Kölsch: Crisp, Delicate 20-Litre Homebrew Recipe

Kölsch is Cologne’s own beer: pale, crisp and delicate, with a soft bready malt flavour, a gentle floral hop note and a faint fruitiness from the yeast. It is a hybrid style. It is brewed with a top-fermenting ale yeast, like a British bitter, but fermented cool and then cold-conditioned for weeks, like a lager. The result is something that drinks like a very clean, easy-going lager with just a little more character. In Cologne it is served in small, straight 200ml glasses called Stangen, carried round in a ring-shaped tray by waiters known as Köbes, who keep replacing your empty glass until you put a beer mat on top of it. The name is protected, so only breweries in and around Cologne can call their beer Kölsch. What you brew at home is a Kölsch-style ale, and with a little patience it can be a very good one.

Recipe at a Glance

• Batch size: 20 litres into the fermenter

• Original gravity (OG): 1.046

• Final gravity (FG): 1.009

• ABV: approx. 4.9%

• Bitterness: approx. 24 IBU (Tinseth)

• Colour: pale straw to light gold

• Brewhouse efficiency assumed: 70%

Equipment Needed

• Brew kettle of at least 30 litres (or an all-in-one electric system)

• Mash tun, or a large grain bag for brew-in-a-bag (BIAB)

• Fermenting vessel of at least 23 litres with an airlock

• A way to control fermentation temperature (a fridge with a temperature controller is ideal, but a cool cellar or garage in autumn can work)

• Hydrometer and trial jar

• Digital thermometer

• Wort chiller or an ice bath

• No-rinse sanitiser

• Bottles (about 40 x 500ml) and caps, or a keg or pressure barrel

Ingredients (20 Litres)

Grains (all-grain)

• 3.9 kg German Pilsner malt

• 300 g Vienna malt (for a touch of bready depth)

• Optional: swap 200 g of the Pilsner malt for wheat malt, as some Cologne brewers do, for a slightly softer body

Extract option

• 2.6 kg extra light or Pilsner dry malt extract in place of the Pilsner malt

• Steep the 300 g Vienna malt in about 4 litres of water at 66–68°C for 30 minutes in a grain bag, lift it out, then top up the kettle

• Add half the extract at the start of the boil and the rest for the last 15 minutes to keep the colour pale

Hops

• 45 g Hallertauer Mittelfrüh (around 4% alpha acid) at 60 minutes

• 15 g Tettnanger (or more Hallertauer) at 15 minutes

• Swap Hallertauer for Perle or Spalter Select if that is what your shop has. Keep to German noble-type hops: the hop character should be gentle and floral, never citrusy

Yeast and Extras

• A dedicated Kölsch yeast: Wyeast 2565 Kölsch, White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kölsch, or the dry LalBrew Köln. Fermentis SafAle K-97 also works

• Half a Protofloc or Whirlfloc tablet at 15 minutes for a clearer beer

• About 120 g dextrose for priming (if bottling)

• Soft water suits the style. If your tap water is hard, cut it 50/50 with bottled still water or reverse osmosis water

Mashing

1. Heat about 14 litres of strike water to around 70°C (or follow your system’s calculator).

2. Mash in and hold at 65°C for 60 minutes. A slightly lower mash gives a drier, crisper beer, which is what you want here.

3. Raise to 76°C for 10 minutes to mash out, if your system allows.

4. Sparge with water at 76–78°C to collect around 26 litres of wort in the kettle.

The Boil

1. Boil for 90 minutes rather than 60. Pilsner malt can leave a cooked-sweetcorn flavour (DMS) behind, and a long, vigorous boil with the lid off drives it away.

2. Add the Hallertauer with 60 minutes left.

3. Add the Tettnanger and the Protofloc tablet with 15 minutes left.

4. At the end of the boil, chill the wort as quickly as you can to about 14°C and transfer it to a sanitised fermenter, leaving as much hop debris behind as possible.

Fermentation

1. Pitch a healthy amount of yeast: a starter for liquid yeast, or one to two sachets of dry yeast for 20 litres. Under-pitching at cool temperatures gives sluggish fermentations and off-flavours.

2. Ferment at 15–16°C. This is the key to the style: warm enough for the ale yeast to work, cool enough to keep it clean. Kölsch yeast can produce a little sulphur early on, which fades with time.

3. When the gravity has nearly reached 1.009 (usually after 7–10 days), let the fermenter rise to around 18°C for two or three days to finish off and clean up.

4. Then cold-condition (the German word is lagern) at 0–4°C for three to four weeks. Kölsch yeast is famously slow to drop clear, and this cold rest is what turns a cloudy, slightly yeasty beer into a bright, polished one.

Packaging

Bottle with about 120 g of dextrose dissolved in a little boiled water, or keg and carbonate to around 2.5 volumes of CO₂. Kölsch should be lively and spritzy, with a fine white head. If you bottle, keep the bottles at room temperature for two weeks to carbonate, then move them somewhere cold for at least another week before drinking.

Tasting Notes and Tips

• What to expect: pale gold, very clear, with a soft biscuit and fresh-bread malt flavour, a light floral hop aroma and a hint of white wine or pear from the yeast. It should finish dry and leave you wanting another sip.

• Do not rush it: the cold-conditioning weeks make the biggest difference. A young Kölsch tastes yeasty and a bit rough; a well-conditioned one tastes delicate and clean.

• Clarity: finings such as gelatine added at the start of cold-conditioning will speed things up if you are impatient.

• Serve it right: pour into small, narrow glasses at 6–8°C. A small glass stays cold and fresh, which is the whole point of the Cologne way of drinking.

Kölsch vs Pilsner

The two look almost identical in the glass, and both use pale German malt and noble hops. The difference is the yeast. A Pilsner uses a bottom-fermenting lager yeast at around 10–12°C and is usually more bitter and hop-forward. Kölsch uses an ale yeast at a slightly warmer temperature, so it is softer, rounder and very gently fruity. For homebrewers that is good news: Kölsch is more forgiving of a temperature that drifts a degree or two, which makes it a great first step towards brewing lager.

Food Pairing

Kölsch goes with almost anything that is not too heavy. In Cologne it is drunk with Halve Hahn (a rye bread roll with a thick slice of Gouda, mustard and onions), bratwurst and roast pork knuckle. At home, try it with a ploughman’s lunch, grilled fish, salads, soft cheeses or a classic fish and chips.