confusion?

So I brewed up a Pilsner recipe last week, my first lager, but it didn't go quite as planned. I chilled the wort down to 55F and then pitched my smack pack of yeast. After to days in my ferm chamber at 54F there was no sign of fermentation. I got worried and let the wort warm to 66F and pitched a Kolsch yeast. About 20 hours later I have fermentation. Now here is the problem, there is a thick creamy yeast cake on top of the wort and a thick yeast cake on the bottom as well. It apears that both yeasts have been going at it. I have had it fermenting at 64F and it has been bubbling away nicely for about 5 days now. I have a Kolsch recipe that I want to brew and put on the yeast from this batch but I am not sure if this yeast cake is going to be a lager and ale mix and what I should do? Also as this finishes fermenting should I be slowly crashing it as a lager or just let it finish as a Kolsch?

You would lager a kolsch anyway, so might as well do it as planned. The pilsner yeast will ferment warm and be more fruity, the kolsch yeast will do their usual thing, so the flavor should be OK, just less clean than a typical lager. After this batch, though, who knows what the combination yeast cake will do. You'll need new yeast if you want a definite kolsch with your next batch.

So, how much yeast did you pitch initially. A smack pack contains no where near enough yeast to properly ferment a lager. So, while you did not see signs of fermentation it might have been because the yeast were in a reproduction phase and not actually fermenting the beer.

You will get a lager. It might not end up as originally intended and you might have some off flavors.

If you did not make a starter you should research them. Doing starters will save money compared to pitching multiple packs of yeast.

Pitching the proper amount of yeast will make your good beers better.

I do normally do a 2l starter. However this was a spur of the moment brew day so I just pitched the pack I had.

Colby_Bergen said:

I do normally do a 2l starter. However this was a spur of the moment brew day so I just pitched the pack I had.

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Thus a long lag time, seeing no action as there probably would be none, then pitching more yeast.

Good luck. I expect you will have a decent lager, though a bit different than intended.

If you want to brew a Kolsch, I would get new kolsch yeast and forget about the mixed yeasts you have in the current beer. However, if the lager with the two yeasts comes out good, you might want to repitch a lager into that mixed yeast cake. If you repitch, maybe try it at around 56- 58 and get some of the lager and kolsch yeast flavors? Just an idea. Maybe you'd be better off dumping the mixed yeast and starting out fresh.

Underpitch, plus lager yeast at 54-55 equals slow start. Even with an appropriate pitch, though, lager yeast doesn't have as violent a fermentation. I hope this one turns out.

Also, even if you pitched enough yeast in the first place, you will not see the same level of activity in the fermenter/airlock as you would with an ale. Lager yeast is bottom fermenting, so you will not see much if any krausen form on the top of the beer, most times you will just see a few bubbles from rising CO2.

This is a common mistake for brewers making their first lager who are used to seeing the krausen rise up and the airlock going crazy.