Kolsch help

[Chcarpenter]

Alright, so I have been holding off on asking cause I am trying to trust myself and believe in my yeast. However, I am not seeing anymore development in my Kolsh. It is 14 days in and my fermenter did great for the first 7 days maybe. My OG was 1.049, and now I am at 1.023 and have been for 3 days now. I have it sitting in my ferment chamber, and it has been right about 60 degrees. I am aiming for a final gravity of 1.009. So do I just keep letting it sit or raise the temp in the chamber? Thoughts? Any help would be nice because my only other thought is to go get some more yeast and pitch another pouch.

 

[Scotty_g]

Extract or all-grain? Mashing schedule, if all-grain? Yeast type? Did you make a starter?

Questions aside, you can often kickstart a stalled fermentation (regardless of yeast type) with some agitation (not necessary to open and stir or re-oxygenate - just swirl or rock the fermenter) and/or bumping the temperature up a little bit. 60 F is in the wheelhouse of most Kolsch yeasts but they can handle a little hotter especially if the fermentation is mostly complete.

 

[Chcarpenter]

All Grain

I used 3 packs of Wyeast #2564 Kolsch Yeast with a yeast starter (no stir plate)

Lets I did a 90 minute mash and 90 minute boil. 25 gallons into boil. 23 after boil. Malt bill was 36# Pilsner malt (95%) 2# Caramel Malt 20L (5%).

I thought about trying to rock my fermenter a little, but with some help cause its a lot of beer.

 

[RM-MN]

With the amount of yeast you pitched and temperature control it would seem unlikely that it would have stalled out with such a high gravity. You aren't by chance using a refractometer to measure the final gravity are you? What temperature did you mash at? Have you checked the calibration of the thermometer?

 

[madscientist451]

What was the mash temp? Its more than halfway done, I'd try moving the temp up to 65.

 

[Chcarpenter]

I am using a refractometer. Just recently got it cause I was tired of needing so much beer to test gravity.

Mash temp was 149

 

[RM-MN]

I am using a refractometer. Just recently got it cause I was tired of needing so much beer to test gravity.

Mash temp was 149

A refractometer is a wonderful tool to use as you are collecting your wort when your mash and sparge are done because you will quickly know what your efficiency is before you start the boil since you can take just a drop or two and read them nearly immediately. That allows you to adjust your OG by adding water or DME to get your intended OG if your efficiency is off. Once you start fermenting, the refractometer becomes less useful as the presence of alcohol skews the reading. There are calculators to use to get closer but they aren't completely accurate. Here is one to try.

http://onebeer.net/refractometer.shtml

For the best accuracy when determining the final gravity, you need to use a hydrometer. I suspect that your final gravity is closer to 1.012 or even lower.

 

[shtoive87]

Are you correcting for alcohol with the refractometer? It will read quite a by higher without using a calculator after fermentation has started. My guess is you are down around 1.010 when you take that into account.

 

[Chcarpenter]

Well I learn something new everyday from this community. I did not know I needed to correct for alcohol. I am about to do a hydrometer reading and will be able to see where it is with that. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[Chcarpenter]

Well the hydrometer read 1.004 so well that is over the target but I will take it.