Comments on my Kolsch recipe?

Never brewed a Kolsch and only tried one once. Trying to put a recipe together and I’m looking for your expert opinions. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 14.29 %
3.00 lb Pilsner Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 42.86 %
3.00 lb Pilsner Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 42.86 %
0.50 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 14.4 IBU
0.25 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (30 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (10 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.88 %
Bitterness: 26.8 IBU Calories: 217 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.8 SRM

Looks good for an extract Kolsch. My tweaks would be to lose the late hop addition and use all dry extracts. :cheers:

Is it a typo that both 3 pound LME additions are to be boiled for only 15 minutes?

Not really. I had it in Beersmith as 1/2 of it being a late addition, then I just changed it to include the entire LME as a late addition. Didn’t feel like deleting one and changing the other.

@BryanH: I was debating the late hop addition. My understanding is Kolsch’s don’t have much of a hop profile but I was thinking about getting at least some in there. But it probably makes sense to just get rid of it. I guess I’ll tweak the hop additions to equal the IBU but move them up in the boil…I prefer DME but the reason I switched to LME was to get to a specific OG. I’ll have to take a look again at how I can play with it to use all DME.

Thanks for the suggestions! Keep em coming if you have them.

Not really. I had it in Beersmith as 1/2 of it being a late addition, then I just changed it to include the entire LME as a late addition. Didn’t feel like deleting one and changing the other.

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So your plan is to do majority of the boil with only the 1 pound of wheat extract? I don’t know much about extract brewing, but I suspect it would throw off your hop utilization calcs quite a bit.

Anyway, if you’re doing that to avoid getting the wort too dark I wouldn’t worry about it. Since you’re doing a full boil your color should stay fairly light anyway.

Not really. I had it in Beersmith as 1/2 of it being a late addition, then I just changed it to include the entire LME as a late addition. Didn’t feel like deleting one and changing the other.

[/quote]

So your plan is to do majority of the boil with only the 1 pound of wheat extract? I don’t know much about extract brewing, but I suspect it would throw off your hop utilization calcs quite a bit.

Anyway, if you’re doing that to avoid getting the wort too dark I wouldn’t worry about it. Since you’re doing a full boil your color should stay fairly light anyway.[/quote]

Well hopefully Beersmith calculated the utilization based on the late additions. I’ve done them before with success. And apparently some are even questioning if you need to boil extract at all with the hops. It seems some just add all the extract with 15 minutes or less. I personally like the aroma given when boiling, so I at least want a little extract in there. But if I was to do an all DME recipe, I’d probably add the majority at the beginning. It’s not just color I’m going for but also improved flavor.

As for the hops, I’m thinking about replacing the 30 minute Pearle addition with Liberty and removing the late addition.

So here is my updated recipe. What do you think of 1 lb wheat. Is that too much?

Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 83.33 %
1.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 16.67 %
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 25.7 IBU
0.25 oz Liberty [3.90 %] (30 min) Hops 2.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.94 %
Bitterness: 28.4 IBU Calories: 217 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.1 SRM

It’s OK, only about half of that pound is wheat.