starters. I was making lager starters which require a bigger build. Need to get this done right away if you want to keg it before we go to the USA.
Mash
Gyp - 1.3 g
CI - 1.2 g
Eps - 1.9 g
Lactic Acid - 2.1 ml
PH - 5.30
Boil
Gyp - 1.2 g
CI - 1.1 g
Eps - 1.7g
Sparge - .2 ml Lactic Acid
CA - 36
MG - 9
S04 - 70
CI - 35
O.G. - 1.046
F.G. -
% -
SRM - 4.5
BU - 24
BREW DAY NOTES
Not sure if I had a problem or not this morning. I checked the mash temp and it read 143F. Not sure if that was because it loses heat re-circulating or not. I raised the temp to 158F. Now that took 30 minutes to do that. I will have to check Mr. Robobrew every brew day to compare what my thermopen says and what it says. Adjust if needed. Chiller in and almost cooled down by 10:00 am. Now to do my favourite part of brew day, clean up!!!!!! I got an incredible amount of trub. The kettle was jam packed with it. I whirl pooled before adding to the fermenter, but the first 2 gallons or so were very cloudy. Should I leave it like 1 hour? 2 hours? Gotta clean up sometime. Wort tasted good though.
Small Brewing Disaster
I reached for my cell phone to time my aeration and it was plugged in. Spilt the gravity sample all over the floor and broke the hydrometer.
Kolsch Yeast Pitched @ 3 pm.
Next Morning Day 1 - Starting to get some Krausen at 10 am. 58F. Leaving it there.
It was quite slow to get going but I find most liquid yeast is like that. Around mid-day it
was going real good.
Day 2 - Going real good. 58F.
Day 3 - Raising it to 60F. Definitely want it to ferment fully as this is a floculant yeast and
you don't want it to quit early.
Day 4 - Going good. 60F. Yeast is doing it's job now as the carboy has no trub on the bottom
now. Working as it should.
Day 5 - Same. Going to check the temp on Mr. Robobrew now to see if there is any changes
from my thermopen vs what he says. It is fine.
ROBOBREW - 57F
THERMOPEN - 56F
Day 6 - Seems to be done or almost done. Krausen way down. Give it 10 more days
and keg it. Add gelatin and leave for vacation. That will give you around 3
weeks to clear and age.
Day 7 - Done. Wait around 10 more days to keg.
Day 8 - Turned off fridge. It is now 62F. Still bubbling but the lag time between bubbles is
quite wide. At least 5 minutes, maybe longer.
KEG ON MARCH 31st
I have still heard the odd bubble from the air lock when I am down there. I will keg this
anyway, but will check the FG. I assume I will have a higher FG than I wanted as I
raised the mash at the 30 min. mark because I thought it was too low. Not paying
attention in future batches to the temp on Mr. Robobrew as it is covered with trub
which gives false readings. Just set it and check it doesn't over flow and that is it.
SAMPLE ON MARCH 30
I just have to steal a sample to see if I am on the right track. I have brewed this many
times with way too many hit and miss batches. I know I used too much Munich I with
this recipe but that is not what I am looking for here. I am looking at my water profile
and if it suits the rest of my process. I hate to change it as this one seems to be the
sweet spot of German Kolsch water profiles I have looked at. This one is from a German
brewer in the US who many brew Kolsch beers with his process.
Nice!! Kind of sweet but they all taste sweet at this stage. No gravity check because there
is nothing I can do to change it. Kegging very soon. It has that kind of spicey after taste
I always thought came from Pils malt. Nope, this is Canadian 2 row. Great, so no change
to my recipe. No off flavours, no odd or funny taste as of yet. I will add the biofine when
I keg it. It can sit for a few days and I will give it a taste just before we go. It will have
around 3 weeks to age.
Sample on April 9
This has that slimey hallertau hop taste which I hate a few years ago when I used too much aroma hop in the last 10 and 0 min. Therefore, I deleted it in the May brew and just going with Magnum at 60 and also 30 grams at 60 min. I am sure there will be no slimey noble hop taste. I have to describe it better, but it is not pleasant. Now if it was a US hop it would not be there. I could of hit in the keg the part where the biofine is dropping the trub etc. down to the bottom of the keg and I just happened to taste it. We will see after our trip.
Back from our trip. Very tired now but it was a great trip. US beer is expensive now, at least in California. Their Craft Beer is just as expensive as ours. Some is way more, not what I was expecting for sure. Will trasnfer my Kolsch today to another keg and carb it up. Should be clear by now. I has had 3 weeks to clear. It didn't.
NOT CLEAR
Okay, Biofine sucks. Going back to gelatin. Buy them at Sobeys in the sachets. This beer is okay, but not what I was expecting in a Kolsch. Going back to WLP029 when I do the main brew in the Conical around late May and onward. Should be able to get 2 batches in before August comes around.
TASTE
Not that great. I assume it has an off taste due to the starter over flowing on the stir plate. May toss this as I just don't like it. Better stop the C02 in the fridge then. It has an incredible malty smell that I just don't like. I bet the FG is high too. Did not take one. It is 1.010. Did not finish the keg. Tossed the over build and that is it for Kolsch beers. Trying a lager but this time I will age it for a few weeks until the first week of August.
UPDATE ON MAY 7
Taste is better than it was a few weeks ago. Still not clear though. Taste is not crisp. Okay beer but not what my older Kolsch beers tasted like. At least it isn't a dumper. Once it warms up, that odd taste is starting to appear. Still not dumping it, but yea, not a good beer at all. You can do better. I know what did it. The starter over flowed and must of picked up something off of the tin foil. I didn't sanitize it. Duh!!
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