I bought some White Labs WLP029 German Ale/ Kölsch Yeast from a local store the other day. Got home and noticed that the yeast had a best before date of Dec 31 2010. I should have known considering I bought grains that had bugs in them from the same vendor. All that aside… What is the average time that fermentation starts with this yeast strain from others experience with this yeast? This is the first time making a Kölsch and using this yeast strain. So these are very uncharted territories for me. I will be very unhappy if the yeast don’t go. Usually all of my beers start fermenting within 8 - 12hrs. The beer is fantastic and turned out almost exactly to BJCP standard. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
Absolutely make a starter with any vial or smack pack, but especially a kolsch. You will need to approximate more of a lager pitch for a kolsch. And keep the fermentation temp cool - low 60s. See Mrmalty.com to get an idea what size starter you need. Use “hybrid” from the pull down menu.
Chalk it up as a lesson learned. As Tom and major have indicated a starter is crucial to making great beer. Most beer recipes using liquid yeast reuire an appropriate size starter in order to allow for a healthy fermentation and good tasting beer. Without the required amount of yeast in your wort, the yeast will struggle to ferment the beer and undesireable fermentation by-products will be generated rendering your beer less than desireable. While you will make beer it will possess some of these undesireable fermentation by-products. If you have some dry yeast in your possession try pitching half pack to minimize any potential harm.
Yeah, for the best beer you always need to make a starter. But in the meantime be sure you have aerated it extremely well. Uderpitching can cause problems. UNderpitching yeast that is close or past its expiration date can cause disasters. Being sure to aerate properly may alleviate some problems. I would recommend warming the beer up to around 72 dgrees as well. Normally I would never suggest to pitch this warm but warmer temps will help get things moving. Then slowly cool back down to the low 60s. If after 48 hours you still see no sign of fermentation you may need to pitch more yeast. One pack of US-05 should do the trick.
In the future, if you don’t feel like messing with starters, I recommend just sticking with dry yeast. No starter needed.
Well… Stilll no activity this morning. So I pitched some good Wyeast 3068 and aerated well. So I guess I will call it a Wölsch. What in the heck do you think this will taste like? I am scratching my head and my newly fuzzy chin!
That’s the Weihenstefan Bavarian Wheat yeast. Expect clove phenols and some banana esters. That should be interesting, sort of a German Wheat without the wheat. Let us know how it tastes.
OH MAN!!! Just racked this to the secondary and let me say…simply AMAZING!!! It literally is a Kolsch mixed with a very light wheat. Right now it is a little cloudy but maybe it will clear up really well. This is one I think everyone will have to try!
If you used a weizen yeast you shouldn’t expect it to clear up. Most of the reason a hefeweizen is cloudy is because of the yeast in suspension. Drink it young and cloudy.