Zaphod

Recipes 

Anyone tried fermenting out a higher gravity beer with Kolsch yeast? I'm thinking about making a basic beer (Amer. Wheat) with Kolsch yeast, then when it's done, dropping a Imperial IPA on top of the lees. I'm not thinking super huge, but still 1.085-1.090 OG. White labs lists WLP029 as "medium" alcohol tolerant, not entirely sure what that means...
Thoughts?

__________________
Crooked Mouth Brewing

Fermenting:
Belgian Cherry
100% Brett Citra Pale
Sour Quad (group Quad aged in a Stranahan's barrel)
Sloppy Seconds Funky/Sour Thing with Al's Bugs

Kegged:
TighPA
Imperial Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Bruegel the Elder (16 mo old lambic aged in a Temptation barrel)
Flanders, Ned (group 2+ year old Flanders Red in a Temptation barrel)

Nateo

Recipes 

Most yeast perform pretty well up to 10%, and you can usually push them past that with some care. I wouldn't worry about the yeast not being able to handle 1.090.

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To paraphrase Dr. England - "Off-flavors smooth with time. So do mountains. Brew it right from the start!"

My blogsite: http://nateobrew.blogspot.com/

eastoak

Recipes 

especially if you pitch on the whole cake.

Vance71975

Recipes 

+1 if your pitching on the whole yeast cake you shouldn't have a problem. I would however use yeast nutrient, yeast energizer and O2 on the new wort if possible.

__________________
The mind is like a beer, it does the most good when it is opened.

dcp27

Recipes 

+1 to all the above. the highest I've used it with was 1.075 (IIPA as well) and it ripped thru that (1.012 FG).

ThePearsonFam

Recipes 

Especially with a Kolsch yeast that is 'lager-like' in its flavor profile. Overpitching is probably less of a factor in that case. Just know that there won't be much of an ale profile to it.

This is an educated guess on my part though since I've never done this...

Zaphod

Recipes 

Same here, but that was my reasoning.
I'll definitely make sure to get some nutrient and O2 mixed in as well.

__________________
Crooked Mouth Brewing

Fermenting:
Belgian Cherry
100% Brett Citra Pale
Sour Quad (group Quad aged in a Stranahan's barrel)
Sloppy Seconds Funky/Sour Thing with Al's Bugs

Kegged:
TighPA
Imperial Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Bruegel the Elder (16 mo old lambic aged in a Temptation barrel)
Flanders, Ned (group 2+ year old Flanders Red in a Temptation barrel)

PaulHilgeman

Recipes 

Remember that higher gravity usually increases the amount of esters/phenols that a yeast throws, so be sure that you really like that kolsch-y flavor, because it will be doubled-up at those gravities.