What’s Brewing

Kick Back Kölsch

Kölsch originates from the city of Cologne and has an interesting history you can read about here. It’s a light, crisp beer that’s perfect for Summer.

Kick Back Kölsch is my first attempt at this style. It is certainly an easy recipe – no steeping grains and only one hop addition at the beginning. My plan is to ferment at 60F, then rack to a secondary when it’s just about to 1.015 and stuff it into a cooler with some ice packs. If I swap out the packs regularly I hope to keep the temperature down to lagering numbers for four weeks or so.

I built the recipe to include three pounds of Pilsen dry malt and half a pound of wheat malt. Those ingredients calculated a starting gravity of 1.049, or so I thought. Once the malt was added and the boil was finished, the hydrometer showed 1.058. Could it be the Internet is lying to me? I’m not worried, though, because in about six weeks I will have three gallons of it to share and enjoy for the rest of the Summer months.

Kick Back Kölsch

Batch size:
3 gallons

Steeping Grains:
None

Malt:
3 lbs Pilsen dry malt extract
.5 lbs. Wheat dry extract

Hops:
1 oz Hallertauer (3.5% AA, @ 60 mins.)

Yeast:
Wyeast 2565 Kölsch

Stats:
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 16
SRM: 3

What to Do:

Ferment at 66F until FG is reached, then rack to carboy and set in cooler to lager for a long time. Einfach!


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