Kölsch water profile

[carlos arzeno]

Hello friends
                     I'm looking forward on brewing a kölsch.  The Köhln water profile isn't in the Beersmith data base. Does anybody know what it's like?

                             Carlos Arzeno

[brewfun]

Koln data is a little hard to come by. But, here are some averages published in 2011. The bold is the average level. 

Altstad area, Left bank of the Rhine (where most of the breweries are). Pfaffgen and Gaffel are here.
http://www.rheinenergie.com/download/produkte/wasser/trinkwasser_linksrheinisch.pdf

The Kalk area, Right bank of the Rhine. Sunner is here.
http://www.rheinenergie.com/download/produkte/wasser/trinkwasser_rechtsrheinisch.pdf

The important theing is to get the RA balanced for a very pale beer. I have much harder water than Koln (closer to Dortmund, actually) and I have made several satisfactory Kolshes without having to use RO water.

[carlos arzeno]

Thank you so much Brewfun.

                               Carlos

[tom_hampton]

Don't try to mimic local water.  Results will be questionable.  Many brewers treat their water.

I answered this question over here:

 http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php/topic,7727.msg31211.html#msg31211

[WoodlandBrew]

Agreed,

Don't try to mimic the water of a region.  For a Kolsch you want to have a clean profile that doesn't enhance the sweetness or the hops.  Dilute your water with RO to get the hardness less than 50, then if your calcium is low, build it up with CaCl and CaSO4.  (if your S04 level is high you'll probably just want to use CaCl)

There is some information on different salts and flavor impact here:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/bittersweet.html