This homebrew Kolsch Recipe is the perfect beer for any time of the year. I love this particular beer because both my wife and I love to drink it. In other words, it is a fine beer for both beer snobs (me) and beer novices (my wife). I love to have gatherings at my house and serve my homebrew, but some of the concoctions that I brew are a little too hoppy for some of my guests.
German Kolsch beers are usually light in color, some describe it a straw or gold color. They aren’t too bitter (generally somewhere 20-40 IBUs) and not too strong (usually not over a 5.5 ABV). During the fermentation process, brewers usually lager this beer. This gives it it’s classic crisp, clean finish that my wife loves. I am using a Wyeast Kosch 6525 Strain of Yeast. I operates best at fermentation temps of 55-65 degrees. But you can use it anywhere in the range of 50-70 degrees. It is early spring right now and my garage is going to be a fairly steady 60 degrees for the next 10 days. I’m going to keep it in there for about a week and then transport it to my fridge to lager it for a month or so longer. We will see what happens! I am using an extract recipe, not all grain. This is for a 5-gallon batch.
Homebrew Kolsch Recipe-Ingredients
- 1 lb Carapils Malt (crushed)
- .25 lb White Wheat Malt (crushed)
- 4 lbs Light Dried Malt Extract
- 1 tsp Irish Moss (optional-for clarity)
- 1 oz Hallertau Hops
- .5 oz Saaz Hops
- Wyeast Kolsch Yeast 2565
Homebrew Kolsch Recipe- Brewing Process
- Using as large of a Brew Pot as possible, bring as much water as you can fit into it up to 155 degrees.
- Put 1 tsp of Irish Moss into a bowl with 1/2 cup of warm water.
- Place the Carapils and White Wheat into a muslin bag and steep for 30 minutes. Make sure you let the water get higher that 160 degrees.
- Remove bag, and turn up the burner. As water is warming up, stir in the male extract.
- Once water has a rolling boil, start your 60 minute boil
- At beginning of boil, put .5 oz of Hallertau Hops in.
- At 30 minutes, put the rest of Hallertau Hops in. Also put the optional Irish Moss in at this point.
- At 50 minutes, put the .5 oz of Saaz hops in.
- Once the boil is over, bring the wort down to room temperature and pitch the yeast.
My O.G was 1.043. I’ll be looking for a Final Gravity of 1.010 or so. Again, there is some disagreement as to exactly what temp you need to ferment your Kolsch. I don’t think it will be a TRUE German Kolsch unless you ferment at a lower temp, but I guess you could always just call it a “German Ale”. As always, experiment a bit and find what you like the best. I keg my beer, so I don’t have any guidance here on bottling etc. Once I get to my desired gravity, I’ll throw it in the keg and crank up the O2 for about a week. Happy drinking!
If this recipe sounds good to you, check out my recipe for a Dry Hopped Cream Ale.
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Love this recipe ,and everyone else that tries it. So easy to brew. Thank you for sharing .