Kolsch Brewed

I brewed a Kolsch (though I can't call it that as I don't live in Koln Germany) on Saturday. It was an interesting brew. I found some Kolsch malt which was malted in Koln Germany so I decided to use 2 pounds of that along with 5 pounds of German Pils Malt. I added 1 pound of Belgian Wheat Malt as well. The hops were 2 ounces of Hallertau and 1 ounce of Tettnang. It was a very simple recipe. I started with five gallons of water and heated to 182. It was a bit too hot so I added the hot water to the mashtun and let it cool to 152 and maintained the temp. I left it alone for two hours then sparged. The boil was only an hour. I am brewing this for the style contest at Forest City Brewers for the June contest. The brew is fermenting nicely with an Original Gravity (O.G.) of 1.044 starting out. I think the Final Gravity (F.G.) will be around 1.010 based on the fermentation so far. Visit my blog page at www.beerandwineathome.com.

Scottish Ale bottled - entered - drinking

Well, I bottled the scottish ale. It is a bit dark to meet the bjcp standards but it tasted good. I entered it into the style contest at the brew club Forest City Brewers and only got an honorable mention. That was a bummer because I really like the taste of this brew! Oh well. I am drinking it up and lovin' it! The next style contest for May is Maibocks and Hellesbocks. I don't have one brewed so I am brewing a Kolsch for June this weekend. I think I may enter a simple pale ale I brewed up in between for the open contest for May though. I need to hurry though. It is still in the primary fermenter but it's done. I may as well filter out the yeast and throw that one in a keg. Visit my page at www.beerandwineathome.com.