Brewday 15/02/2019 - Lager and Kolsch

One Brew - Two Beers

I've been wanting to brew a lager for ages but it's difficult without temperature controlled fermentation - lager yeasts generally ferment at 10-12°C, compared to ale yeasts which are quite happy at room temperature. However, I thought if I could utilise the twin benefits of cold weather and a draughty Edwardian house I may have a chance of success. After a bit of checking with a thermometer I discovered that the cupboard under the stairs (unheated, north facing, non cavity external wall and a bit draughty) was only around 12°C and the ambient temperature of my mains water was just over 8°C. This meant I could easily chill the wort down to 14°C with my immersion chiller and keep the temperature low during fermentation. I planned to use Saflager W-34/70 lager yeast which has a recommended required fermentation temperature of 12-15°C. Originally I only intended to brew a small batch (12lt) which I would ferment in three demijohns. However I also had one pack of Kolsch yeast and plenty of suitable malt and hops so decided to brew around 30lt of beer, 12lt fermented with the lager yeast and 18lt with the kolsch.

Recipe (BIAB) + sparge

Since this recipe would result in a boil size of approximately 35lt (which almost fills my pan) I took a slightly different approach to this brew. Firstly I heated my initial mash water in two pans, 20lt in my usual brew kettle plus an extra 10lt in another stock pot. Secondly, as I was using almost 6kg of grain I reverted to my original large brew bag. This was basically to allow easier handling of the water for the mash and the grain bag pre-boil. Once the water had reached the strike temperature of 72°C I placed the large pan on the kitchen floor in its insulated jacket, put in the grain bag and added the additional 10lt of water from the second stock pot. Then I carefully added the grain, stirring well to avoid any doughballs. Once the mash was complete I lifted up the grain bag, let it drain into a fermenting bucket and sparged the grain bed with 8.5lt of 76°C water. While this was happening the pan was heating on the hob. Once all the water had drained through the grain bed and rinsed out all the sugars I transferred the contents of the fermenting bucket into the pan which gave me a pre-boil volume of about 35lt.

• Mash water (72°C) 30lt 
• Sparge water (76°C) 8.5lt
• Vienna Malt 3kg
• Lager Malt 2kg
• Munich Malt 0.5kg
• Wheat Malt 190g
• Carapils 250g
• Perle 4.4% 50g 60mins
• Pacifica 5.36% 15g 30 mins
• Pacifica 5.36% 10g 15 mins
• Crossmyloof Kolsch yeast 1 pack
• Saflager W-34/70 1 pack

Once the boil had finished I was left with 29lt of wort. After chilling to 14°C I transferred 12lt into three demijohns and pitched the lager yeast, the remaining 17lt went into a normal 25lt fermenter with the kolsch yeast and an extra 2lt of water to bring the original gravity down as better than expected efficiency (86%!) meant I was going to get two beers with abv's in excess of 6%.

Results:

Kolsch!

Firstly the Kolsch which I fermented in my kitchen for 10 days at around 16°C. I pitched at 14°C but the temperature soon rose to 16-17°C so I used a wet towel to keep it cool.

• OG: 1.049
• FG: 1.008
• ABV: 5.3%
• IBU: 26

Very clean and crisp. A little bit floral with just a hint of apple flavour. A bit more malty compared to my previous efforts, maybe due to the Vienna and Munich malts, more like a lager really but very nice.

Next the lager which was fermented for 10 days at ­12-14°C and then another four days at room temperature finishing at 18°C. 

Lager!

• OG: 1.055
• FG: 1.008
• ABV: 6.1%
• IBU: 27

This was my first attempt at a proper lager and I am very pleased with the end result. It's clean, crisp and crystal clear (despite no finings as usual). Compared to the Kolsch there are no floral or fruity flavours, the lager yeast is very neutral which lets the malt and hops provide all the flavour. I fully intend to make a lager again, perhaps a dunkel or doppelbock next time.

   

Competition Time

And the Winner is....

...Me! I entered three of my beers into the annual Stockport Beer Festival Bar Nouveau homebrew competition, where the winning beer in each of the five categories is brewed at a local brewery and launched at Stockport Beer & Cider Festival. I entered my Kolsch in the speciality category, Another Porter into Stout/Porter and Red Rye Ale into the Bitter category, all three beers made it through to the finals and my Red Rye Ale won the bitter category. Of the three I thought the bitter was the weakest entry which shows what I know. This means I receive the fantastic prize of getting to brew my beer at a local micro (this usually means digging out the mash tun but never mind). The only problem I have is thinking of a suitable name for my beer. 

Testing Times

Kolsch and Porter

I've not been able to drink much of my most recent brews until recently as I have been going out drinking (and paying for) other beers. However, things are more or less back to normal now so I can revert to being an antisocial solitary drinker once again. My two most recent brews were a Porter and a Kolsch and both have benefited from a longer conditioning period than I usually allow.  

The Kolsch (strictly speaking I can't call it "Kolsch" as it's not brewed in Cologne, maybe Kolsch-style or Kolsch-ish) was brewed on the 17th of November, fermented for 10 days at 17°C, bottled conditioned for two weeks at room temperature and then stored for 6 weeks at 10-12°C. The end result is an extremely crisp, clean tasting beer which is also very pale and clear.

