Kolsch Preboil OG way lower than expected...

[TerapinChef]

So I'm currently making Bee Cave Kolsch. Started the boil before I measured OG (sample was cooling) now I"m 10 minutes into my boil and my SG reading was 1.037!I was shooting for 1.045. I don't have any DME on hand, only some honey malt, and I don't think that 4oz of mashed honey malt is going to affect my 6G boil enough to help out. I have :

• 
  Honey
  Brown Sugar
  Corn Sugar
  Table Sugar
  A Bass Clone that just went into primary @ 1.015

These are all I can think of. I could also boil down below 5G until I hit target gravity, but I'm worried about: 1) hop addition was already made (.5oz Nugget leaf) 2) Getting too much caramelization and darkening a light beer.
Any advice at all would be more appreciated than you could know....

PS At edit currently 30 minutes left in the boil, and have just reached estimated preboil gravity of 1.047....HELP!!!

 

[malkore]

I see nothing wrong here. Sure its a little low, but 1.050 is the upper limit for Kolsch style.
http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category6.html#style6C

I'd say you're right on target.

 

[TerapinChef]

So the brew session is over, here's the update.

I'm going to tattoo RDWHAHB on the back of my right hand.
The mash was a bit low on the temp side, and for some reason I didn't raise it with a bit of hot water. Oh well. As far as draining and sparging go, apparently when using a SS braid and wheat malt together it's best to include some rice hulls. DOH! Couldn't get a proper grain bed set up so I have a feeling there may have been some tannin extraction going on in the boil. I ended up making the OG, not really sure how. Yield was a bit lower than it was supposed to be, I'm guessing that I ended up with about 4.25 gallons of light colored cloudy wort. Either way, I was just freaking out mid-brew session. Thanks to everyone that helped, and I'll let you know how it turned out in about 8 weeks or so.

 

[Brett0424]

You were aiming for a starting gravity of 1.045 or a preboil gravity of 1.045? If that's what you wanted your starting gravity to be then a 1.037 at the start of the boil with normal evaporation is right about dead on what it should be. You do need to relax. Glad it came out as it was supposed to.

 

[TerapinChef]

Sorry for freaking out! This was my first lager type beer, my first use of wheat malt, and one of the lower starting gravities I've ever brewed. To answer above, the OG I was looking for was 1.052, which sounded at the time like a long way away from 1.037 but now that I think about it I was just stressing for no reason. Again, sorry about that!

 

[malkore]

Kolsch isn't a lager. I'd describe it as a pseudo-lager. Assuming you used Wyeast 2565 Kolsch yeast, it does well down to the low 60's, which isn't true lagering temps.

Its really just a cooler fermenting yeast, and cold crashing/short lagering in secondary will get the beer clear.