Sleepless in North Yorkshire - Kolsch

[bigdave]

Got my first brew on in 3 months and also my first brew since our baby girl was born (hence the name). I wanted to brew a kolsch to be enjoyed over the summer but it's taken me so long to find the time, summers nearly over! lol. This is what it looks like:



My boiler will only allow me to brew 20l batches so to fill a 30l polykeg I'll be back liquoring into the fermenter. Because of this you can pretty much ignore anything past the ingredients as its not accurate.

The mash is on and I'll add some pics later.

[bigdave]

I was about 0.5ºc over my target mash temp which is an acceptable tolerance I think.

Apart from that everything went to plan... My schoolboy sums added up and back liquoring worked perfectly leaving me with wort bang on OG target. I did somehow manage to collect about 1-2ltr more wort than expected so maybe I need to adjust my efficiency and losses?

Anyway, the pictures:

[ArmChair]

Looks a winner dave!
With the extra wort, you will be able to bottle me one lol

[bigdave]

Just checked the brew fridge (aka kegerator with a fermenter in) and the fermenter is just hanging on to it's contents.

[far9410]

How big is that FV, I need something bigger, could be what I'm looking for?

[bigdave]

It's a mango chutney barrel. It just holds 30l but there's only 3 inches head room for krausen so inevitably it's going to get messy.

I'm looking for something slightly bigger but as freebies go, a mango barrel works quite well.

[alix101]

Sorry posting after the fact looks like you had a decent brew day.
For me in a kolsch the hops are secondary I'd of put one addition in of Nobel hops at 60 for an ibu of about 20 that's it.
But it's all about how yours turns out not my opinion and it's a fantastic yeast.

[bigdave]

It's certainly not 'on style'. Using Vienna Malt makes sure of that. But it should give me an almost straw coloured, lightly hopped, aromatic kolsch-like beer.

The yeast seems to be fermenting really well with a lager-esqie sulphur aroma.

I'm hoping I can get another beer brewed to pitch onto the slurry when I rack off. Perhaps a true to style kolsch?

I'm going to bottle a few litres and will be glad to send you one to try?

[6470zzy]

Thanks for posting your brew day, the pictures are fantastic. You had a great looking rocky krausen there, how did you aerate the wort?

Cheers

[bigdave]

2ft drop into the fv then a good stir

[timbo41]

Looks terrible Dave why did you bother posting. Lol

[seymour]

Wow. Aramis and glacier together with authentic Kolsch yeast. Why didn't I think of that?!

Can't wait to hear how that turns out. Looks awesome.

Cheers, dad!

[Capper20]

That yeast looks fab.

[bigdave]

Kegged this last night.

The sample I tried was really clear but a little tasteless! I imagine it'll be that it was flat and 1ºC but I'm really hoping it livens up with conditioning.