This is my first time trying the Kolsch yeast #2565, I made a starter (approx 1.2 liter). And pitched at about 69 deg and put on my stir plate yesterday around noon. So this AM I went down the basement to check it and it did not look like it generated any significant Krausen, just looked like a lot of yeast in suspension / spinning around. So this AM I took it off the stir plate, gave it a little swirl and saw that it foamed up quite a bit. So now I am just going to let it sit in my makeshift cooler at about 67 deg and see what happens. Maybe it is just not that active of a yeast.
Hopefully I have some good cells in there.
Swirl your flask as often as possible to aerate the wort for propagation of the new yeast cells.
Thanks Flars, when I give it a swirl it reallly foams up nicely. I will give it another day of swirling then chill it until Sunday. Seems like I must have some good cells in there. I was a little concerned as it was shipped in the warm weather but I went 2nd day air with 2 ice packs. It was still Luke warm when it arrived though.
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I have a hard time wanting to buy yeast when its warm… Sneezles61
Same thing here it arives warm luck on the island. Do use bit more dme and let it stand on stirplate for 32 hours. Seems to work. Mayby using yeast nutrient helps as well. On brew day. Take it out. 8 hours before brewing let it warm up. And swirl it. Every 40 min
Thanks! Looks like it did ok in the starter. I keep swirling it and the starter should be way more than I need for a Kolsch which is pretty light. I have been only doing this for about a year and a half, and I get concerned when the starter is not so active looking. But I tend to use different yeast on every batch so I may not be able to compare one to another.
Make some notes. On how long on stirplate. If it did create. Krausen. What kind of yeast. How fresh and how much dme. And how it did behave in your brew
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Well it seems to be percolating away after about 14 hours from pitch. Blow off bubbles are on the increase , and I have the temp at about 58 so looks good. Starter smelled fine and I am hopeful it will be a good batch. But even with ice packs and 2nd day air it was not cold when it arrived. I did have it back in the fridge for a few days before making the starter.
Thanks for the help, I will definitely start taking “yeast notes” now so I can have some benchmarks for next time. There are just so many varieties its hard for me to not try something new/ different each batch.
Cold packs can be counter productive when the shipping time is long. I had ordered liquid yeast once during the summer. Shipping to receiving is usually 3 days. This time longer. The pack of yeast was warm on arrival. The packing paper in the box was cool. The ice pack was hot. Besides cooling the gel absorbs and holds heat.
I will prob stick to the dry yeast in the summer unless I can find what I need at the Local Brew Store. I think I have enough beer for a while now… however it will soon be time to start the Oktoberfest.
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My kolsch with the Wyeast 2565 is still active (one airlock burp about every 4 sec). Pitched the yeast back on 7-8, started percolating visibly about 15 hours later. The gravity looks to be 1.010 today, I started bringing the temp up from 59/60 to 65, then today just bumped to 70 (inside my chest freezer). I guess I will just let it keep going for a few more days and check again. This yeast seems to work more slowly than the yeasts I have used so far. Maybe it is due to the cooler preferred temp. I am in no hurry for it to finnish anyway. Just want good beer in the end :).
Don’t rush it. But likely what you’re seeing is dissolved CO2 off gassing since you bumped up the temps.
Thanks Loopie, makes sense as the gravity seems to be stable and even a touch lower than I expected. I will leave it in the primary until next weekend to give it more time. Sounds like this yeast needs lots of time to settle anyway so I will lager it for at least a month.
Kolsch yeast is very powdery and seems to never flocculate. Consider using gelatin.
Yes I plan to start dropping the temp this week and hit it with gelatin Friday. Would you do the gelatin in the primary before racking to the keg or just do it in the keg?
I would keg it first and get it as cold as possible. Then hit it with the gelatin.
Sounds like a good plan, thank you. I am looking forward to trying this beer as I cannot remember ever having a kolsch . My son wanted to brew this one.
