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Kolsch water profile

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:14 pm
by Buccaneer
I'm brewing a kolsch tomorrow and I'm looking for some suggestions on a water profile.

I've done some cursory reading, but a lot of it seems contradictory. It looks like I need to get the calcium up to 50-75, with some chloride and sulphate. Kolsch is balanced just slightly toward malt, so I'm thinking of a sulphate/chloride ratio somewhere around 0.8 or 0.9.

Anyone have any direct experience and/or advice?

Re: Kolsch water profile

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:20 am
by RubberToe
I made a kolsch a little over a year ago and it turned out great. I read the kolsch book and researched the water profile at the time. I don't remember my reasoning but this is what I came up with.

Name: Kolsch 1

Ions:
Calcium: 25.00
Magnesium: 7.00
Sodium: 12.00
Sulfate: 17.00
Chloride: 25.00
Bicarbonate: 18.00

Additions per 32L of Dartmouth water:
Gypsum: 0.0
Salt: 0.0
Epsom Salts: 0.0
Baking Soda: 0.0
Chalk: 0.0
Calcium Chloride: 2.0

The resulting beer was great IMHO. I recommend using a kolsch yeast if you can but if not it's no biggie. Good luck.

Re: Kolsch water profile

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:48 am
by Buccaneer
Fantastic, I'll give that a try. And I have a kolsch yeast.