A stange /shtung-ə/ full of scrumptious simple summer session sippers is also known, less annoyingly alliterate so, as Kölsch. And in my case, because I live and brew outside of Cologne, Germany, should be considered Kölsch-style. More on my potentially pretentious position in a bit.
OK, I'm done. Seriously. Mmmm...closure...
With summer in full swing here in the Northern Hemisphere (at the time of this post - but Kölsch is delicious at any time of year), there are few brews that get me excited past light lagers and Pils. But Kölsch is one beer that I've never brewed at home, and I decided to give it a go with Bootleg Biology releasing the seasonal Mustange Kölsch yeast strain and my stockpile of pilsner malts. I made 10 gallons of this beer, and I don't think it's going to last very long in this summer heat...
And BTW, if you'd rather hear about Kölsch than reading, check out my podcast episode on it here.
Kölsch is an enigmatic style of which I've only had the pleasure of tasting two kinds: ghosts of once-great Kölsch made by long-standing breweries in Germany whose souls were lost on their voyage across the Atlantic and the local US versions that are either a typical stale light beer or a bastardized fruited abomination. We did make a very nice Kölsch-style brew at my last employer, but that one was particularly heavy in ethyl hexanoate for my liking...different strokes for different folks.
This Kölsch-style ale I've made, thanks to the information and help from Kölsch: History, Brewing, Techniques, and Recipes by Eric Warner, is malty, crisp, and clean-ish with very pleasant esters that are unique to Kölsch. Pear, apple, and a touch of banana notes dance around the first sip and are then overtaken by biscuity, honey, bready malt. But the janitorial duties are left to the firm-yet-clean herbal bitterness that cleanses the palate and leaves it longing for another sip. It's one of my favorite beers I've made to date, and here's the recipe for it.
Malt
100% Weyermann Barke Pilsner
10 lbs or 4.5 kg for a 5 gallon or 21 L batch to shoot between 11°P (1.044) and 12°P (1.048)
Single infusion - mash at 149°F (65°C) for an hour or so with a thin liquor-to-grist ratio of about 1.8 qts/lb. The thin mash is ideal to reduce sparge water to hit volume. You can shorten the rest time too if you'd like, but I stick with the hour mash most of the time as it is the nice balance between conversion and rest time...especially for European malts.
If you're able to implement a step mash here, that would be optimal. I did at 145°F (63°C) for 30 mins and then 160°F (71°C) for another 30 minutes before vorlauf/sparge. Kölsch relies on high attenuation for style "correctness," and I also find that the step mash gives a greater malt flavor as compared to a single infusion. Why? I don't know. It's likely all in my head. Confirmation bias is a bitch.
According to the Kölsch book referenced above, a touch of malted wheat is traditional for this style as well. I opted not to do that here ('cause I ain't got none), but subbing in about 10% white wheat is good too for a traditional flavor. My inefficient brew day gave me about 11.5°P with this grain bill with just under 5 gallons in the fermentor - and I try to at least get 5.5. For your reference, I only got about 60% brewhouse efficiency on this brew as I dial in the new system. Do with that information what you will...
German malt is definitely the go-to here for the traditionalists. But any type of pilsner malt would work OK here too as we brewed it on the professional scale at my last job and won a medal at GABF with US pilsner malt for this exact style. But the Barke Pils does a wonderful job of providing a very prominent maltiness with depth of flavor for this beer. Grape, straw, honey, and bread all vie for dominance, and honey bread comes out on top when all is said and done. It's a lovely malt that I highly suggest for this and many other German styles.
The alarm bells for DECOCTION may be going off in your head for this beer.
German √...malty √...100% pils malt √
These all may be triggering the desire to go that route, but Kölsch is meant to be lighter in color, flavor, and body. It's different than the traditional German pils or helles lagers, and brewers in Cologne do not decoct this style...most, if not all, implement a step mash regimine for their delicious German ales. Feel free to decoct if you're feeling a bit masochistic and/or experimental, but it isn't traditional and may throw this beer out of style.
Boil
90 minutes because I live at altitude. You can probably get away with a 60 minute boil if you're closer to sea level than my 7000ft (~2150m) predicament.
Hops
I shot for about 30 ibus (which is on the high end of BJCP guidelines), but feel free to
reduce the FWH a bit if you want a less bitter example. My personal balance for drinkable beers is on the bitter side of things.
