Home Brew Forum

Brewed this yesterday in the Brewzebo(TM) - in between doing 100 other things (including going to a football match!):

Drunken Traveller (Kolsch)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.046 (°P): 11.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.012 (°P): 3.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.52 %
Bitterness (IBU): 24.7 (Tinseth)

86.96% Pilsner
10.87% Carapils
2.17% Torrified Wheat

1.9 g/L Spalt Select (5% Alpha) @ 70 Minutes (Boil)
1 g/L Tettnanger (4.1% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)
1.9 g/L Tettnanger (4.1% Alpha) @ 20 Minutes (Aroma)

0.4 g/L Irish Moss @ 10 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 66°C for 60 Minutes. Boil for 70 Minutes

Fermented at 18°C with WLP029 - German Ale/Kolsch

Notes: 3 weeks lagering @ 12 degrees

Named after my Dad who introduced me to Kolsch - he used to travel to Koln a lot with work, but he's scared of flying and, at the time, had BA lounge access so we used to pick him up at the airport and he would be swaying back and forth and smelt like a distillery

First time milling my own grain, and first time using liquid yeast - the milling definitely made a difference as it finished 4 points higher than expected - not too bad for my first try. Not overly happy with my first use of liquid yeast though - I didn't make a starter, I just (foolishly) just followed the instructions and it's off to a very slow start, so much so that I pulled it out of the fridge this afternoon and aerated it some more to try and give it a kick. Every time I've used dry yeast and rehydrated it's gone off like a rocket - the liquid yeast is well inside the use by date (only ordered it a few weeks back), but I guess even then a starter is almost a necessity.

Didn't get time to take many pictures, just the one of the mill in action:

Looks good Dev, are you looking to wash/harvest the yeast, if so would you consider a swap as I quite fancy brewing a Kolsch at some point?
I have some washed WLP500 I could send in return, if I can find some sort of suitable container.

IIRC, they come at "ideal" pitching rates for american gallons, not our manly british ones - thus you've probably under pitched a tad. MIght be an idea to make a starter in future to give the yeasties a running start.

Rivvo wrote:Looks good Dev, are you looking to wash/harvest the yeast, if so would you consider a swap as I quite fancy brewing a Kolsch at some point?
I have some washed WLP500 I could send in return, if I can find some sort of suitable container.

I was going to post a question about this actually - sounds like a good idea, just not sure how to do it.. I kept the vial to hopefully harvest some.

Pinto wrote:IIRC, they come at "ideal" pitching rates for american gallons, not our manly british ones - thus you've probably under pitched a tad. MIght be an idea to make a starter in future to give the yeasties a running start.

Ah, I didn't realise that, that's a bit of a pain.. Hopefully it will pick up :/

I didn't do a starter because the instructions said it wasn't necessary, and with it being my first liquid yeast I figured it was another variable to potentially go wrong.. Doh! I am doing a Bavarian pilsner soon, will make sure I do a starter for that.

I wash using empty 5 litre mineral water bottles, sterilised of course, then empty jars to store it in, I got 4 from my last wash but could have got several more. I decant the trub into an empty bottle with some of the mineral water, give it a shake, let it settle for 15-20 minutes, pour off the top part, not the grey/brown bottom part.
Keep top part in another bottle, shake and repeat as above, 3 washes is usually enough I've found, store the washed yeast with some of the watered down wort on top. I'm sure others have their own and probably better methods but that's the one I've used.

Krausen has formed today so hopefully things will run ok - started it a bit warmer to give it a kick, just dropping it down to 18 degrees now for the duration.

@Rivvo - sounds easy enough - I have the Yeast book but haven't read it yet, I'll look into it more in a few weeks when this is ready to go into secondary.

Wonderful drink.its an excellent yeast I use us for lagers per say and dunkles it has a slight sulphur taste but is very clean tasting.
your water is key for kolsch I'd be tempted to use bottled or filtered.

I have excellent water, should be ideal for this I think - just crossing fingers for no infection with the slow start.

I ummed and arred about the wheat, but I remember it always having a solid white head that seemed to stay there, hopefully the small amount of wheat will give it some of that stability.

The 10% Carapils will give you that long lasting head. Not sure the torrified wheat will add anything to the head in such a quantity. No harm in trying though.

Mastering Homebrew suggested they contain small amounts of wheat for head retention so figured it was worth a go.. Wont do any harm in that amount anyway.

Been many years since I drank the real thing.. A weekend in koln to compare might be in order