[Iliff Ave]

Brewing this guy on Friday. I will be kegging a Kolsch in a couple of days so I thought I would use that yeast instead of the K97 which I have used for the past couple iterations. I think the grain bill is a keeper after experimenting with different combinations of pilsner, vienna, munich, and caramunich. The Cascade has become a constant as well. Just trying to find that second hop to fit. So far the best version had the same hop schedule with centennial and palisade in place of the sterling. Feedback?

95.7% Schill Vienna
4.3% Weyermann Carahell

1 oz Sterling and Cascade 20 min
1 oz Sterling and Cascade 5 min
1 oz Cascade DH
1/2 oz Sterling DH

WY2565

1.057
~50 IBU

[pete b]

My feedback is that I would like to drink a lot of that this summer.

[Pinski]

I agree, looks good as it is.
I would likely stick with the Cascade & Centennial combo and save the Sterling to shine in a Germerican lager.

[Iliff Ave]

Any recommendation on water profile? I have been using the 'pale ale' profile with about 217 ppm of SO4. It seems that some around here have been backing of their sulfate amounts in hoppy beers.

Right now, I am looking at:
Ca - 114
Mg - 7
Na - 14
SO4 - 200
Cl - 55

mash pH 5.38

[dilluh98]

IMO, I'd stick with the more assertive use of sulfate in the water profile. I've tinkered with equal SO4:Cl ratios or even higher Cl. It works for some APAs but with a nearly all Vienna beer, I'd shy away from a low SO4:Cl ratio as I think it'll come off as being perceived as a bit sweet (unless that's what you're after).

[Iliff Ave]

IMO, I'd stick with the more assertive use of sulfate in the water profile. I've tinkered with equal SO4:Cl ratios or even higher Cl. It works for some APAs but with a nearly all Vienna beer, I'd shy away from a low SO4:Cl ratio as I think it'll come off as being perceived as a bit sweet (unless that's what you're after).

Thanks for the input. What SO4:Cl would you recommend?

I don't use crystal malts very often in the majority of my beers. I decided to go with a bit here just to add a little more sweetness.

[dilluh98]

I think what you have is good unless you feel like that much sulfate is giving you too much of a minerally flavor.

[Iliff Ave]

I think what you have is good unless you feel like that much sulfate is giving you too much of a minerally flavor.

Cool. It has worked well in the past. My last attempt had 217 ppm sulfate but had a grain bill of 70% pilsner and 30% munich. I have noticed the mineral flavor in a bad way so I suppose I shouldn't change anything unless I need to.

[Iliff Ave]

This one has been in the keg for about a week now. The yeast was repitched from a Kolsch slurry. I added hops to the keg and wish I would have waited a couple of weeks to do that in order to let this yeast clear up a bit. I am thinking about going back to WLP029 because I find WY2565 not worth the time and effort for anything but a kolsch.

Sterling and Cascade is an interesting combination but I should have heeded the advice to use something more traditional like Centennial.