Honey Kolsch Fermentation Issue

[Brian S]

Woot my first post! Ive been lurking on this site for the past 6 months or so, but have never had a reason to post. Well, my day has finally come! My second all grain brew was a kolsch that I turned into a honey kolsch on account of a horrid efficiency. Anyway to the point. I brewed this 2 weeks ago and I was going to use is as way to ease into lagering, so I did everything that you are sposed to do with a lager to this just at higher temps. I precooled the wort prior to pitching, made a 1 pint starter, and fermented for the first week at 56 degrees. When I went to check on the beer it was still krausening, so i decided to push the temp up to 60 and swirled the bucket to resuspend the yeast. Now today I go to take a hydro reading and the krausen is still there! wtf? My hydro reading was 1.011 which leads me to believe that it is either done or very close to being so. Is is ok to rack into secondary with the krausen still there? I dont know if this matter but I added the honey by gently heating and holding at 179 and added after the first week of fermentation. Heres the recipe.

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Kolsch
Brewer: Brian Shull
Asst Brewer:
Style: Koelsch
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.34 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 5.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 49.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 58.33 %
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 16.67 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
0.25 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.08 %
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 32.6 IBU
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
2.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 16.67 %
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Step Add 20.00 qt of water at 158.5 F 148.0 F

Thanks

 

[sully]

mmm... honey kolsch. it should be fine to move at 1.011

 

[blacklab]

11 is done. Trust the hydrometer, not the krausen.

 

[Brian S]

Done and done. It is still cloudy ass all hell, hopefully it will settle down a bit.

 

[Brian S]

Ok so I just took a peek inside my fermentation chamber and what I saw was not encouraging. The beer is fermenting like crazy and there is a white foam frothing at the top. I suspect it has been infected with a gusher bug. My 1st all grain brew ended up infected with a pellicile type bug. I suspect that my tubeing to be at blame. When I went to use it for my first all grain I noticed some mold growing in places where it didnt fully dry out. I nuked the hell out of it with HOT water + long Idophor soak but I suspect the all the nasties werent killed.

 

[scinerd3000]

you added fermentables to the mix.....why are you surprised that it started back up? thats normal

 

[Brian S]

I added the honey into the fermentor last week and my gravity was 1.011 when I racked. It just seems the fermentation is far more vigorous compared to how low my gravity is. Hopefully its just the yeast getting reroused. I'm just extra worried after the disappointment of my 1st AG getting infected.

 

[MikeFlynn74]

I was under the impression you get better honey flavor from honey malt vs honey. Honey can be fully fermented leaving nothing but alcohol is my understanding.

 

[mykayel]

You only heated the honey to 179F? And then added it to your fermenter? I would say that right there would be a source of contamination.

 

[EvilTOJ]

179º is enough to pasteurize honey. Honey is naturally antibacterial anyways, so there's no danger of infection from it.

If you've ever made mead before, you don't even have to heat it up that much, just mix thoroughly into hot water then let it cool and pitch your yeast.

Brian S, you added honey to the beer which caused the fermentation to start up again, or it wasn't 'quite' done in the first place, or both. Honey typically ferments slowly anyways. So you don't have an infection, unless you count that massive yeast infection

I've made several Kolshs, and each time the activity stalled out until I swirled the fermenter again.

 

[nathan]

don't give up on it. Proceed as if it's fine and go through your 2ndary and then lager it. It could be just fine and you only lose the space in fermenters to do so.

 

[sully]

was your beer 1.011 before you added the honey. did you mix the honey in your beer or just let it sink to the bottom of your fermenter. it sounds like your beer was done then you added the honey, if so the yeast has started to ferment the honey. give it time, honey takes longer to finish.

 

[Brian S]

Unfortunately when I added the honey I didn't take a hydro reading so I don't know what it was at. I added the honey 1 week ago, then racked a week later. I'm just going to stop worrying and move on to the next brew while that sucker sits. Next up Bavarian Helles!

 

[scinerd3000]

You only heated the honey to 179F? And then added it to your fermenter? I would say that right there would be a source of contamination.

same as above.....mnay mead makers dont even pasturize honey before adding it. I have done both ways and they both turn out fine. Honey will ferment out unless you add potasium sorbate or something else to stop fermentation. Honey malt gives you more of a honey flavor. At the addition of the honey depending on what you added the gravity will go back up and then ferment down again.

 

[Brian S]

Thanks for the honey malt tip. I'll definatly have to give that a try sometime and compare. The original recipe didn't call for any honey, but my eff was something like 15 points off so I added the honey in as more of an afterthought in hopes of fixing the Alcohol a little.

 

[nathan]

maybe consider keeping some light DME on hand for when you are shy a few points, or LME if you prefer (probably safer for a late addition with a few minutes boiling time to bring it up).

 

[Aspera]

11 is done. Trust the hydrometer, not the krausen.

Really? Assuming we trust the hydrometer (there are scientific reasons it might be wrong), then how do you know 1.011 if the "done" number?