Recipe from Northern Brewer
5 gallons extract
1 lb Pilsen Light DME
6 lbs Pilsen LME (late addition: last 15 min. of boil)
1 oz Tradition @ (60 min.)
1 oz Hersbrucker @ (30 min.)
Wyeast 2565 Kölsch
Pitched: 4/20/12 OG 1.052
Secondary: 5/19/12 SG 1.010
Kegged:
Notes: The late addition liquid malt extract was a bit unusual; adding that much late in the boil really cools things down and I wasn't quite sure whether I needed to adjust the boil time to give it a full 60 minutes of vigorous boiling or whether the entire heating time from first boil was supposed to be 60 minutes. I went with the first option, so the wort was bubbling away for 65-70 minutes in the end. The fermentation is supposed to take place at a somewhat lower temperature than normal, between 55 and 65, so I lugged the primary fermenter down to the basement in search of a chillier spot.
It spent much longer in the primary than I expected: just after brewday the weather got very cold indeed and our basement may have been cold enough to stop or slow fermentation. After a couple of weeks, things were still moving along with plenty of vigour, so it ended up being in the primary for almost four weeks. It tasted pretty good at transfer, and the specific gravity was good.
This was one of my favourite styles when I lived in Germany, often served in tiny Kölsch glasses, so I'm hopeful that the outcome will be good here.
