So yesterday I took a day off work to brew (it was like a mini vacation), and everything seemed to go fairly decent for my first time. However, it has been over 24 hrs. and I haven’t seen any fermenting activity from my fermenter. Did I do something wrong, or miss a step?
Any help would be great, and if I did do something wrong, is there a way to salvage my beer?
See notes below:
Kolsch Recipe Form 07/22/14
Recipe Volume 5 gal
Yeast Safale US-05 Ale Yeast
Malts 6 lb of Pilsen Malt Extract
1 lb of Pilsen Light Dried Malt Extract
Calculated OG 1.048
Hops Amount (oz) Time % Alpha Acid
German Traditional Pellets 1oz 60 min 6.7
German Hersbruckner Pellets 1oz 30 min 2.8
Procedure
1.) Cleaned all utensils w/ B-Brite (have to use laundry tub in basement to fit kettle/buckets) and rinsed
2.) Started boiling gallon of water for misc. use in separate 1 gal kettle
3.) Poured 2.5 gallons of natural spring water into 10 gal. Kettle and started boiling process
4.) Sanitized spoon, air lock, fermenter (and lid), thermometer, strainer, scissors, and Pyrex measuring cup
5.) Once water was boiling I took kettle off stove and stirred in the 1lb of Pilsen Light Dried Malt Extract
6.) Brought the wort to a boil and added 1oz German Traditional Hops and set boiling timer for 60min
7.) Rehydrated the yeast w/ one cup of warm water and stirred.
8.) I stir the wort every 2-3 minutes.
9.) Once the timer reached 30min until end of boil I added 1 oz of German Hersbruckner Hops
10.) Once the timer reached 15min until end of boil I removed the kettle from the burner and added 6lb of Pilsen Malt Extract
11.) Returned the kettle to the burner and brought back to a boil with about 5 min until end of boil.
12.) Kept kettle on for an extra 5 min as the boil was paused adding the Pilsen Malt Extract
13.) Cooled the wort to 76 degrees in ice water bath in 50 min before transferring to fermenter through a SS strainer.
14.) Aerated the wort by pouring between the kettle and fermenter once.
15.) Pitched the yeast, shook the fermenter, and sealed the airlock (filled w/ Starsan solution)
16.) Stored fermenter in dark closet at 72-74 degrees
Fermentation
At 12 hours no activity or bubbling out the airlock
At 24 hours still no activity
I would bet say 100$ that your beer is happily fermenting away in a bucket with a less than ideal lid seal. airlock activity is a crumby way of monitoring fermentation. pop the lid and take a look. I suspect you will see krausen a plenty.
A few hints for next time:
take tomorrow off work and start your second batch. the first one just doesn’t last like it should.
chill further. aim for ~60-64 pitch temp and try your best to hold it below 70 for at least the first three days. You can do this with a fancy fridge and external thermostat, a big bin or water with ice or frozen water bottles, a ‘swamp cooler’ (a big bin with just a little water and a t-shirt or cotton towel wrapped around the bucket with the tail/hem in the water and a breeze), or a really cool place in your house (basement floor, overly airconditioned spare bedroom)
actually that’s it. you did quite well for your first time.
So I popped open the lid and there’s nothing going on. It looks like the same wort I brewed but there’s no foamy krausen. I even checked the airlock and when you push the top of the lid it blows out the airlock, which tells me my seal should be half decent.
what was the date on the yeast? it’s possible the viability was really low although that seems odd for us-05. but as Jim says, give it a couple more hours yet. if nothing, take a sample and make SURE nothing happened. at the pitch temps you were at it could have happened really really fast.
Deep breaths… check it tomorrow and let us know. Then we can take you through it step by step. Barley, water, and yeast want to become beer. You’ll get there
Is US 05 not traditionally used in a Kolsch? The guy on the phone recommended it because he said it was the only dry yeast he had, and that would be the easiest to use for a first timer.
US-05 is the Chico yeast, AKA Sierra Nevada’s ale yeast. Liquid equivalents are Wyeast 1056 and WLP 001. It is a clean yeast that attenuated well.
Koelsch yeasts are in liquid form, such as WLP 029 and Wyeast 2565. Koelsch yeast is fairly clean and crisp, but can have an ester that is like white wine. There are no dry Koelsch yeasts that I know of.
The shop gave you advice that should have made your first beer easy, but it looks like you are having some worries. Just “relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew” as Charlie Papazians says. Since you don’t have a homebrew, have a craft beer of your choice. Getting a second pack of yeast my be the next step.
Yeah i cant really add much that hasnt already been mentioned. Your process looks good and the date on the yeast seems fine. If nothing is going on run out and grab a second yeast pack. I tend to always have a pack or two of US-05 in my fridge for that very reason.
+1 to trying to ferment cooler. For a kolsch some people will say ferment cool (very low 60’s) and then ive read that some brewers in Cologne ferment at 70. After fermentation you will want to store as cool as possible for a few weeks then bottle or maybe you will say eff that i cant wait for that and bottle anyways.