flet-mey kolsch
brewed: 28/04/14
pitched: 28/04/14
kegged: 15/05/14
subsequent batch info: my first attempt at a german kolsch. very excited.
ingredients:
4.6kg joe white vienna
100gm joe white cara-malt
35gm tettnang (pellets, 4.5 aa%, 60 mins)
10gm tettnang (pellets, 4.5 aa%, 5 mins)
1 pack wyeast 1007 - german ale yeast
1 tablet whirlfloc
0.5 tsp yeast nutrient
process:
20L batch, single infusion, no sparge, mash at 65C for 60 mins, boil for 90 mins, plate chilled, 16C fermentation, 2C cold crash
estimated OG: 1.048 (wanted lower due to drying and bottle conditioning turned out good anyway)
actual OG: 1.042
estimated FG: 1.009
actual FG: 1.008
%AbV: 4.5
ibu: 20
brewing notes:
26/04/14 - the boys have tasked me with making a european-esque beer for a party we're having in a month from now. i've decided to re-brew a similar beer to the angry princess blonde. so far the hops i'll be primarily using for a european flavour will be hallertau, but i might try and change that up to something a little different. additionally, i might change up the yeast to a kolsch yeast or the same cream ale blend i used for the angry princess. will see how it pans out. this will be a quick brew done this week! the name comes from the fletcher family and the meyer family and our plan on indian beer world domination...or something. this beer is named in remembrance of a very bad hangover day when jenna and i were in san francisco visiting chris and meera, and meera turned to me, as hungover as i was...and said...let's get a beer. cracked me up and made me smile. she got a kolsch!
28/04/14 - brewed up this baby tonight. another night brew, like the 27 monterey lager. here's hoping this one turns out a bit better. this beer has now been changed from a blonde ale, into a kolsch, which basically just involved using a german ale yeast, german hops, and vienna malt (the latter not necessarily required but i felt it fit the bill). most blonde ales have adjuncts and are more american ingredient based. i'm super excited (as always) to give this one a taste, as i've never had the german hop tettnang before and have heard it's quite nice. still decided whether i want to have the beer kegged or bottled (bottling always seems to take such a long time to condition so we'll see).
i decided to do a 60 minute mash to make sure i didn't get the gravity all the way to where it should have been. this was just because, if i bottle it, i didn't want the beer to be a 6% job. too strong for a typical kolsch. probably a bad idea because i ended up getting it at 1.042 because i didn't lose enough to boil and my batch size was too great. meh. i know it'll be a ripper anyway so it's all good. if it's 4.3% in the keg i'm still a happy man.
13/05/14 - just cold crashed this bad boy - can't believe i've actually waited this long to do it! 15 days! i decided that unlike my other beers, i wanted this one to mature in its full capacity. often in the past, i've waited until a beer has gone to it's final gravity and crashed it almost immediately then bottled it. i've found that this means the beer isn't ready as soon as i'd normally like. so i'm trying this method out and seeing how it fares. i intend to keg this in a few days time and then let it sit at serving pressure for about a week and a half to carbonate up.
15/05/14 - kegged this bad boy last night. VERY pumped to try it in about a week and then take it to wilsy's party.
tasting notes:
28/04/14 - tasted pre-ferment...yum. a lovely malty-ness but not much as yet in the way of the hops. i'm sure this will come to the fore with the use of the german ale yeast.
05/05/14 - had a taste a few days back, mid-ferment and it was awful. extremely yeasty and very unfinished, but then tasted today, and the gravity was down to 1.010, almost smack-bang on target. it was tasting VERY nice. looking forward to chilling and kegging this baby soon.
