Brewed in honor of the 68°F sunny day we had in St. Louis, Missouri on February 23, 2012, this is the simplest Kolsch recipe I've ever made. A very helpful person at St. Louis Wine and Beer Making found the recipe in a book and sold me all the ingredients pre-measured. No weighing grains this time. I haven't made a Kolsch sans flavor/aroma hops before. Likewise this is my first Kolsch not to feature at least a pound of wheat malt. I suspect this is because the wheat malt is to aid in head retention -- a role obviated by the character of Pilsner malt.
Now for the problem. (There always has to be one. Doesn't there?)
I usually violenty shake the fermenter at 1 to 1.5 gallon intervals during transfer. The properties of the Pilsner malt (which I had never used before) caused the carboy to fill with foam and overflow. Oops. Any ideas on how to aerate wort when Pilsner was the base grain?
I usually violenty shake the fermenter at 1 to 1.5 gallon intervals during transfer. The properties of the Pilsner malt (which I had never used before) caused the carboy to fill with foam and overflow. Oops. Any ideas on how to aerate wort when Pilsner was the base grain?
Anyway, the aeration seems to have worked. There is a 3-inch kraeusen on the beer less than 12 hours after pitching. Other factors that may have contributed: the production date on the packet of Wyeast 2565 was a mere 48 hours prior to brew day, making this the freshest (ergo healthiest and most populous, theoretically) yeast I've ever pitched. Also my digital thermometer went on the fritz during chilling, which means I only have a rough guess as to the temperature of the wort when the yeast was pitched. It's not impossible that the wort was so warm that the yeast went instantly into overdrive. We will find out at racking time by tasting if the hydrometer sample has molto bananas or other fruity esters.
Beer Recipator: Global Climate Change Kolsch
