What to do with Lallemand Koln (Kolsch) yeast?

[t^3]

Just brewed my first Kolsch. It is fermenting with 2 packs of Lallemand Koln yeast. Looking for ideas on what I can pitch on the yeast cake when it is done. What have you tried and what were the results?

 

[odie]

I would dump the yeast cake into some mason jars and save for your next kolsch. Kolsch is a German ale so there are not many other beers similar in style.

 

[balrog]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/i-love-kolsch-yeast.176674/https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/any-other-uses-for-kolsch-yeast.209552/

 

[Sammy86]

Another Kölsch duh

 

[MX1]

Barleywine...deff...or a Wit....ohhhh yeah

 

[t^3]

Thanks for the ideas. I will be saving the cake. Looks like you can brew a lot of things with this yeast.

 

[MX1]

Thanks for the ideas. I will be saving the cake. Looks like you can brew a lot of things with this yeast.

My reply was a JOKE...please dont do those things

 

[t^3]

The links that @balrog gave had good ideas, American Brown Ale I am thinking first, maybe a Shiner Bock clone. I already have my Oktoberfest layering. Did it traditionally this year, cold with a German yeast.

 

[MX1]

it is a pretty neutral yeast, so almost anything that US-05 can be used for I think this could be used for

 

[jtgoral]

This is what I do:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/freezing-yeast.678261/
or:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/maintaining-a-healthy-yeast-bank-long-term.678997/

 

[zasada]

I would try: herfstbok (top fermenting bock from Holland/ NL) as first pick, Altbier as second and Grodziskie as last one.

 

[AlexKay]

Doppelsticke Altbier

 

[Protos]

Just brewed my first Kolsch. It is fermenting with 2 packs of Lallemand Koln yeast. Looking for ideas on what I can pitch on the yeast cake when it is done. What have you tried and what were the results?

Besides brewing Kölnischer and Düsseldorfer-style beers, Kölsch yeast is my Default Yeast for all my brewing experiments, because it's a very forgiving, medium-attenuating, flavour-neutral yeast.
This year, I've brewed my entire collection of Grain Wines with it (100% Rye Ryewine, 100% Wheat Wheatwine, 100% Oat Oatwine), which came out amazing and very educative for me. Every spring I brew a Grätzer with Lalbrew Köln, which is way better than any other dry Köln/California Lager yeasts I've tried. Last spring, I made a Grätzerbock with it, which far surpassed all my expectations. My Altbier made with 2nd generation MJ M54 has become a benchmark for Altbiers brewed in this Protos' Brewhouse. A "Top-fermented Honey Rauchbock" style I invented just for my own consumption is a House Beer here in my House.
For a desert island yeast, I would choose Mangrove Jack's M54 Californian Lager, which is actually a repacked Lalbrew Kölsch. I can't praise the yeast more, I think. You just have to know where to use it, to use it correctly

 

[z-bob]

Is Koln a top-cropping yeast like K-97 is? In any case, it should be usable anyplace you would use a generic American ale yeast. (any American style except light lager, and it wouldn't be that far off there.) Top-croppable would be a big plus for me.

 

[TBA]

Mangrove Jack's M54 Californian Lager, which is actually a repacked Lalbrew Kölsch

Isn’t Lalbrew Koln an Ale yeast? How is that the same as a Lager yeast?

 

[Protos]

Mangrove Jack's sell repacked Kölsch yeast under the "Californian Lager" label solely because of marketing considerations. Same as with "New World Strong Ale", "Liberty Bell" and "Verdant IPA", three classic English strains that have little historical connection to the New World despite being labeled now (quite recently) with distinctly American names.

The distinction between S. cerevisiae as "Ale" and S. Pastorianus as "Lager" yeasts is actually quite a recent and far from a universal concept. Germans f.ex. would hardly call Kölsch an "ale", for them it's a "top-fermented Lager" because it's lagered (cold-conditiomed), irregardly of the yeast species used.
California Common aka Steam Beer aka California Lager is exactly a "top-fermented Lager", so technically Mangrove Jack's don't mislead their customers with the "Lager" wording in the label. Which they actually do, even though they don't make a secret that M54 is a Cerevisiae, not Pastorianus, strain.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

..."Verdant IPA", three classic English strains that have little historical connection to the New World despite being labeled now (quite recently) with distinctly American names.

FYI, the Verdant label comes from a UK brewery: Verdant Brewing & Taproom

 

[Protos]

Yep. But it's the "Vermont IPA" that they obviously mean in this smart marketing pun.
This yeast is close to the famous London III strain, which has been historically selected for producing quite different beers than modern Vermont IPAs and their kind.
However, as long as the "Americanized" Verdant IPA label is a far more marketable good than, say, same yeast called "Boddington Ale", it's sold as Verdant (=Vermont ) IPA and not as Boddy (which it essentially is).