17g German Magnum [12% AA] at start of boil (FWH)
14.5g Hallertau Mittelfrüh [4% AA] at 50 minutes
14.5g Hallertau Mittelfrüh at [4% AA]10 minutes
In 1986 the Kölsch Konvention was signed by a united group of brewers and breweries in Cologne because Kölsch had become increasingly popular both inside the city and outside. This document gave appellation status to Kölsch (just like Champagne or Scotch whisky) meaning Kölsch isn't Kölsch unless it is brewed within Cologne. This may seem pretentious, but the purpose of it was to reduce the dilution of quality and the power of marketing to sell lesser quality beer. The brewers of Cologne saw how Pilsner was being treated (anyone was putting Pilsner on their label with extravegantly useless descriptors of what was inside like "premium" or "special") and wanted to prevent the same fate of their beloved city-uniting style. Unfortunately, it's hard to actually implement and examples of fruited, flavored, or other adulterated light beers that may or may not even be brewed with Kölsch yeast being marketed as Kölsch. That's the way of the world, but now YOU know better than to be duped by stupid marketing tactics.
Fermentation and Cellar
Bootleg Biology Mustange Kolsch (MK) @ 60°F or 16°C for 1 week before diacetyl test and cold crash before transfer to keg. I carbonated on the high end of things, letting it condition at 12 psig and 35°F.
There are a couple of options here for fermentation. I prefer the German ale yeast strains to do the work, but I've had good examples that use lager yeast at ale temps. It's all about what you're looking for in the finished beer. The German ale yeast will tend to be a bit cleaner fermented low while lager yeasts will tend to throw a bit more esters and give a fruitier Kölsch. Of course this is just a generality in my experience, and process, recipe, and fermentation tactics can and will change it. I like to keep it simple though, and German ale yeast seems to be my personal preference.
When all was fermented and carb'd, this beer finished at 2.5°P and settled in at an ABV of 4.8%
Serving this beer in Cologne is traditionally in a stange like I have pictured here. Stange apparently is a word for "pole" in German according to my Googling skills, and I can see the resemblance to these traditional glasses. Households in Germany apparently do not normally have these glasses in their homes, and it's typically just a thing in a public taproom/bierhall setting. But you know what...I'm my own bierhall. Tally marks on coasters, magic-like refills without command, and drinking to your fill is what you'll find here! In all seriousness, I often daydream about having that experience...but for now this is pretty dang awesome. And I hope you brew this and serve it in whatever glassware you've got.
Tasting notes
Appearance - still a decent haze after two weeks of cold conditioning. I only used kettle finings because 1) Biofine is expensive AF and 2) I give beer out to tons of people, even ones I barely know; and gelatine is a qualifier I don't feel like stressing about when I share my beer. That said it's golden-straw with a good, rocky head that leaves decent lacing. Bubbles could be a bit finer, but I don't expect much more than what I'm getting without a touch of malted wheat or a quick protein rest. This photo isn't the best lightning, but it does a good job showing the clarity and color.
Aroma - grainy malt, pear, and some banana esters are the first flavors that pop out to me on this. It's quite nice, and the aroma actually reminds me very much of what I used to brew professionally: Steamworks' Colorado Kolsch but with a heftier malt profile. I get the softest tinge of DMS in mine. It's not necessarily unpleasant and makes me think it's just the more flavorful base malt I used vs the Steamworks example, but it is something I'll look for in feedback from comp judges. If I get DMS ticked on my scoresheets, I'll bump up my boil element power to boil off just a bit more. I may also upgrade my wort chiller as I'm using my old 5-gallon immersion chiller for my 10 gallon batches.
Flavor - an unexpected grape-nuts quality is on the forefront that eventually disappears to reveal soft pear, banana, and apple esters. Finish is honey, toffee, doughy, bready deliciousness that fully exemplifies what Barke Pils has to offer. This is a good beer...
Mouthfeel - medium-bodied. It's what I fully expect in a light ale...not much more to say about this one. It's 100% pilsner malt, and the fermentation was clean; so I give the extra body credit to the yeast. I think this beer needs to sit under a couple more PSIGs to carb a bit higher too.
Overall - it is good, but I feel it is on the bitter side because of my lower-than-expected efficiency on the new system. I like it, but I don't expect it to do exceptionally well in competition. It's light, malty, delicately fruity, and something I think will be gone in just a few weeks because I'll be drinking and sharing as much as possible!
I did a side-by-side comparison with a local beer that has won Gold at GABF in the past. I used to brew it years ago, and it is surprising how similar they come across (ignoring my abhorred clarity...it looks like a big ol' dookie next to the filtered one)
This one's going to be submitted into a few comps across the US, and I'll share those scores with you and what the feedback is so you can brew it as I did or tweak it how you see fit wether you're entering competitions or enjoying it all yourself.
Cheers!
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