Upgraded Kit Means Upgraded Lytle Creek Kolsch

So, a lot seems to have happened this year in terms of my homebrewing setup despite only brewing one batch of beer recently. After become better acquainted with a mutual friend that also brews beer at home, I checked out his setup, helped him brew a batch of his own, and was inspired to upgrade myself from the rookie league Mr. Beer setup to... let's call it Double A for now with a new 5 gallon kit largely put together from a Northern Brewer kit thanks to a couple gift cards received at Christmas. After some deliberation on what style beer to break the new kit in with, I picked up a Kolsch kit at the More Beer store nearby my work. I am definitely grateful I have such a cool place so convenient to me. The stars finally aligned for brew day to commence and this process certainly was more of a chore than the simple Mr. Beer process. Basically the difference between out of the box cake mix and making cake from scratch. Let it condition for a couple of weeks, chilled a few of the bottles and now finally getting to test out the results.

Like most of my beers it seems the results don't quite come out as expected, but it still results in a beer that's worthwhile. While I'd still call it a kolsch, it doesn't necessarily fit the mold precsiely. It is pretty coppery in color, leaning to the more brown tones, with a good bit of haziness. The head on it is pretty small but lasts for a good while thanks to the good amount of carbonation. There was also a good bit of thick sediment thanks likely to my getting used to using the siphon to leave behind most of the sediment after fermentation. The aroma was lager like with a faintly sweet and musky smell. The flavor was pretty clean upfront but detriorated a bit with a slightly bitter and bit too much citrusy sourness. Probably should've pulled out the hop bags while cooling the wort instead of leaving them in and possibly could've avoided this though. Overall I was pretty happy with it despite it not coming out as planned given all the new processes I had to learn. Now, time to give away a good bulk of my 5 gallons of beer so I can make room for the next batch.