Wyeast kolsch fermentation time

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Kelpdog

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Hi - File this under curious but not worried. I have a kolsch that has been in primary for 13 days at 64F. It had a very active fermentation the first two days, and despite slowing down has stayed consistent with a nice full krausen. I brewed a very similar one last year, but my notes show it fermented out in six days. Curious what other people's experience might be with this strain. A friend suggested raising the temp to 68F or so to finish the fermentation before racking into secondary. Note that I don't have a hydrometer right now so no way track progress overall. Thanks!
 
Wondering the same here. Brewed my first Kolsch two weeks ago. It's been in primary for 2 weeks at 60 and it was churning the whole time, slower after 7 days but you can still see the yeast in suspension swirling. Now I've bumped up to 68 for another two weeks. But im curious what others have observed.
 
I had the same experience. I had the wyeast kolsch yeast at 70F for a week and then RT for two weeks. Kreusen stuck around.for 2 weeks I think and the yeast didn't ever crash out. Finally just bottled the thing and after bottle conditioning, it took a couple weeks in the beer fridge for the yeast to fully crash out. Kind of tasted funky until the yeast fell out but my ginger kolsch turned out nice. It isn't as fruity as I thought it would be at that fermentation temp and is actually pretty good. I think the pound of ginger obscures any of the yeast off flavors however doesn't dominate the beer and actually pairs well in a kolsch. Definitely had issues getting the yeast to fall out but if you get them cold they will do what you want. On the plus side, with all that yeast floating around they carb'd pretty quick. I do think it was all the way done fermenting because I didn't have any issues with over carbonation.
 
Kolsch is a good versatile yeast.

It will ferment slower when colder, and it def needs a diacetyl rest and a cold crash.

Think 60 until 80% done, then bump to 68 for 72 hours, and then lager at 36 for 30 days. Oh.. and rack it off in place.
 
Thanks for the replies... here is my update: The krausen finally fell at 15 days. I moved it to mini-fridge at 36-38F for three weeks. I let it warm back up to room temp before bottling. At bottling it was just beautiful and quite possibly the best beer I've brewed to date. First time I've reserved a full pint to drink green and uncarbonated. Now it has been in bottles for three and half weeks and refuses to fully carbonate. It is lightly carbed but has a sweet flavor that wasn't present at bottling so I'm assuming that there is progress to be made. I've gently agitated the bottles and reheated to mid 70s, but no luck as of yet. Hoping that another round of agitation and warming will help get it back to its glory.
 
I can understand cold crashing before force carbonating but I'm honestly not sure if cold crashing before bottle conditioning is worth it. I would assume you crashed out all your yeast and thats why its so slow to carb. The yeast will kick up again when bottle conditioning so it seems easier to bottle cloudy beer and then refrigerate after bottle conditioning. Is there a problem with bottling beer that still has yeast in suspension?
 
In my experience the Kolsch krausen will stick around forever and I have had to rack from beneath it in the past. The last one I added isenglass after that and then lagered for a month and it turned out wonderful.
 
Crap, I hate to hear this yeast is so difficult because I have a Kolsch fermenting right now. After 9 days, it is 70% attenuated (should be 73% to 77% when done) and the yeast are completely covering the top, like others are saying. :( I'll warm to 68F for a few days then cold crash and cross my fingers.

Wyeast confirms this is normal: "This powdery strain results in yeast that remain in suspension post fermentation. It requires filtration or additional settling time to produce bright beers."

Ugh. That'll teach us to use Low flocculating yeast.
 
I also have a Kolsch in the fermenter.
Total ferm time was longer than expected, at the 10 day mark it was at .016 and still bubbling away. I noticed that the bubbling has just stopped as of last night (day 14) so I'll take another reading tonight.

Plan is to let it still sit for 3 more days at it's current mid-60's temp. (if gravity is done)
Allow it to come to room temp of 70 for 1 day, then rack to secondary.
Secondary will go into fridge to lager for 2 weeks.

Thoughts?
 
I did a Kolsch 2 weeks ago. I let all my beers go at least 3 weeks but i got a new fridge and after pitching the temp got down to 53 before I got the temps worked out. It slowly rose over a day to 62, where I held it there for 7 days. I slowly ramped it to 67 where it is now at 14 days. I was afraid it would crap out at 53 but it didn't. It was just fermenting slow. When it hit 72, it really took off. There's not much of a Krausen, but there is activity.
 
...Allow it to come to room temp of 70 for 1 day, then rack to secondary.
Secondary will go into fridge to lager for 2 weeks.

Thoughts?
I would prefer to cold crash to get the yeast to drop, and then rack to secondary. But I'm not sure it really makes much difference.

Does anyone know if it'll clear up at 65F to 70F given another week or two?
 
Crap, I hate to hear this yeast is so difficult because I have a Kolsch fermenting right now.

Wyeast confirms this is normal: "This powdery strain results in yeast that remain in suspension post fermentation. It requires filtration or additional settling time to produce bright beers."

Ugh. That'll teach us to use Low flocculating yeast.

It's not all bad, there's some upside too. The beauty of a powdery low flocculating yeast like 2565 is how clean it ferments. The longer the yeast remain in suspension the more undesirable fermentation byproducts it metabolizes. Personally I think 2565 is even cleaner than 1056.
 
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