You want a good lager, but you can’t make one because you do not have refrigeration? Try a making a Kölschbier! Today, guest blogger DJ provides an excellent summary of how to brew Kölsch.
History
Kölsch (pronounced “koelsch”) is a beer brewed exclusively by the breweries in Köln (or Cologne to the English speaking countries). The beer style has been around for several centuries, but was never called Kölsch until the Sünner brewery labeled it as such in 1918. In the 1930s, at least 40 breweries made Kölsch. Unfortunately the World War decimated the German Kölsch industry and only 2 breweries remained.
Since the European Union gave special protection to Kölsch in 1997 (geschützte Herkunftsbezeichnung), only 14 breweries legally produce Kölsch. This restriction is an extension of the Kölsch Convention of 1986. The Kölsch Convention states that Kölsch must be brewed in Köln, pale in color, top-fermented (ale), hop accentuated, and filtered. In short, the beer is a pale ale from Köln.
The culture of this beer is also unique. People from all economic classes enjoy the beer. Karl Marx remarked that his revolution could never take hold in Köln, because the workers drink with their bosses. The beer is so anti-class that the breweries all agreed that no Kölsch would be sold with “special”, “extra” or any other add-on.
But it tastes like a lager!
Kölsch is ale that tastes like a lager. If you handed a Kölsch to an unaware beer drinker, it is very common to mistake the beer as a lager. The beer has a very soft mouthfeel. It can be slightly sweet, but has no malty aroma and finishes very dry. Some Kölschbiers have some fruity flavor, but it is very slight. Any fruitiness in the beer should be very subtle.
There is no hop aroma and little hop flavor. It is very low in esters, and has no diacetyl. These beers typically are between 4% to 4.5% ABV. The Brewer Style guidelines list the beer’s alcohol content at 4.4 – 5.2% ABV, but I would error on the lower end of the spectrum. The color of the beer is straw-like (3.5-7 SRM). Kölsch is similar to an American Blonde Ale, but finishes much cleaner and crisper.
Some commercial examples of the beer are Reissdorf, Gaffel, Alaska Summer Ale, Harpoon Summer Beer, or Sünner Kölsch. The American versions are “Kölsch-style” since they cannot be called “Kölsch”.
The Recipe
Like any German beer, the ingredients for this beer follow Reinheitsgebot. Kölsch typically uses German pilsner malt and/or pale malt. Some recipes use wheat malt or Vienna malt, but it is less common. Wheat malt is not common in the commercial versions of the beer, but shows up in many homebrew recipes. Most Kölsch recipes use Spalt hops, but other German noble hops can be used. The beer uses very soft water and is often lagered for a month after fermentation. Here’s the recipe I use.
- 10 lbs German Pilsner Malt
- 0.5 lbs German Munich Malt
- 1.5 oz Spalt hops (4% AA bittering for 60 minutes)
- White Labs WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch or Wyeast 2565 Kölsch
If you are an extract brewer, use 8 lbs of Pilsner LME and 0.25 lbs of Munich LME. Sometimes Spalt hops are difficult to find (especially with the hop shortage). You can substitute the Spalt hops with Saaz, Hallertau, or Tettnanger. Mt. Hood can also be used. The hop you select is strictly for bittering, because Kölsch should have little to no hop flavor and no hop aroma.
Mash the grain for 90 minutes at 150°F (65°C). This should give you a good fermentable wort. Boil the wort for 90 minutes. At the 60 minute mark, add your hops.
Ferment the beer at 60°F (15°C) or as close as you can get to 60°F (15°C). Once the fermentation is complete, find a cold place to store the beer for a few weeks. A lagering period will help the beer if you can do it, but don’t sweat it if you can’t.
At bottling, add 1 ¼ cup of light DME that is boiled in 2 cups of water for 10 minutes. If you are kegging, carbonate the beer to 2.5 volumes.
This beer is great for those hot summer days. I’ve even heard it referred to as the “lawnmower ale”. The traditional serving glass for Kölsch is a cylindrical 200 ml glass called a stange (pole). The serving temperature should be cellar temperatures (50°F/10°C).
Editors Note: Today’s article was guest authored by DJ Spiess of The Fermentarium – thanks again to DJ for providing this great piece on Kolsch. If you enjoyed this article, please leave a comment or subscribe for more great articles. Use the BrewPoll button on the right to vote for this article!
DJ – Another great article. I bought the ingredients for a Kolsch recently, and I’m looking forward to brewing it. This will come in handy!
Thanks! I’ve got 15 gal fermenting myself. Made it on Sunday, and I can’t wait to start drinking it!
It should be noted that Kolsch yeast is, well, messy. A blowoff tube is highly recommended unless you like painting your walls with krausen. It is also a very low flocculation yeast. It takes a while for the beer to clear — yet another reason for extended maturation or pseudo-lagering. It makes a huge difference in the clarity of the beer.
