Partial mash trouble

[judsonp]

My first batch of homebrew, a few weeks ago, went very well -- an extract Stone IPA clone that ended up surprisingly clear (after some adventures with force carbonation).

The second was a Kolsch, which did not go as well, I think, and is the source of my troubles.

I was sort of pushed into doing a partial mash because LHBS did not have wheat extract and I wanted some wheat in my beer. So I picked up a pound each of regular 2-row malt and of wheat malt. Since what I currently have is a collection of pots, none of which can safely hold more than 4.5 gal, and a stove, which can just barely bring the largest pot to a rolling boil, I used a modified batch sparge:
1. Mash 60 m at 150 F in 3 qt water.
2. Drain water into boil kettle.
3. Add 11 qt 168 F water, soak 10 m.
4. Drain water into boil kettle.
5. Top up to 4.5 gal boil volume.

Temperature control of the mash step did not go very well -- undershot and overshot by 10 F a couple of times.

After that things proceeded decently well. 4.25 lb extra-light DME; 1 lb at start of boil, rest at 15 m. 2 oz Hallertauer hops; 1 oz at start, 1 oz at 10 m. Cooled from boiling to mid-60s in about 45 minutes and racked to fermenter. I didn't transfer the cold break trub, which gave me a pretty significant volume loss. Because of this and possibly because of poor partial mash, I only ended up with 4.25 gal instead of 5. (I stopped adding top-up water when I hit my target OG of 1.046.) Added WLP029 (Kolsch) without a starter.

After 4 days, krausen had fallen and it had hit 1.014 gravity (target FG of 1.011). I intended to let it sit a while, but I kicked my keg of IPA (I believe I mentioned that it was pretty good), so I decided to keg the Kolsch at 8 days. With force carbonation and time for chilling, it's now... 10 days since brewing. Too fast, yes, but patience is tough.

So, I think there's a lot of potential for faults up there in that overly-long description.. I've only gotten through 2-3 pints, but the beer is very hazy. Aroma is very... sulfrous? It's not off-puttingly so, but it's distinctly similar to various low-brow lagers. The second pint had a distinctly grainy aftertaste. Not bitter or astringent, but grainy. I didn't really detect it in the third. (The first was on day 9, and had junk that had settled out.)

It's not bad, per se, but it's fairly similar to what you'd expect if any one of many popular, cheap-beer lagers tasted less bad. So maybe that's vaguely fitting with the Kolsch style? I think the last time I had Kolsch was years ago, in Koeln, plus a few American breweries' "interpretations".

So, thoughts? Any suggestions on improvements are welcome.

 

[vnzjunk]

The usual advice when short time beer doesn't seem as good as longer term beer is to give it more time to become better and this is what I would do.

 

[peterj]

From the style profile by Jamil Zainasheff in BYO:
"One thing to keep in mind about most Kölsch yeasts is that they do not flocculate easily. It can take quite a bit of time, finings or filtering to clear the beer, and it is important for the style to be brilliantly clear. If you're patient, the easiest way to clear the beer is to lager it near freezing for a month or more." http://byo.com/kolsch-altbier/item/1881-kölsch-style-profile

From the White Labs page for WLP029:
"The slight sulfur produced during fermentation will disappear with age and leave a super clean, lager like ale." http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp029-german-ale-kölsch-yeast

I think the common theme is to give it time. I also think you kegged it WAY too early. 8 days may or may not have been long enough for the yeast to finish fermenting and have time to clean up any off flavors. But by kegging and chilling it you stopped all yeast activity too early in my opinion. Did you take successive gravity readings over a few days to make sure fermentation was fully complete? You really want to dry a Kolsch out as much as you can, so I would have given the yeast more time and opportunity to process as much sugar as they could.

I think your partial mash was probably fine. As long as you didn't get too hot for too long during the mash you probably converted enough of the starches to be fine. Especially because it was only 2 pounds of grain.

Kolsch is a lagerish tasting ale, so that lager taste you're tasting is probably right. It will probably be better and less BMCish once the sulfur aroma dissipates.

 

[unionrdr]

I used the WL029 yeast on a dark & a light beer. I mashed at 152F. I wrap my BK/MT in my insulated winter hunting coat for the 1 hour mash to maintain temp. It was late winter/early spring when I brewed them,so it was easy to keep the fermenter in the yeasts' ideal range of 65-69F. Let it ferment out to FG,then I gave it another week to clear up more. The light colored one could've used some irish moss. The dark one used a Cooper's Heritage Lager can as the extract addition. It cleared up beautifully. 4-5 weeks in the bottles seemed to be minimum for good conditioning. And at least a week,better yet two for good carbonation & better flavor.

 

[chickypad]

Agree with all the above, especially peter. Let that keg sit in your keezer for 4-6 wks and don't touch it. When you pull the first pint it may be cloudy but I suspect you will then have a very different tasting beer. How were your fermentation temps?

 

[judsonp]

Oh, I'm sure I kegged it too early. But I'm willing to experiment in the name of learning and having beer on hand.

I took gravity readings on day 6 and on day 8 just before kegging: 1.014 both times. Tasted a sample around day 4 (when krausen subsided) and on day 8 and it had cleaned up substantially.

It tastes like it dried out pretty substantially (even though the measurements don't indicate that). I don't notice any of the characteristic "green" flavors. Just graininess (the once) and a general feeling of half-assery (which is well-deserved). I'm not sure if the grainy aftertaste is something I should expect to mellow out in time?

Fermentation temps: pitched at about 60. Ambient varied from 65-70 during fermentation (basement, during a heat wave).

 

[unionrdr]

It should. My light colored one did,& wound up tasting like a Euro or German lager. but the light one will def get super moss in the boil next time. Getting it clearer I think will help the flavor a little,without the extra bit of cloudy grainy stuff in it. Plus I have a proper grain mill now,& get less of the floury stuff. That's the stuff that helps it stay a little cloudy to me,besides chill haze.

 

[solbes]

I cold condition, or pseudo lager, all of my Kolsch's to help crisp them up and drop the yeast. 3-4 weeks betweeen 35 and 40F. Usually racking to secondary on top of gelatin at 32F for a few days helps it finally drop clear. If you can get it clear, I can almost gaurantee you will love it!

 

[peterj]

Since the gravity was stable it sounds like it should be fine. I would lager it for a month or so and the flavors will get crisper and better as solbes said above. It will also get clearer as well. No reason you can't drink on it a little during that month though, as long as you're enjoying it.

 

[unionrdr]

I've found with the WL029 yeast that when bottling,extended fridge time works pretty decent too. That's in lue of a place to lager in a secondary. Acouple weeks fridge time def makes them crisper & the flavors are quite well balanced. Proper lagering should make'em great! So if you have a place to lager it,by all means,do!

 

[judsonp]

Good suggestions, thanks!

Unfortunately, my only temperature-controlled beer environment right now is a single corny keg (plus CO2) in a repurposed mini-fridge. It is both the storage and serving environment. So letting it age at low temperature is in direct conflict with drinking homebrew... We'll see.

Fortunately, I've picked up a second fermentation bucket so that I can have a slightly longer queue, allowing for some longer fermentation times.