Second time trying to brew beer. I brewed up a Kolsch from an extract kit. Everything seemed to go fine on brew day. I had a high original gravity reading of 1.054 at 72 degrees at 4 1/2 gallons. Recipe called for OG of 1.041 - 1.045. Moved to Fermenting bucket and then pitched yeast then added 1/2 gallon of water to bring batch up to 5 gallons. I did not take a new reading which I probably should have. It took about a day to start fermenting and as fermented well and now it has stopped after 3 days. Brewed on Saturday stopped fermenting Tuesday. The beer has be holding in a room in the mid sixties. I used Wyeast #2565 Kolsch. Could this batch have gone bad? Maybe needs to be aerated?
Quick ferment on Kolsch. too high original gravity?
- Thread starter mjstamer
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It might be done. Take a gravity reading and another one in a few days. If it is reasonably low and does not change it means it's done.
A couple of things: really the OG reading should have been done after you topped off. The reason your OG was high was that the recipes projected OG was for 5 gallons of wort. I am betting after top off, you hit the right numbers. Secondly, High krausen can be complete in around 3 days but make no mistake, even though there is a lack of bubble lock activity, it is by no means "done". The yeast is still working on fully attenuating and cleaning up off flavors.
tooldudetool
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You don't want to aerate your beer once your fermentation has started (unless it's a very high og wort, but don't worry about that at this point). You should aerate before you pitch your yeast though for proper yeast health.
Gagunga
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Interesting. I just brewed a Midwest kolsch kit yesterday with similar high og.. kit calculates OG to be 1.042ish. My final OG after top off and proper mixing was 1.053. I did add 4oz of 2-row to my steeping grains because I was afraid of not hitting the correct target.
I don't think 4oz of this 2-row could have caused the spike? Actually, I plugged in the ingredients to brewers friend recipe calculator and even with the 4oz of 2-row added, OG came out at only 1.043. Baffled as to why the og for this kit was so high.
I don't think 4oz of this 2-row could have caused the spike? Actually, I plugged in the ingredients to brewers friend recipe calculator and even with the 4oz of 2-row added, OG came out at only 1.043. Baffled as to why the og for this kit was so high.
When brewing an extract kit from a source like Midwest, If you use all the ingredients and get the right volume in the fermenter, you can go by the listed OG. It will be within a point or two.
It is common to get a false reading because it is difficult to get the wort and the top up water to mix thoroughly.
There is no need to add anything to a kit to get the OG they list. It will happen. Your 4 oz of 2 row was so small that it really didn't change anything much.
Again your true OG should have been really close to what the kit directions said it should be.
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Nothing to worry about. On a beer of that OG, a few days after the krausen has risen and fallen back into the beer, you can be almost certain that it is done fermenting. Take a gravity reading and if it's in the 1.010 range it's probably done.
Gagunga
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Thanks for the reply buddy. I think I mixed it thoroughly. I poured the wort bucket to bucket about ten times back and forth to aerated it properly. Once it was in the fermenter, I then stirred it again with a spoon swishing it really well. I'm pretty sure it was the correct reading. I test the hydro before every read, 1.00 in water. The wort was straight up, 1.053. Definitely not complaining but much higher than the estimated OG of 1.042.
It certainly seems you did plenty to mix it well. The extra 4 ounces if mashed would only add .001 to the gravity. Did you end up with the volume into the fermenter?
I have only done a few kits and the difference from the directions for OG was no greater than .002.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. A little bigger beer might only mean that you should stop drinking a bottle sooner.
