question re: Kolsch Beer & yeast

I have a harvested batch of Weihenstephan yeast used predominantly in Weissbiers in the fridge waiting for some action....

I was wanting to pickup ingredients to make a Kolsch, but found out my supplier doesn't have the right liquid yeast, and I wanted to get started right away.

Does anyone think that I'd have a problem, or cause that big of descrepancy if I make the Kolsch and use the harvest Weihenstephan yeast???

TIA,
Kevin (from North Babylon, NY)

With the amount of banana and clove created by that wheat yeast you will get nothing close to a kolsch out of it. Does that mean it will be a bad beer? not at all, but if its a kolsch you want you need a kolsch yeast that can ferment around 65 degrees and do it really really cleanly.

Reverend JC said:

With the amount of banana and clove created by that wheat yeast you will get nothing close to a kolsch out of it. Does that mean it will be a bad beer? not at all, but if its a kolsch you want you need a kolsch yeast that can ferment around 65 degrees and do it really really cleanly.

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thanks Rev...

First post since signing on, and happy to see I got a quick reply...

I mean, I now the thing about Weihenstephan is the banana-clove characteristics, but I was thinking that with it being such a light brew, it might not be bad (as you state) with some of the yeast characteristics of the Weihenstephan combined with the maltier flavors of the grain used...

For the heck of it, I juts might give it a shot since the Weih will also work well at 65 degrees...

Kind of like a Kolsch/Weiss hybrid.... if I make it this weekend, I'll let you know how it comes out in a month or so...

What I would do differnetly with my "hybrid" is that I would secondary ferment for 3-4 weeks and use some irish moss to clarify it more than a hefe-weiss...

well without the wheat malt you should be fine if you just give it some time to clarify or clear up.

Yeah, it should taste good. let us know.


edit: actually if you wanted to make a sorta kolsch without the specialized yeast you could alway pitch a package of US-05. it is very clean and can ferment down into the upper 60s if im not mistaken.

as a sidenote Rev, I see you got an American wheat kegged...

Question: What barley do you use with the wheat malt? I have found Klages to be the best, and almost always use a 60/40 wheat to barley ratio, and always had success adding 1 lb of wheat flakes. If my memory serves me right, the Klages is a 2-row when something like Breiss is 6-row(??? please correct me if I'm wrong...)

the only difference is that if I'm making an american wheat or fruit flavored wheat beer I'll use american wheat, a bavarian yeast strain and american hallertau, and when I make weissbiers I'll use german wheat and weihenstephan yeast (with, of course Hallertau Hersbroucker & tettnang hops)...the one constant though is the Klages...

thoughts or opinion?