Kolsch yeast sure is messy!

[McCall St. Brewer]

I brewed up an AG kolsch yesterday and went downstairs this morning to a bit of a mess. The jar that my blowoff tube is sitting in had overflowed with a bunch of milky, scummy, yucky stoff onto our kitchen table. I can't remember that ever happening before with a 6 gallon carboy.

I had forgotten how messy the ferments tend to be with kolsch yeast. Still, an extract with steeping grains recipe I made early on in my homebrewing "career" remains my favorite batch that I have brewed so far. Hope this one turns out good, too.

 

[TexLaw]

It's an active yeast, alright!


TL

 

[Liquidicem]

Active and slow, but it cleans up after itself very nicely given enough time.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

Looks like my batch is going to be more like a 4.5 gallon one if this keeps up! I checked it again 2 hours later and my jar had filled up and overflowed again. I switched it out for a gallon pickle jar this time.

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

I used some of that fermcap stuff for the first time in my most recent Kolsch. It worked so well I had to keep taking hydrometer readings to see if fermentration was even happening. At its most active state I probably had just a 1/4" of foam around the edges of my carboy.

 

[reshp1]

Yes it is!

 

[ChrisKennedy]

I used some of that fermcap stuff for the first time in my most recent Kolsch. It worked so well I had to keep taking hydrometer readings to see if fermentration was even happening. At its most active state I probably had just a 1/4" of foam around the edges of my carboy.

This has been exactly my experience. I filled up a 6 gallon carboy with about 5.75 gallons of beer, and it didn't even blow off. Well, some reached up into the blowoff tube, but it didn't go all the way through. Majority of fermentation was done after 4 days, but it is still slowly working.

 

[Gabe]

What is the overall flavor Kolsch yeast gives the beer? Thinking about a very simple SMASH and SINGLE hop beer for summer, and wanted to test out that type of yeast.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

What is the overall flavor Kolsch yeast gives the beer? Thinking about a very simple SMASH and SINGLE hop beer for summer, and wanted to test out that type of yeast.

It depends. The extract batches I made were golden in color and after they had a chance to age for awhile were crisp, a bit fruity and kind of lager-like.

This is my first try at an AG kolsch. I suspect this one will be a very pale one, maybe even a little like a wheat beer.

 

[SomedumbJerk]

i just made my first "Kolsch", that was something else... for some reason i got the idea i wanted to put honey in the kolsch, so i added about 2.5 lbs at boil time. whoops. og ended up reading at 1.092, which i think has got to have something wrong with the dilution of the wort to water (this was an extract) and then the yeast was really messy, and smelled like the devil farting after a round at taco bell. my lady wouldn't even get near the brewroom. it's conditioning now. the final gravity read at 1.012, and probably could have gone lower if i let it... maybe an imperial kolsch?

 

[z987k]

Hmmm, my Kolsch yeast beer was fine, 5.5 gal in 7 gallon bucket and the trub was very very solid on the bottom.

 

[TexLaw]

I used some of that fermcap stuff for the first time in my most recent Kolsch. It worked so well I had to keep taking hydrometer readings to see if fermentration was even happening. At its most active state I probably had just a 1/4" of foam around the edges of my carboy.

Luv the Fermcap-S!


TL

 

[ArcaneXor]

Luv the Fermcap-S!


TL

That anti-foam powder AHS sells also works great.

 

[reshp1]

What is the overall flavor Kolsch yeast gives the beer? Thinking about a very simple SMASH and SINGLE hop beer for summer, and wanted to test out that type of yeast.

It's pretty clean overall with nice fruit (berries?) esters. It'd be a good candidate for what you've got in mind IMO.