I brewed this recipe and it came out outstanding.
The hardest thing about the recipe is the lager time!
Hi, I just wanted to know what is the batch size (Q) for these ingredients.
It is based on a 5 gallon batch size — Brad
I am going to brew this beer soon. Did you use a secondary fermentation or single? I will also be using Tettnager for the hops and Safale German Ale dry yeast. Should I use 2 pks. of Yeast? Thanks for the article and the help. Cowboy Up!
Hi – Yes I do use a secondary fermentation. One package of dry yeast is sufficient if you hydrate it properly before using it. — Brad
A 90 minute mash? Is that a typo?
No,
When mashing at low temperatures (148-150F) you do need to use longer mash times to achieve full conversion. You can either go with a longer mash, or perform an iodine test periodically to make sure you get full conversion.
Brad
Great article. I like too much good beer from Europe.
Regards
For the extract recipe, isn’t it 8 lbs of pilsner LME and .25 lbs of Munich MALT?
Yes, that sounds about right.
Isn’t this a bit strong for a Kolsch? I have it somewhere north of 5.8 ABV, hardly the session strength typical of a Kolsch. I usually use around 8 pounds of Pilsen. I’ve also have seen many recipes adding a bit of wheat for head retention, something I normally do for a Kolsch. Regardless, a great beer and thanks for giving it some respect.
I have a question on Mash time. When you only want to make a 2 gal bach of beer, is the mash time and hops time shortened by a factor of 5? The Kolsch recipe calls for a finished volume of 5 gals. I only want to brew 2 gals but don’t know if I should use the 90 min mash time or should use 30 min since my volume is only 2 gal. As you can tell, I’m new at this. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
For a small batch I would probably do a iodine test to check it. Get a little bit of liquid iodine (from the pharmacy) or iodophor and put a few drops on a small sample of the clear liquid from your mash. If the liquid turn dark purple it is not ready yet. If it is relatively clear when you add the iodine then it is ready to go and you can proceed with lautering.
I have a question about water to grist ratio. Are you using the standard 1.5 quarts to a pound of grain.
I use 1.2 quarts/pound, but yours may vary for your brewing system.
Thanks DJ, Just brewed this on Saturday. I didn’t worry to much about the ratio. I just added strike water until I was about an inch of water above the grain bed. Turned out to be about 4 gallons for the 10.5 pounds of grain. I batch sparged and got over 70% efficiency.
My Kolsch is fermenting right now and I look forward to drinking it. Thanks for the great article and recipe.
Just ordered the kolsch yeast and spalt hops, but i want to do a partial mash. What would the amounts be for a partial mash of 5gallons?
Cheers
keithshead – It will be hard to brew an exact Kolsch with partial mash as it is difficult to find ultra-pale liquid or dry malt. Unfortunately the process of creating malted extract also darkens the malt since you have to concentrate or dry out the wort with heat. I would look for the palest base malt you can find and then use some very pale malt in your mashed portion as well.
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Great article! I am going to brew this next week.
I don’t understand how i know the fermenting is done. what should I expect for a FG, OG or how long to keep in primary and secondary? When I condition the beer, at what temp should I keep it, same as the ferment temp 60 degrees? then the lagering, I usually cold condition in the fridge, is that OK?
Thanks very much for this article there are a lot of us who want to brew this kind of beer.
Fermentation is done when the measured FG has not changed for several days and also when you see no more signs of active fermentation (such as bubbling). When cold conditioning your beer it is best to use a fridge with an electronic brewing thermometer attached as regular fridges actually don’t have very precise temperature control. Temperatures can vary considerably.
I brewed this beer and I think it’s very ‘budweiser’ like. Hopefully others will do better. here are my notes:
i fermented at 64. we had some nice days and I could not get it down to 60.
My yeast started smelled like banana peels! All the banana was gone in the final tasting though.
OG 1.050 FG 1.010
fermented for about 3 weeks, 64 to start, eventually down to 60, then letting it cold crash near the end.
The bottle carbonation is taking a long time, I had some out for 18 days carbonating and then in the fridge for 2 weeks. They taste pretty good. I am giving them to my Lager loving friends.
Women like it too? really? I mean really? Come on!
Um – I’ll let DJ answer that one since it was his post.
Yep. That was an unintended sexist remark, and probably could have been worded better. I apologize.
I guess what I was trying to get at is, it’s a very popular beer with the women in my neighborhood who often stay away from the darker or hoppier beers. It does not mean all women do not like darker or hoppier beers, but in general I’ve found this to be the case.
what type of yeast did you use?
I almost always use White Labs, so used White Labs WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch.
My name is Frank Koelsch—as you see it is the english version.
I have drank about three varieties of Kolsch beer. I am interested it brewing some form of Kolsch beer. I would like some advice on a starter brew and where to get the ingredients.
By the way my family came from the Koln area, as I understand.
