Kolsch Help Please

[mwesle]

Alright here goes. 8 days ago I brewed my first all grain beer. I brewed a Honey Kolsch Kit from Northern Brewer. Overall the entire process went very well. I had been doing a lot of research, and built a lot of my own equipment. I was pleased that every thing went well with the brew day. However now i feel like I may have made a mistake. The instructions tell me to "cold condition" my brew in a secondary for several weeks. I have no real way to do this. From what I have read this "cold conditioning" is to clear the beer. Will this have any effect on the taste? Would I be ok leaving it in the primary for a couple weeks in my root cellar. Temps will remain in the mid to low 50's in there. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[passedpawn]

Don't bother with the secondary. It can help in minor ways, but not worth messing with until you've got a bunch of brews under your belt.

After 2 weeks of fermenting, it's time to siphon (rack) the beer to a bottling bucket and bottle. What you want is to leave all the yeast and other matter at the bottom of the fermenter (don't worry, many cells will still be in your beer and carbonate it in the bottles). Unfortunately, there are still a LOT of yeast floating around, especially with that Kolsch yeast.

To get those yeast to drop hard to the bottom, put your fermenter in a refrigerator or other cold place (as close to freezing as possible). In a couple of days, the beer will be very clear and ready for bottling. The colder it is, the faster the yeast fall.

Even if you skipped this cold step altogether, your beer will still be very good. Yeast adds a flavor to your Kolsch that, while not bad, is best avoided for this style.

 

[mwesle]

And this wont chill the yeast so much that it wont carbonate when I bottle? Just want to make sure.

 

[kable]

Nope, there will still be plenty of yeast in their for bottling.

 

[mwesle]

Ok sounds good. Just have two more questions now. Can I use my 6.5 gallon bottling bucket in the fridge for a couple days or will the oxygen in the bucket hurt my beer.
Second question is when and how do I prime my beer. Normally I would do this when I rack from my primary to my bottling bucket.

 

[passedpawn]

Ok sounds good. Just have two more questions now. Can I use my 6.5 gallon bottling bucket in the fridge for a couple days or will the oxygen in the bucket hurt my beer.
Second question is when and how do I prime my beer. Normally I would do this when I rack from my primary to my bottling bucket.

You should bottle soon after moving beer to the bottling bucket. The longer is sits in the bucket, the more oxygen it will pick up. Oxygen stales beer quickly. Not a deal breaker if this happens, but the beer might develop off flavors (cardboard) over time.

When you are ready to bottle, just add a half cup of table sugar (for a 5g batch) to a bit of water, boil briefly, and add to the bottling bucket. Don't bother chilling this priming solution, no need. Stir gently and briefly with a sanitized utensil to make sure the sugar is uniformly dissolved in the beer. Then bottle.

 

[barhoc11]

My experience brewing Kolsch's says to let it primary around 65F (depending on yeast and desired taste) for a few weeks and then cold crash it before bottling. I would take advantage of your cellar temperatures and let it sit there for 2 weeks until you see the yeast has settled out. There is no need to move to a secondary but I would let it sit in the cellar for a bit since Kolsch's seem to only get better with cold conditioning.

After you bottle, you can keep them in the cellar or normal house temperature depending on taste.

 

[malkore]

I would let it sit longer in primary than 2 weeks. I'm assuming you used a true kolsch yeast strain? If so, its a pseudo-lager ale yeast that likes cooler temperatures, which also causes a slightly slower fermentation.

If you didn't use a kolsch strain, then follow the profile for the yeast strain you did use, and understand that its a blonde ale not a kolsch. (Kolsch is kolsch due to the yeast used, as well as the SRM, IBU's, etc.)