Final Gravity (Dark Berry Champagne Kolsch)
Brewed by Big Red Brewing on 2/7/20
Final Gravity is the perfect beer for summer sipping! Bursting with candied fruit aromas, the mix of strawberries, blackberries, cherries, and blueberries gives rise to a pleasantly tart beer with an extremely smooth finish. Champagne yeast really kicks up the effervescence and gives rise to a crisp beer that'll leave you wanting more!
Ingredients
- 4 oz. Vienna Malt
- 4 oz. White Wheat Malt
- 4 oz. Caramel 10 L Malt
- 4 oz. Carapils Malt
- 4 oz. Flaked Barley
- 4 oz. German Pilsner Malt
- 2 lbs. Pilsen Dry Malt Extract
- 0.33 oz. Huell Melon (added at beginning of boil)
- 0.33 oz. Huell Melon (added at end of boil)
- LALVIN EC-1118 (vidal blanc grape juice was used to grow the cells, with cell density of around 106 /ml)
- 16 oz. frozen mixed berries
- 24 oz. blueberry pie filling
- 2 oz. Brewer’s Best Blackberry Extract
- 2 oz. Corn sugar for priming
- 8 oz. Lactose
Brew Day
- In the brewpot, heat 2 gallons of water to 154 °F. Turn off heat.
- Steep malts (8 oz. Vienna Malt, 8 oz. White Wheat Malt, 8 oz. Caramel 10˚L Malt, 8 oz. Carapils Malt, 8 oz. Flaked Barley, 8 oz. German Pilsner Malt) in grain bag for 1 hour in brewpot. Keep covered. This is the partial mash. The mash liquid temperature should be 150°. Add hot or cold water to stay within +/- 1 degree. A loss of 5 °F or so by the end of the hour is fine. The water will change color and smell delicious.
- In a separate pot heat 1.5 gallons water to 170 °F for sparge.
- After an hour take the grain bag out of the brew pot and let it drain, do not squeeze. This is now called wort. Put the grain bag into a strainer or colander and slowly pour 170 °F water over mash to bring wort up to 3 gallons. This is called sparging. Try not to splash.
- Bring wort to a boil. Watch out for boilover when the hot break occurs (foamy stuff floating at the top). Turn down heat if boil over occurs.
- Turn off heat, add 4 lbs. Pilsen Dry Malt Extract to brewpot and stir till dissolved.
- Bring back to a boil and add 0.33 oz. Huell Melon hops. Stir occasionally and leave cover off while boiling.
- Boil for a total of 60 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Add 0.33 oz. Huell Melon hops.
- Grab brewpot with pot holders and submerge in bath of ice and water. From this point on everything that comes in contact with the wort must be sanitized.
- After about 45 minutes, the temperature of wort should be 65˚F (make sure your thermometer is sanitized).
- Pour out the sanitizer in your fermenter.
- Transfer wort to a sanitized fermenter (straining through sanitized strainer to strain out hops). Add enough clean water to bring wort to 5 gallons.
- Shake fermenter vigorously to oxygenate.
- Collect enough wort to take hydrometer reading. This can be done using the spigot on the fermenter or a sanitized turkey baster or wine thief.
- Add yeast into fermenter.
- Cover fermenter, add sanitized airlock (with sanitizer in it) and allow beer to sit and ferment in 60 to 65˚F area away from light for 1 week.
Secondary
- Add pie filling and allow to sit for one week.
- Lager (bring temperature down to 35 to 40˚F) for one week. Try a small sample of your beer, and if the beer tastes good, you are ready to bottle. If not to your liking lager for up to 2 more weeks, taking samples every few days until it reaches your preference.
Bottling Day
- Thoroughly clean and sanitize ALL brewing equipment, utensils, and bottles that will come in contact with any ingredients, wort or beer with a certified sanitizer.
- Pour beer into a sanitized bucket using a mesh strainer as a filter for berry solids.
- Dissolve 8 oz. of lactose in 3/4 c. water.
- Dissolve 2.5 oz. priming sugar in 1/2 c. water. Add 2 oz. blackberry flavoring. Add mixture and lactose solution to beer and mix well with a sanitized paddle.
- Using the spigot on your bucket, fill the bottles to within approximately one inch of the top of the bottle. Use a bottle capper to apply sanitized crown caps.
- Move the bottles to a dark, temperature-stable area (approx. 64º - 72ºF). Over the next two weeks, beer will naturally carbonate in bottles.
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