Cheap Cologne Double Kolsch
From EastKingdomWiki
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| Uncle Lumpy's Cheap Cologne | ||||||
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| Brewer | ||||||
| Max the Executioner | ||||||
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1 lb. Munich Malt
½ lb. Pilsner Malt
¼ lb. Aromatic Malt
2 ¼ oz. Fuggles and Russian Steerbrucker cross breed hops
1 tsp. Irish moss
2 oz. ground sweet orange peel
2 oz. chunk lemon peel
9.9 lbs. northwestern extra light malt syrup extract
Wyeast 2565 Kölsch Yeast
Water
Crush grains and steep them in 2 gallons of 150°F water for 40 minutes. Strain the grains out and press. In a separate pot full of 1 gallon of water, boil one ounce. of hops for 1 hour for bitterness. At the 30 minute mark of that boil, put in second ounce of hops for flavor and the orange and lemon peel. At the 15 minute mark, put in the Irish moss. At the 10 minute mark, put in a ¼ oz of hops for aroma. Add the light malt syrup to the malt pot and dissolve. Then, add the wort to the brewing bucket and strain the hop tea into the brewing bucket. Add cool water up to 5 gallon mark on bucket. Cool to 78°F and add the yeast.
Born on 02/11/12
Initial Gravity: 1.068
Potential Alcohol: 9.0%
Racked on 02/25/12
14 Day Fermentation
Gravity: 1.020 in primaryABV: 6.4%
Bottled and primed with 1 tsp. clover honey on 3/1/12.
7 day Secondary Fermentation
Gravity: 1.016
ABV: 7.0%
History of Kölsch
Kölsch beers are only allowed to be called Kölsch beers if brewed within the confines of Cologne, Germany. Now, Kölsch beers are actually pronounced Kelsh beers. They are a precursor to the popular pilsner style. These beers were brewed with a special Kölsch ale yeast instead of the popular lager pilsner yeast that was not available during period. The beers tended to be lighter in color, lighter in flavor and usually ended up about 4 to 5 percent alcohol. Our rendition of this beer is a double Kölsch. In order to qualify as a double, 7.0% alcohol must be achieved which it was. Beers of this magnitude were not often drunk by the masses because the amount of grain it takes to make them would be cost prohibitive. These beers were usually consumed by the upper class and royalty, like us: Lords, Barons, and Kings. These beers in early period (800’s AD) were made as gruit beers and did not use hops instead they used a combination of spices such as oak bark, rosemary, yarrow, and juniper berries. In later period (1400’s AD), these beers were usually hopped with a combination of Hallertau and Saaz hops and spiced with orange peel and lemon peel like their hefeweizen (wheat beer) counterparts. Our beer was hopped with a Fuggles and Russian Steerbrucker cross breed that we happened to grow ourselves. Hence, our Kölsch we call it Cheap Cologne due to the fact our homegrown hops are basically free and the price of regular commercial hops tends to be quite expensive these days. Hope you good gentles enjoy.
Process of Kölsch
Some people may suggest the use of liquid malt extracts disqualify a beer as being brewed in a period fashion. I tend to disagree with this since the fact that malt houses can be documented back to the 1300’s in the caverns below Nottingham Castle in England and in monasteries throughout Europe who produced malted grains and extracts which were often sold in these stages to home brewers of their day. Homebrewing in Medieval times was mostly done by the women of the house. Since most of the lower class would not have had the equipment in which to malt their own grains and extract the grain sugars from this malted grain, they most likely purchased it from places that did it in large scales. Not much has changed in the past 700 years. I, myself, cannot afford the equipment in order to make my own grain extracts nor can I afford the land to plant said grains so I use liquid malt extracts when making my beers. I understand the process of breaking down the starches of grains using the natural alpha and beta amylase enzymes while steeping the grains in 140 degree to 150 degree water over a period of 7 to 8 hours. I lack the large enough vessels in which to house the grains during this process nor would my stove support a vessel of this size even if I had it. That is all I have to say on this matter. Thank you.
Sources:
Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels
Beer Captured by Tess and Mark Szamatulski
Brew like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus
The Homebrewer’s Garden by Joe Fisher and Dennis Fisher
History of Kölsch by Eric Warner
Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen Harrod Buhner