Bad Lands Kölsch (Batch 393)

If you read Ground Hog Premium Lager (Batch 392), you know I brewed last Saturday.

My wife was out of town on a "girls trip" for the weekend, so I had extra time on my hands.

With this extra time, I decided to brew Sunday also.

This should help get my beer inventory up. It actually also helps catch me up a little on tracking to a typical brewing year.

For this Sunday batch, after cleaning up the Ground Hog Premium Lager brew day, I prepared water etc... and a little later in the evening, I started an overnight mash.

For ...

Bad Lands Kölsch

So ... I first brewed Bad Lands Kölsch in May of 2015 in anticipation of taking the family to meet my sister and her family in South Dakota.

Kölsch is one of my wife's favorite styles of beer, so it is pretty surprising that I have not brewed it since 2015. But, my Paint Mines: Mini - Bad Lands got me thinking I should brew it again.

On Sunday, I was up at 5:35. I turned the mash heat up to 156 and started the recirculation pump for a few minutes while getting dressed for a quick easy run.

And ... at 5:48, I pulled the grain pipe up to drain. I meant to turn the heat up to 195 while I was running, but a few minutes into my run I realized I forgot to do that.

So, I turned around and turned up the heat to 195 so it could heat up while I was out running.

I finished the run by 6:38, at which point I took a pre-boil gravity reading. It was low, so I diluted with .75 gallons of water.

I was able to start the boil timer around 6:55.

The boil went great. I remembered to add all the ingredients at the appropriate times.

I chilled the wort to a little under 80 with the hose water, and then switched to recirculating ice water. Once the wort was under 57, I racked into the fermenter.

The fermenter was in the basement by 8:35. 

After the brew day, I went off for an adventurous gravel bike ride. Fermentation was actually going before bedtime.

We'll be drinking this by July. I can't wait.

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