German Ale- Kolsch

So I made a batch of Kolsch because my yeasts due date was up Sept 30. I made the beer on Oct 1 and put the yeast in yesterday- it has not done a thing yet and I have looked inside and nothing has happened. Is my yeast bad? Can I just buy another Kolsch yeast and pitch that??

Actually, the yeast looked at the calendar and said, Sorry, not my yob man. We were done on September 30th.

Seriously, my first time I use WLP029, I pitched a vial and it took 36 hours before I saw any activity in the airlock.

RDWHAHB, and next time, make a starter!

If you are near, at, or over the "use by" date on your yeast, you probably still are okay, but you can expect a much longer lag time than if it were fresh. Hang in there, and like Ed said, make a starter next time.


TL

Starters Starters..............

I have used this strain once.

I eventually got very good results (made a light session ale for non-craftbrew friends...they said all the homebrew they ever had was "****" but that this was amazing...go figure) with it, but it took a LOT of work.

I too, found it to be incredibly slow.

I had it in primary for a week, gravity was still high.

Waited another week gravity was coming down now...tasted it BUTTER.

So I did a diacetyl(sp) rest at like 75 for a day or two, the butter was then gone.

I have never had a yeast be so difficult with me and I've used most of the White Labs strains!

If the yeast was kept cold, you have nothing to worry about. But yes, starter, starter, starter.

My last Kolsch took 6 hours to see evidence of fermentation. One important thing is pitching the proper amount of Healthy yeast as in any case of brewing just not Kolsch's.

My recent Kolsch (with the White labs yeast and a 1 day starter) took off quick, but took 2 weeks before really active fermentation seemed to slow down enough that I could go to secondary. In secondary it then almost blew off the airlock. Set up a blow off tube, that went for a week before I could put the regular airlock back on. Now it is in week four, the second week in secondary, and it is still bubbling through the airlock steady. I am guessing it will be a good 5 weeks total before I can even think about bottling this one. Haven't tasted the must yet. I wonder if all Kolsches are this way-- the stout I made last month was ready for the bottle in 3 weeks, and I thought that was a high gravity ale. I thoguht Koelsches had much less sugar in them?

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS- Finally! Can you tell I am excited. Well, I put this in on Wednesday morning and it just started its thing-it is now Sunday. Man, was I getting worried that all that boiling and chillin with a homebrew Tuesday night was not going to pay off. OK, now it gets even crazier. What you you guys think about putting apples in the secondary. I have an apple tree and they are damn good- not sure of the kind. I was thinking about putting 5 pounds in there. I made a sour cherry stout and a sour cherry beer back in July and just opened a bottle and it is stellar.