Bizarre results pitching on a yeast cake

[utesmt]

Don not understand this, so I hop some of you can share your wisdom. I pitched a kolsch on yeast 2575 a few weeks ago and it took off almost immediately. There were no more bubbles at 3 days. I brewed Ed worts October ale last weekend, and -- this was dumb. --did not check the kolsch's sg. It was.024 when it would normally be below .010. I racked the kolsch to secondary and pithed on the cake. Three days later, the October fest, which is calculated to end at .017, is at.010. Predictably, the kolsch has only got to.020. I understand the foolishness of the early racking now.

Ao whAt would you do?

Rack the octo to a keg for conditioning and let the kolsch condition?

Do that, and then repitxh ths kolsch on the cake to dry it out?

Clearly I have been drinking, the last kolsch is great. Advise appreciated.

 

[TzeentchPlayer]

Haha, yes, clearly you have been drinking. I would say just RDWHAHB (another?) and let it sit. Sitting is always good.

 

[Challenger440]

When you say

I pitched a kolsch on yeast 2575...

are you saying onto a wyeast 2575 yeast cake or smack pack? Were there any temperature swings during its fermentation? If it was a yeast cake to begin with, how old was it?

 

[pjj2ba]

I doubt you racked too early. Kolsch yeast are med. to low flocculating strains so there should be plenty of yeast in suspension to ferment out the beer even if you rack too early. There are only a couple highly flocculating strains that can lead to a stuck ferment if transferred to early, typically in high SG beers.

I suspect the problem lies elsewhere. Overshot the SG. Wrong mash temp? Too cold a fermenetation? Lots of bubbles in the hydrometer sample, making the FG look higher than it really is.

If everything was in fact in order, then the Kolsch just needs more time to finish up. Again, there should be plenty of yeast (unless maybe you cold crashed) to keep the fermentation going. I would not repitxh it. Just give it time. I think the Ofest is safe to keg as well