Kolsch Grist... Belgian yeast? 11th hour switch?

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luckybeagle

Making sales and brewing ales.
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I brewed my go-to Kolsch, but this hot weather is making my fermentation chamber/beer take forever to get down to 60F (pitching temp with WY1007). I'm currently sitting at 69F and am thinking about turning it into a Belgian Blonde instead. I've got WY 3522 slurry in the fridge and routinely ferment that yeast at 68 or so. I just am worried about letting it sit overnight--if I did that, I wouldn't pitch until hour 16 or so post fermentation (currently it's hour 6).

If I scrap my Kolsch plans and go to Belgian Blonde, I would boil a pound of sugar in some water for 15 or so minutes and add it to the carboy to add a little alcohol and lighten the body. But I'm not sure if my Kolsch grist will adapt well. Thoughts?

6lbs Pilsner Malt
4lbs Vienna Malt
1lb White Wheat Malt
3 oz Acidulated malt
(1lb table sugar)

OG would be 1.066
BU:GU ratio would be 0.34 (stylistically fine)
25 IBU

I've never used Vienna malt or acidulated malt in a Belgian Blonde. Should I just wait and pitch my Kolsch yeast tomorrow, or make these adjustments and go Belgian Blonde???
 
You could use safale 05, and it will come out a bit cleaner than a kolsch, though some breweries use 05 in kolsches. 05 is fine up to about 75F.
 
You could use safale 05, and it will come out a bit cleaner than a kolsch, though some breweries use 05 in kolsches. 05 is fine up to about 75F.
Idk about US05 being cleaner than a kolsh yeast;They’re as clean as it gets. US05 will def keep your ph up and not have it finish slightly tart as a kolsch yeast would.

Belgian blondes are nice and refreshing with some solid character. I’m a big fan and I don’t typically enjoy Belgians all that much
 
Grist is good to go...looks like my Kolsch recipe!
Right on. I've brewed this exact kolsch recipe without acid malt before and it was one of the best beers I've done in terms of style and technicals. I decided to just use my 1007 yeast, and pitched it this morning at 61F. Close enough!

How did your Kveiking Wheat beers turn out, Sammy? I've brewed 5 or 6 batches with Kveik but never a wheat beer. Sounds interesting!
 
Right on. I've brewed this exact kolsch recipe without acid malt before and it was one of the best beers I've done in terms of style and technicals. I decided to just use my 1007 yeast, and pitched it this morning at 61F. Close enough!

How did your Kveiking Wheat beers turn out, Sammy? I've brewed 5 or 6 batches with Kveik but never a wheat beer. Sounds interesting!

I'll be honest, the Kveik fermented wheat is not my favorite...it's not a bad beer by any means there is just something about the yeast character that I don't like.

Maybe it's just this blend of yeast though...not willing to give up on trying other varieties in different recipes.
 
I'll be honest, the Kveik fermented wheat is not my favorite...it's not a bad beer by any means there is just something about the yeast character that I don't like.

Maybe it's just this blend of yeast though...not willing to give up on trying other varieties in different recipes.
That's exactly how I felt about the "Belgian" Blonde I brewed with a Voss Kveik. The Kveik produced an outstanding Golden Strong, a decent Quadrupel, an agreeable Kolsch, an OK Irish Red, and a bland/uninteresting Blonde ale. I really think it needs an OG of 1.080+ to shine, and preferably be as close to a SMASH recipe as possible.

The irish red was a muddled mess and got worse as time went on. The Golden Strong went grain-to -glass in 6 days at 9.5% ABV and was definitely in my top 3 beers I've brewed--the Blonde was in the bottom 3 at 14 days and 6% ABV--yet the grist ingredients were similar. I also found that late addition hops (like 15 minutes to flameout) just didn't jive well with the yeast character.

I'd be very curious to give it a try with a 1.100+ barleywine, though. Omega Yeast produced a 16% barleywine in 2 weeks with a Kveik strain. That got me pretty fired up!
 
I also found that late addition hops (like 15 minutes to flameout) just didn't jive well with the yeast character.

Totally agree here...my American Wheat is not traditional I have a bunch of late addition hops 15,10,5 and flameout and I'm just not getting the flavor I want.

I'm in the Mosher camp of medium AA hops and using more of them towards the end and they are just not shining like I'm used to. Oh well, live, learn and brew more.

My next two batches on tap are a helles and Kolsch so I'm not gonna mess with them. Maybe my Pale Ale or Amber Ale the brews after I'll try a different strain and see what happens. I'm a big fan of English Ale yeasts so I'll be interested to see how it compares in my Pales and Ambers.
 
I've loved Hornindal in fruity-hopped IPAs. I also liked it in a witbeir grist with nothing else going on--that one I underpitched, fermented hot, and gave no oxygen to really push it.
 
My kolsch, saison and Belgian blonde are all 90%pils/10% wheat grist. I’ll up the IBU for the saison to almost the same as the gravity (1.040/38IBU ) and dry hop. The blonde and kolsch have less IBU’s. With the Belgian blonde, I usually do standard strength ( 4% ), with the option of dextrose to boost it up to higher alcohol but I drink a lot of beers around 4%. I like Ardennes for Belgian blonde, DuPont for saison, and wy 2565 for the kolsch.
 
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