Grape-Nuts Kölsch

5 gallons

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs. American 6-row malted barley
• 3 lbs. Post Grape-nuts cereal
• 8 oz. crystal malt (German, if available)
• 1 oz. black malt
• 2 oz. Tettnanger hop pellets
• 1 tbsp. Irish moss, reconstituted in 1 cup warm water.
• Wyeast European ale yeast
• 3/4 cup corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step:

Crush grains and mash in along with Grape-nuts in 2.5 gals. 130° F water. Proceed with a 30-minute protein rest. The mash should
stabilize near 120° or 122° F. Add 1.25 gals. of boiling water and stabilize at 150° F. Hold for at least one hour or until the mash passes an iodine test. Mash out at 170° F for five or 10 minutes. Sparge with 170° F water until you collect six gallons of clear wort.

Bring wort to a boil. Boil 15 minutes and add 1.5 oz. hops for bittering and Irish moss. Boil 30 minutes more and add 0.5 oz. hops for flavor. Boil 15 minutes more. Chill, pitch yeast, and ferment.

Brewing Notes:

The sweet wort weighed in at 1.048 specific gravity. After boiling and topping off, the gravity was 1.042.

I started the mash at 7 a.m. Two stuck run-offs later, it was nearly 4 p.m. by the time I cooled, pitched, and cleaned up. But all my numbers were right and the wort tasted sweet. I was optimistic.

After 24 hours the wort stabilized at 65° F. The European Ale yeast fermented great guns for 48 hours. By day three in the primary the airlock had quieted considerably. The trub was nearly two inches thick at the bottom of the barrel, and I decided to rack to secondary.

All was quiet for the next five days. I bottled at 1.009 specific gravity. The fermented brew tasted good. It was clean, smooth, and rather light. I primed with 3/4 cup corn sugar.

Tasting Notes:

It is very hazy if poured right from the fridge. If I made this brew again, I might use gelatin or isinglass to fine it more clearly than the Irish moss.

The color is a deep amber. It has the best head of any beer I have yet brewed. Creamy and rock solid. The head stays in a perfect glass-size disk, sitting on top, undisturbed until the last sip.

It has a clean, nutty, malty aroma and crisp hop bite at first sip. The finish starts with the Tettnanger bitterness and ends malty but dry.