08/06/14 - oh my goody-goodness. amazing. had a taste test of this two weeks ago for the party and sadly it wasn't ready in time. still tasting very green. it is now tasting AMAZING. so crisp. will definitely need to do this one again soon. this won't last long. no fruity esters to be had at all as was advised might happen at that temperature. absolutely love it and really enjoy the taste. slight graininess from the grist too.
brew day / beer pictures:
pitched: 28/04/14
kegged: 15/05/14
subsequent batch info: my first attempt at a german kolsch. very excited.
ingredients:
4.6kg joe white vienna
100gm joe white cara-malt
35gm tettnang (pellets, 4.5 aa%, 60 mins)
10gm tettnang (pellets, 4.5 aa%, 5 mins)
1 pack wyeast 1007 - german ale yeast
1 tablet whirlfloc
0.5 tsp yeast nutrient
process:
20L batch, single infusion, no sparge, mash at 65C for 60 mins, boil for 90 mins, plate chilled, 16C fermentation, 2C cold crash
estimated OG: 1.048 (wanted lower due to drying and bottle conditioning turned out good anyway)
actual OG: 1.042
estimated FG: 1.009
actual FG: 1.008
%AbV: 4.5
ibu: 20
brewing notes:
26/04/14 - the boys have tasked me with making a european-esque beer for a party we're having in a month from now. i've decided to re-brew a similar beer to the angry princess blonde. so far the hops i'll be primarily using for a european flavour will be hallertau, but i might try and change that up to something a little different. additionally, i might change up the yeast to a kolsch yeast or the same cream ale blend i used for the angry princess. will see how it pans out. this will be a quick brew done this week! the name comes from the fletcher family and the meyer family and our plan on indian beer world domination...or something. this beer is named in remembrance of a very bad hangover day when jenna and i were in san francisco visiting chris and meera, and meera turned to me, as hungover as i was...and said...let's get a beer. cracked me up and made me smile. she got a kolsch!
28/04/14 - brewed up this baby tonight. another night brew, like the 27 monterey lager. here's hoping this one turns out a bit better. this beer has now been changed from a blonde ale, into a kolsch, which basically just involved using a german ale yeast, german hops, and vienna malt (the latter not necessarily required but i felt it fit the bill). most blonde ales have adjuncts and are more american ingredient based. i'm super excited (as always) to give this one a taste, as i've never had the german hop tettnang before and have heard it's quite nice. still decided whether i want to have the beer kegged or bottled (bottling always seems to take such a long time to condition so we'll see).
i decided to do a 60 minute mash to make sure i didn't get the gravity all the way to where it should have been. this was just because, if i bottle it, i didn't want the beer to be a 6% job. too strong for a typical kolsch. probably a bad idea because i ended up getting it at 1.042 because i didn't lose enough to boil and my batch size was too great. meh. i know it'll be a ripper anyway so it's all good. if it's 4.3% in the keg i'm still a happy man.
13/05/14 - just cold crashed this bad boy - can't believe i've actually waited this long to do it! 15 days! i decided that unlike my other beers, i wanted this one to mature in its full capacity. often in the past, i've waited until a beer has gone to it's final gravity and crashed it almost immediately then bottled it. i've found that this means the beer isn't ready as soon as i'd normally like. so i'm trying this method out and seeing how it fares. i intend to keg this in a few days time and then let it sit at serving pressure for about a week and a half to carbonate up.
15/05/14 - kegged this bad boy last night. VERY pumped to try it in about a week and then take it to wilsy's party.
tasting notes:
28/04/14 - tasted pre-ferment...yum. a lovely malty-ness but not much as yet in the way of the hops. i'm sure this will come to the fore with the use of the german ale yeast.
05/05/14 - had a taste a few days back, mid-ferment and it was awful. extremely yeasty and very unfinished, but then tasted today, and the gravity was down to 1.010, almost smack-bang on target. it was tasting VERY nice. looking forward to chilling and kegging this baby soon.
08/06/14 - oh my goody-goodness. amazing. had a taste test of this two weeks ago for the party and sadly it wasn't ready in time. still tasting very green. it is now tasting AMAZING. so crisp. will definitely need to do this one again soon. this won't last long. no fruity esters to be had at all as was advised might happen at that temperature. absolutely love it and really enjoy the taste. slight graininess from the grist too.
brew day / beer pictures: