Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch
In late-ish August of 2026, we were talking with our brewing buddy "Doc" and his wife. He and I were in similar situations where our homebrew inventory felt very low.
He proposed a "plan" to help us "catch up" a little... he wanted to host a "Quad Brew Day". He and I would each brew a batch, and each of our wives would brew a batch. Honestly, I'm not sure how much the wives will actually do, so really what we are talking about is "Doc" and I each doing two batches in one day. I've done this before, but never at someone else's house.
My "travel brew days" are already hectic, and keeping things as simple as possible is essential.
I thought I'd design a beer that was likely to go smoothly even when I will have to spend lots of my time drinking and doing most of the work on my "wife's" batch.
My wife chose the Anvil Foundry, so my recipe would have to be in the cooler with propane burner. I would start the mash at home and transport it to Doc's Brewery so that it would be ready to sparge and boil when I got there.
I had Colorado Kolsch yeast harvested, and decided that would be my yeast. I designed the beer with a short 30 minute boil.
And ... for the first time ever, I decided to do "no-chill", which would save time cooling the wort (at least while at his brewery).
I still wanted some hoppiness, so I'm adding my aroma hops in the fermenter as dry hops.
The name Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch ... well ... "Kolsch" because of the yeast (even though it is more of a Pale Ale with all the hops). "Kolorado" is "Colorado" starting with a "K" to match Kolsch.
With all the cycling and hiking I do in the area, I quite often see Coyotes (Koyotes?) on my adventures. Every once in awhile I see a strange looking Coyote. Darker in color and looking like the fur isn't as full and bushy as a "normal" looking coyote. When I see these weird-looking ones, I think and tell people I am seeing a Chupacabra. I changed Chupacabra to match the "Kolorado" and "Kolsch".
Strange, I know. I'll name my Pale Ale "Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch", you can name yours whatever you want.
I'm brewing this soon. We'll see how it goes.
For more about this beer, see Sheppy's Blog: Khupacabra.
| Khupacabra Kolorado Kolsch --- Batch 1 (399) |
| Style | American Pale Ale | Batch Size | 5.50 gal | |||
| Type | All Grain | Boil Size | 6.10 gal | |||
| Brewhouse Efficiency | 70.00 | Boil Time | 30 minutes |
Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity | 1.052 SG | Estimated FG | 1.011 SG | ||||
| Recipe Bitterness | 32.1 IBUs (Rager) | Alcohol by Volume | 5.4 % | ||||
| BU : GU | 0.624 | ||||||
| Recipe Color | 5.3 SRM |
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| Measured OG: | Measured FG: | ||||||
| ADF: | Measured ABV: |
Ingredients
| Amt | Name | Type | # | %/IBU | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.89 gal | Denver, Colorado | Water | 1 | - | - |
| 9 lbs | Base Malt 2 Row (Proximity) (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 2 | 82.6 % | 0.70 gal |
| 1 lbs 8.0 oz | Munich 10L (Proximity) (10.0 SRM) | Grain | 3 | 13.8 % | 0.12 gal |
| 6.4 oz | Prox Red (Proximity) (18.0 SRM) | Grain | 4 | 3.7 % | 0.03 gal |
| 1.000 oz | CTZ [14.90 %] - First Wort 30.0 min | Hop | 5 | 32.1 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Cascade [7.00 %] - 0.0 Days Into Primary for 7.0 Days | Hop | 6 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Centennial [9.80 %] - 0.0 Days Into Primary for 7.0 Days | Hop | 7 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.000 oz | Citra [12.00 %] - 0.0 Days Into Primary for 7.0 Days | Hop | 8 | 0.0 IBUs | - |
| 1.0 pkg | Colorado Kolsch (Propagate Lab #MIP-511) | Yeast | 9 | - | - |
Mash Profile
| Name | Description | Step Temperature | Step Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mash In | Add 13.63 qt of water at 159.1 F | 148.0 F | 75 min |
Batch sparge with 1 steps (4.00gal) of 168.0 F water
Recipe Notes
Make a starter a day or two before brew day.
Use Denver water profile (as defined by BeerSmith) to
Ca=31,Mg=8,Na=21,SO4=51,Cl=23,HCO3=104
Brew as directed from recipe.
Rack into bucket for no-chill. Let cool overnight. Pour bucket into fermenter with 1 gallon water.
Add dry hops directly into fermenter.
Ferment 1 to 2 weeks.
Keg carbonate to 2.5 to 2.7 volumes.
Brewing Record
| Brew Date: | Strike Temp: | |||||
| Mash Temps: | ||||||
| Pre-boil OG | (1.053 SG) | Pre-boil Vol | (6.10 gal) | |||
| Actual Mash Efficiency | Pitch Temp | |||||
| Fermentation | ||||||
| Day 1: | ||||||
| Day ... | ||||||
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