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St. John's Kolsch
Will be my 2nd time brewing this Kolsch on Saturday. First one is nearly complete and showing signs of being very good.
Its pretty straightforward, but so is a Kolsch. 
The goal is simply drinkability.
8# Pilsner (2 Row)
1# Wheat malt
.25 Honey Malt
1 oz Hallertauer (60 min)
1 oz Saaz (25 min)
1 oz Saaz (5 min)
Wyeast #2565
I will actually be doing a 3 step decoction mash with this recipe, although it could easily be done with a single sacchrification rest at 154 for 60 minutes.
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
We would expect as much from our resident decoction expert.
Will be waiting for your report, sir. 
webby wrote:
Will be my 2nd time brewing this Kolsch on Saturday.
I will actually be doing a 3 step decoction mash with this recipe,
You are quickly becoming our local decoction guru, Oh wise one!
Using over 10% wheat, do you get this to clear up nicely? 1n1m3g and his buddy Michael taught me a neat trick in replacing the wheat with torrified wheat, and the clarity improves drastically, (thanks again for the tip guys), and if clarity becomes an issue, give it a shot.
I don't know yet about the clarity. I'm using a keg for my 2ndary which is currently sitting in my 35 degree garage. I'm hoping 2 weeks of a good cold crash will help with the clarity.
I'll have to look at torrified wheat the next time I brew this...
Brewski wrote:
We would expect as much from our resident decoction expert.
thirsty wrote:
You are quickly becoming our local decoction guru, Oh wise one!
See Webby! I called it!
I fully expect you now to go through the entire "Ultimate Home Brewers Recipe Book" (Available exclusively here at brewingkb.com!!!!) and convert all the recipes to decoction recipes. Then I'll by 12 copies.
Well, we may want to hold off on the decoction expert status for a while. This was a more successful decoction, but we still had issues going from 126 to 153. We ended up doing two small decoctions in between to bring the temp up.
I haven't been able to be present at my brews when we are raising the temp, so its possible that the people looking after it are not letting the decoction boil fully. When I do the decoctions it seems to work fine.
Anyhow, the good news is that you do gain about 5 points of efficiency. I have been averaging around 60 - 65 percent efficiency and managed a 76% efficiency today. There were a number of other factors that went into that, though.
Overall I am sold on the process. Its a fun way to raise your temp and I like doing it while keeping the mash from getting too diluted (as would happen in an infusion mash).
webby wrote:
Overall I am sold on the process. Its a fun way to raise your temp and I like doing it while keeping the mash from getting too diluted (as would happen in an infusion mash).
Are you starting with a thick mash first, like 1 quart / pound, then adding some liquor each decoction to bring it closer to a 1.5 quart /pound? Seems like that may help in getting the tenp up quicker.
Started to do that last time around. When we had trouble getting the last temp step we did our final decoction with more liquid. Got a better boil for those grains which quickly brought the temp up close to the target temp.
webby wrote:
I haven't been able to be present at my brews when we are raising the temp, so its possible that the people looking after it are not letting the decoction boil fully. When I do the decoctions it seems to work fine.
Not only are you the resident decoction expert, you are the only homebrewer I know that has a staff to do the brewing for him. You are a true headbrewer at this point. You just schedule the brew session and go do other things while some poor assistant brewer does the work. Sounds great.
brewchez wrote:
[ You are a true headbrewer at this point. You just schedule the brew session and go do other things while some poor assistant brewer does the work. Sounds great.
Hopboy! Oh Hopboy! Where in the devil did that Hopboy go now.
Looks like I will need the quality control dept to step up and find and promote some one from the sanitation crew to add the 30 minute addition.
Its almost like to do things right around here you have to do them yourself.
Well now, its not like they don't benefit. I pay for the ingredients (for the most part) and they get to drink the end product for helping me out.
Actually, most of them have contributed money in some way - either through equipment or in ingredients. Brewing with people is just more fun. And when you have a 2 year old kid and another on the way, finding 5 hours uninterrupted just doesn't happen.
We actually tend to have large brew sessions - upwards of 5 - 10 people. Many times there are newbies there which is always a lot of fun.
I have a few traditions as well:
1. If it is your first time at a brew session, you are responsible for shaking the crap out of the carboy to aerate the wort. I'm not sure how good it is for the beer to be handled so aggressively, but there is some joy in watching the newbies work out a hernia as everyone else critiques them.
2. I always, always, always have to forget the 5.2 buffer until the last 15 minutes of the mash. This sets me up for a constant ridicule.
3. Something always will go wrong causing the brew session to take 8 hours rather than the planned 5.
4. Newbies are now responsible for stirring any decoctions.
5. Whenever possible we freak out the newbies by telling them that they ruined the whole thing.
Well, I poured my first batch of this and the results are fantastic! The beer is remarkably well balanced!
In future batches I'll definitely use torrified wheat to reduce some of the cloudiness. The beer is pretty clear, but not as clear as I'd like...
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