Brewhouse pilsner conversion to Kolsch

[greenomatt]

I want to make a Kolsch style beer and have only brewed using extract (Brewhouse kits). Thought I might try one of their Pilsner kits and steep 8 ounces of Crystal and Munich malts to alter the flavor and tone down the hops. Is adding Munich malts and Crystal a good idea, or am I just going to mess this beer up?

Thanks!
Matt Greeno

 

[sptaylor70]

Koelsch is a light, simple beer, a little smoother and less hoppy than pilsner. There are several good recipes to look at, like Ed Wort's Bee Cave Koelsch, Diatonic's Black Widow Koelsch, or Tiber's Perfect Koelsch. You can add Munich or crystal, but it should be with restraint, to keep the color and flavor light (keeping in mind that it's your beer, and you can do what you like; home brewing styles are flexible).

Another route to go, if you would prefer, would be to convert over to Pilsner's more widespread (compared to Koelsch) German rival, Munich Helles, such as Saccharomyces Muenchner Helles, Joe Dragon's Augustiner Hell, or Biermuencher's Helles Belles. There's more scope to incorporate crystal and/or Munich.

Just one more thing - you need to mash the Munich. You can just put however much Munich and crystal that you plan to use in a single steeping bag, keep the temperature around 152 degF for about half an hour, and stir it once or twice during the process to make sure that it all gets wet. Get the temperature up to about 170 degF, lift out the grain bag, let it drain thoroughly, then proceed as you would have.

 

[greenomatt]

Thanks buddy man bro. I very much appreciate the recipes and will definitely try out those Helles recipes. My partner very much enjoys a good German Helles.

Based on your advise I am going to half the malts I originally thought I would add. I've only ever used the Crystal before and know it result in a caramel colour. Whatever I come up with won't be a kölsch, but i will be using kölsch yeast! I will let you know what I come up with regardless.

Thanks again for helping an amateur like me.

 

[greenomatt]

View attachment 218197

This is the beer that resulted from hacking a Brewhouse Pilsner kit.

I steeped 3 ounces of crystal and 3 ounces of Munich malts in 8 liters of water and used the Wyeast Kölsch strain, which I saved and activated using about 500 mils if honey water.

The steeping involved crushing (took about 15 minutes) the grains with a rolling pin, putting them in a grain bag while the water is still cool and then heating the water at medium on a range top for about 30-45 minutes and turning it max there after just until it boils. Just as it boils I remove yet bag and let it drip out, but don't squeeze any liquid out.

The resulting mixture was about 1.05 at the 23 liter volume recommended by the Brewhouse kit. I added another 2 liters which took the volume down to about 1.046, which is about the 5-5.5%alcohol content I am looking for.


The result 38 days after starting the beer is a crisp and sweetish pilsner that tastes alright, but that is still cloudy. Apparently this yeast strain needs to sit for a long time in the bottle until it settles out.

I think next time I would use pil and wheat malts to attempt to match more closely to other Kölsch recipes.

 

[greenomatt]

 

[pdxal]

Glad it turned out for you.
In the future, I wouldn't leave the grains in until boiling, steep them at 150-160 and remove. You can get some unwanted flavors from boiling grain.