First Kolsch tomorrow, could use some advice

[adz1179]

Howdy brewers

first brew in about a year & first Kolsch planned for tomorrow.

90% pils
5% wheat
5% munich 1

whatever german nobles i have in the freezer to around 25IBU, 90 min boil. wyeast 2565 Kolsch

no chill BIAB

questions:

1) Mash schedule.
reading up on the style points me to the following:
Protein Rest 52deg 30 min
Sacrification 61deg 30 min
Mash Out 72deg 30 min
is this necessary? or would a simple 61 deg sacrification for 30 followed by 30 mins at say 66 and mash out at 72 suffice?

2) starter
i dont have any DME to make a starter now. i was planning on running of say 500ml after 10 mins boil (pre hopped) into a flask, pitch into that and let it grove overnight while i no chill and then pitch the lot the following morning. sound ok?

3) ferment temp
pitch at 13, raise slowly to 16 until done. crash for 1-2 weeks around 4 deg. sound ok?

thanks in advance for your help

 

[Blind Dog]

Not sure sacc at 61 would do a lot.i do a step mash for kolsch, 30 min at 50C, 60 min at 65C, 20 at 72C and 20 at 77C. But that's at least partly because it's so easy on the BM. In BIAB days I just mashed at 65C for 60 min. Pilsner, Munich and wheat for the grain bill, spalt as the hops

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Munich 1 works well, but Vienna keeps the colour nice and pale.

I BIAB and use these steps often, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Protein 53 deg. 5 - 10 min.
Sacc 63 deg - 45 min.
Sacc 70 deg - 15 min
Mash out 78 deg - 15 min.

Using wort from your mash will be fine for a starter.
Ferment temp is fine, but make sure you clear your beer well. Kolsch style beer is very clear.

 

[philmud]

Ferment temp is fine, but make sure you clear your beer well. Kolsch style beer is very clear.

Kölsch yeast is not a fast floccer, however it does drop crystal clear given time (cold, gelatin may help). Also consider a 90 minute boil to make sure you boil off the DMS precursors.

 

[rude]

Got one in the fermentor now did a 3 Litre starter cc,ed that for a week found yeast very powdery ended up putting 2 litres into fermenter
as it was hard to pour off wort without loosing yeast
Ended up with 27 litres in fermentor krausen started before 12 hours & kept going ,had to clean up several times for a few days
I used 100% pils malt with tettnang hops fermented at 14c mashed in at 64c mashout at 76c
Going to ferment for 2 weeks to FG then cc for 2 - 4 weeks or how ever long it takes
Might give me time to arrange a keg as I think this style will be best suited to it due to yeast

 

[professional_drunk]

I've been brewing kolsch regularly for the last few months. This is what I've settled on

1)
10m @ 52c
45m @ 63c
15m @ 73c
10m @ 78c

If I was doing biab, I'd probably skip 52c and maybe 78c to keep it simple.

2) Not enough info. You need roughly 200b yeast cells. Use a calculator.

3) Sounds ok. I don't know how long it takes to clear up during the crash chill as I filter after 3 days of crash chill.

 

[Weizguy]

I have to agree that a small starter will throw unwanted flavour and may not ferment out to dryness.

I'm planning a 46 litre Alt and will try for a 4 litre starter