The taste is very slightly sweet, slightly spicy or herbal with a hint of malty breadiness. It's 4.8% abv so a bit more than session strength but not too strong. Overall I found it really clean and refreshing and probably more suited to summer drinking, which I'll try to do if I manage to save some until then.

The Porter was brewed on the 8th of December and fermented for 10 days (the yeast was pitched at 18°C and the fermenter temperature never rose above 19°C). One bottled I left it at room temperature for another 6 weeks. The beer is smooth and full bodied, not too bitter and has none of the astringent burnt flavours which I have found in past dark beers, which I guess is due to the very small amount of black malt in the recipe.

Despite the relatively small quantity of dark malts the beer is still very dark and at 5.1% abv it's not weak but remains very drinkable. It has a smooth consistency which I believe is derived from the oats. It's not overly hoppy but neither do the malts overwhelm flavour-wise, the sweetness of the crystal counters the bitterness of the black and chocolate malts so overall I think this is a easy drinking and well balanced porter. 

Brewday 17/11/17 Kolsch

Impromptu Brewday

Due to a work cancellation I found I had the opportunity (and more importantly, the ingredients) to brew some beer. I had plenty of German malts so I decided to make another Kolsch.

Recipe BIAB:

• Mash water vol 28lt
• 3kg Pilsner Malt
• 1kg Vienna Malt
• 250g Wheat Malt
• 150g Carapils Malt
• 25g Perle 4.4% (60 min)
• 25g Perle 4.4% (15 min)
• 5g Irish moss (15 min)
• 1 pk Safale K97 German Ale Yeast
• Mash for 90 mins at 68ºC
• Boil for 1 hour
• 21.5lt into the fermenter

Results:

After recent poor efficiency scores I did a bit of research to see how I could improve things. One suggestion I came across was to mill the grains much finer than normal but since I buy all my grain pre-crushed that wasn't an option. Another common idea was mashing with a smaller quantity of water and then sparging. There are various options; cold water sparge, warm water sparge, dunk sparging, trickle sparging, all of which seem to have worked for other homebrewers. However the most straightforward suggestion was simply to extend the mash time to 90 minutes, which I did and it worked! I got a higher OG than anticipated due to the higher efficiency score, I was only expecting 1.045 at 70% efficiency.

Efficiency 75%
OG 1.048

FG 1.011
IBU 23

ABV 4.82% (expected)

So it's now fermenting away, I'll leave it for about 10 days before bottling. 

Update 28/11/2017

The K97 yeast has an ideal fermentation range of 15-20ºC, I pitched at 18ºC which was as low as I could reasonably get with my immersion chiller and 12ºC ambient water temperature. After 24 hours I noticed the temperature of the fermenter had risen to 20ºC, meaning I needed to chill it somehow. Short of emptying the fridge which wouldn't have been too popular I had to resort to a  more basic method. By wrapping the fermenter in a wet towel and standing it in a pan of cold water the temperature came down to 18ºC within 24 hours and stayed at 17ºC for the duration of the fermentation period. Luckily for me my fermenting buckets fit neatly inside my pan.

Hi-tech cooling system

Update 31/01/2018

After several weeks conditioning in a temperature controlled area (under the stairs - temperature 10-12ºC in January) I tried this beer and have to say am well pleased with the result. It's crisp and clean but with that distinctive Kolsch-y flavour. I think the attention I paid to temperature for fermentation and conditioning has paid off.

Unfiltered and unfined!

Kolsch - update

Kolsch type beer 

A quick update on my Mancunian Kolsch as originally described here

It's now a lot clearer and more carbonated. I am quite bemused by the change in flavour since I last tried it, the sweet fruity yeasty flavour has gone completely and it's now a lot drier than it was before. All in all, a vast improvement after 7½ weeks of "temperature controlled" bottle conditioning (3 weeks in a micro brewery cold store, 4½ weeks in my shed).

Kolsch (type beer)

Home brewed Kolsch (-ish, made in Manchester)

I brewed this a few weeks ago and forgot to add some Irish Moss, it's still a bit hazy (15/11/16) but tastes good. I conditioned it for three weeks in the cold store at a friendly local micro and since then it's been further conditioned in my shed. I first tried it after bringing it back from the brewery and wasn't too happy as it had a bit of an apple flavour which fortunately has now faded after 2½ weeks of shed conditioning. Hopefully a few more weeks will clear it completely, standard home brew rules apply: if at first it doesn't taste right, leave it for a few weeks. It probably won't taste any worse.

Recipe (BIAB):

• Mash for 1 hr at 67°C
• Boil for 60 mins
• Mash water volume 24lt
• Pilsner malt 3kg
• Carapils 375g
• Spalt 33g (at start)
• Spalt 17g (10 mins)
• Spalt 15g (at end)
• Hallertauer MF 23g (at end)
• WL029 Kolsch yeast

Fermenter volume: 17lt

OG: 1.044 (a bit lower than expected - should have been around 1.050)

FG: 1.010

ABV: 4.5%

Brew date: 20/09/2016

Bottled: 04/10/2016