Kolsch (WLP029) fermentation

**Brocster** · 03-05-2010, 08:40 PM

There has been a few questions/topics on Kolsch yeast and fermentation times recently, so I thought I would post the progress on a recent batch. Not that it is important! I just though it might be good reference.

I brewed an 11 gallon batch on February 16th. I used a very style-oriented recipe, with 20 pounds of pilsner malt, 1 pound of Crystal 10 and 1 pound of Wheat Malt. SG 1.050. Perle and Hersbrucker hops to style (IBU 29).

I mashed in and did a rest at 143 for 50 minutes, followed by an infusion to get a rest of 158 for 30 minutes. Ended up with a mash of 1.6 qts/lb. Batch sparged.

I pitched a liter of WLP029 starter into each fermenter that I started from one vile of White Labs Yeast 5 days prior.

Bubbling within 4 hours, and had a very active fermentation with the wort rumbling all over the place. Interesting though that the Krausen was not that high. Used a 6.5 gallon carboy with a blowoff and fermented at 66 degrees, 63 ambient. The wort was really tumbling, a lot more than you would think compared to the actual Krausen and C02 release.

Bubbling continued for 13 days, with C02 still coming out of the blowoff every 2 minutes on day 14. Thin layer of old Krausen still lingering on day 14. Gravity reading on both fermenters was 1.008 - perfect since I was shooting for a more attenable wort.

Carefully racked to secondary with minor and purposefull yeast transfer. I wanted just a little extra yeast in the secondary to help clean up the beer. I usually do primary for 4-6 weeks for other Ales. I am just using a secondary to help clarify with gelatin and eventually crash cool and lager. The beer is already noticably "cleaner".

I plan on keeping the secondaries at 70 degrees for 48 hours, then lowering to 62 for two weeks, followed by 2 weeks at 50.

Initial sample out of the primaries was fantastic, meaning a very dry beer with just the hint of bitterness and very subtle aromas. Sulpher was noticably reduced and their were almost no esters present.

The main keys to this batch were mashing for high attenuation, using Whirfloc, pitching a nice starter, but just as important I think, using the temp profile for the White Labs Yeast, which is so different than the Wyeast. There is no fruitiness, and, any other esters or aromas/flavors are really not present. From past experience, keeping the secondary in the low to mid 60's, versus colder, for at least 2 weeks is key prior to lagering or cold crashing.

For what it is worth.....