Planet Beer

This is a blog about making beer, primarily ME making beer. However, it will also teach you how to homebrew---either all grain or with little cans of goo. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Bottle size


Ok, at least in bottle sizes, bigger is better. I like the 675 or 750 ml. bottles best, rather than the standard 12 oz. six pack size. It makes the filling go faster, particularly when you brew as often as I do. Usually I only bottle 1-2 gallons, and keg the rest. So this is my favorite bottle size...

Imperial Kolsch


This is one of those accidental recipes that worked out very well.

(recipe excised)

gypsum and irish moss as kettle additions

Original gravity, 1.068
Final gravity, 1.010

I made a low volume sparge which limited my final batch to about 4.25 gallons, which caused the ABV to be rather high.

Alcohol by volume, approximately 7.5%, hence the name!
This kolsch-style beer has a distinctive taste that you can only get with the 2049 yeast. You can substitute any lager yeast to make kolsch with, although I'd suggest you avoid any that say "kolsch yeast" on them. Kolsch is made with lager yeast at room temperatures, and so you get esters from the yeast that you normally wouldn't. The beer is a deep honey color, photo above.
This beer has just been force carbonated, it will clarify in a short time---like about 3 days.