The biggest challenge in a Kölsch is building just enough malt body and character without going overboard. During a recent Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® review panel, we tasted quite a few Kölsches. Some of the disappointing ones were too flabby, and others were barely beers. Working the axis between fermentation character, malt, hops, and carbonation is a tough line to walk, but Matthew P. Steinberg, the cofounder and head brewer at Exhibit ‘A’ Brewing Company in Framingham, Massachusetts, knows a thing or two about how to make a beer worthy of the style’s name. We asked him for insight.
Ingredients
I focus on using the true ingredients. We use Weyermann floor-malted Bohemian Pilsner malt and a little bit of Carafoam malt to get the dextrin in there to fatten the beer up a bit. For hops, we go with Tettnanger and Mandarina Bavaria, which is not traditional, but, man, it’s a cool hop, and it brings a fruitiness to the beer that we really like. Then it’s traditional German Kölsch (White Labs WLP029) yeast.
Fermentation
When it’s all said and done, we want this beer to have a medium-light body, that cereal-malt taste, and a bit of hops. We get there through fermentation, and for us and the style, the key is to go slow.