I have a Kolsch fermenting at 60°. Day 4 and bubbling is slowing down. I was wondering if I should continue fermenting at 60° or increase the temperature 5-10° for a diacetyl rest and then drop the temperature for cold conditioning? I was listening to a Beersmith podcast with John Palmer and he talks about raising temp after a couple days. I don’t normally brew ales this low or do a D-rest. Mostly because I didn’t have temperature control equipment. I wasn’t sure if I would need an increase in temperature with this yeast or not.
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After 4 days I would start increasing the temps at 5° per day until you got it up to about 70° And let it sit for about a week.
What’s your plan after that? How are you going to lager it?
Personally, I always increase the temp by 5 degrees or so, as the fermentation slows down, for both my ales and my lagers. Call it a D-rest, I believe it will help keep the yeast active through the end of the fermentation cycle so they can finish business.
Most likely you can achieve the rise by just taking the fermenter out of your temp. control and let it sit at room temperature for a couple days.
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Room temp is around 70° in my basement. I should be able to let to rise over the next couple days. After letting it clean up I’ll drop the temp again. At what temp should I cold condition it?
Lager as close to 32° as you can. 2565 is powdery and can take awhile to clear. Consider using additional fining to assist.
Could be wrong but 70 seems fine to condition it
So I let the temp rise last night set the temp controller to 67° with a ±3° differential so it’s currently sitting at 67°. I will probably let it sit until Sunday night about 7 days after pitching to pull a sample to check gravity. Which will influence what comes next.
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Sounds like a plan. As I mentioned plan on a fairly long lagering phase.
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Pulled a sample and took a gravity reading. Adjusted for temp it was 1.013. I decided to drop the temp slowly a couple degrees at a time to cool back to 58-60°. I’ll probably let it sit at 58-60° for another week before I rack to a secondary to lager. I didn’t separate cold break and hops as well as I could have.