Thanks Frank – It is not that difficult to brew if you brew all grain. You need the right yeast, and very pale malt, but the rest is straightforward. It is more difficult to do with extract as it is impossible to find extract that is truly light enough in color to duplicate a proper one. The extract process makes the malt too dark.
I’ll be making this this weekend. Assuming I ferment at 60F and can lager at 50F, what temp should I bottle carbonate at? I normally do room temp. Our house is 68 during the day and gets down to 62 at night. My basement fluctuates between 57 and 63 this time of year.
Getting ready to brew a Kolsch in about 2hours but i have made a great deal of changes.
I use 2row lager as my base and add carapils and munich with a pound of maize with a in fusion mash of 152degrees for 1hour and use Hallertauer, Saaz and Tettnanger.
The three batches i’ve made have turned out to be very close to Goose Islands kolsch.
Its my dads favorite beer that i make so i try to make one every spring for him.
With the lower fermentation temp (60F) should there be a Diacetyl Rest between Primary and Conditioning? If so how high should the temp be, and how long for the Rest?
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At 60°F I’m not sure any diacetyl rest is necessary. In fact, there are a lot of people who only bring their lagers up to 60°F for their diacetyl rest (I usually try to get mine up to about 68°-70°F). That said, I don’t see any harm in allowing a rest for a couple of days, just make sure you do it before racking to secondary. On another note, I saw several suggestions that people perform iodine tests to determine whether a mash conversion was complete or not. I recently participated in an experiment put together by BYO magazine and Basic Brewing Radio that tested iodine tests. The results seem to indicate that an iodine test shouldn’t be relied upon to determine if the mash is finished. A positive iodine test will show that your mash is not finished, but a negative test does not necessarily mean that the mash is finished. If you haven’t heard it, you should check out the podcast from March 3, 2011 here: http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio
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So here is a real rookie question. At bottling do I still need to add corn sugar to prime?
Many thanks for any advice you can offer.
Yes you do!
Brad
Can you clarify how many minutes in you add the hops to the boil? Is it after 30 and boil for 60 minutes or after 60 (“at the 60 minute Mark”) and boil for 30? Also, any recommended sites for lagering in the average household? A well explained approach to Kolsch, I look forward to trying it out!
Hi,
I believe you add the hops with 60 minutes left to boil (i.e. boil the hops for 60 minutes). For proper laagering you really need a refrigerator or converted freezer with a temperature control to maintain proper fermentation temperatures. Used refrigerators or freezers work well – and they usually do not cost much.
Brad
you have it backwards. You will boil for 60 minutes before adding the hops. And I quote “Boil the wort for 90 minutes. At the 60 minute mark, add your hops.”
Remember, this is a very distinctive beer with little or no hops flavor. If you add the hops at 30 minutes in a 90 minute boil.. you will kill it. Well, at least as far as what a good kolsch is aiming for.
I have made a few batches of this with several recipes and it is one of my favs. This recipe is next on my list.. oh and by the way, a bit of wheat for head retention and at least 2 weeks “secondary” or “lagering” time definately makes the difference. Hope this helps! Cheers! Bdd
brett– if the hops are being added at the 60 minute mark, they boil for 60 minutes. FWIW, boiling them for only 30 mins puts this beer at the bottom of the style range in bitterness; 60 mins right in the middle.
I agree with First Stater– you could do with a pound less base grain and bring this beer in at around 5% ABV.
Nice recipe otherwise– thanks.
The light DME added at bottling is for priming right? Is light DME the same as corn sugar? I saw one of the posters ask this question and I’m not sure why you would prime with both. What am I missing?
Brett — I just brought a keg of this recipe to a holiday party. First kolsch I’ve made. People liked it, and the 5 gallons were gone by the end of the evening.
One question: The only criticism I have is the beer came out amber in color. Most kolsch’s I’ve had were very light in color…I did use irish moss as a clearing agent, but is there something else you’d recommend for making the beer lighter in color? A different base malt perhaps?
Thanks,
J
Jason – You have to use very pale (lager or pilsner) malt and brew it all grain to get an authentic light color.
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Hoping someone can help with a question or two. I brewed a Kolsch about 12 days ago. Been fermenting (luckily with blow-off tube attached…it IS messy yeast!) in the primary at approx 60-62 degrees in my crawl space. When I check out the carboy I can still see yeast falling. The blow-off tube is producing a bubble approx once every 17-18 seconds. Because of how messy the yeast/krausen was, everything above the beer level is “painted” inside and I cannot see the top of the beer to see how much the krausen has settled/disappeared. I’ve normally moved beers to secondary when the bubbling is closer to once every 60-90 seconds, but in past beers that’s only taken about a week or so to accomplish.
Sooo….Should I move this to secondary? Also, do I need to take it out of the crawl space a day or so before racking to secondary so anything I stir up while moving the carboy high enough to siphon has a chance to settle again?
Thanks for any help!