I fermented an ale using Wyeast Kolsch 2565 (I think that is the number) at 58 to 62 degrees. That is liquid temperature. O.G was 1.057, after two weeks in the primary, I took it out of the temperature controlled freezer and brought up the temperature to room temperature for a week. Now the gravity is 1.034. Is it possible I killed the yeast with the too cold fermenting temperature? What would be a good solution to save this beer? Should I rack to a secondary and re pitch some yeast?
[quote=“Bier brauer”]I fermented an ale using Wyeast Kolsch 2565 (I think that is the number) at 58 to 62 degrees. That is liquid temperature. O.G was 1.057, after two weeks in the primary, I took it out of the temperature controlled freezer and brought up the temperature to room temperature for a week. Now the gravity is 1.034. Is it possible I killed the yeast with the too cold fermenting temperature? What would be a good solution to save this beer? Should I rack to a secondary and re pitch some yeast?
Thanks
Brad[/quote]
Nope, that’s a good temp range for that yeast. It can even go lower. Although at lower temps it takes longer. I’d let it sit at room temp for another week and see what happens. Pitching more yeast might or might not do anything. It depends on what the problem is. Did you make a starter for the yeast?
Yes, I made a starter per yeastcalc: 1900 ml water,6.5 oz DME, boiled down to 1600 ml, starter gravity 1.043. I had it on a stir plate for 3 days, cold crashed for 4 days. On brew day, decanted and brought up to room temperature. Pitched into 67 degree wort, added 02 for 60 seconds, placed in temperature Controlled freezer right after pitching, added a blow off tube. Real active fermentation for about 4-5 days. I was shocked to see such a high FG.
[quote=“Bier brauer”]Yes, I made a starter per yeastcalc: 1900 ml water,6.5 oz DME, boiled down to 1600 ml, starter gravity 1.043. I had it on a stir plate for 3 days, cold crashed for 4 days. On brew day, decanted and brought up to room temperature. Pitched into 67 degree wort, added 02 for 60 seconds, placed in temperature Controlled freezer right after pitching, added a blow off tube. Real active fermentation for about 4-5 days. I was shocked to see such a high FG.
Brad[/quote]
Yeah, I can see why you were shocked. It sounds like you did everything right. Still, I can tell you that your fermentation temp was fine for that yeast. Is it possible that your mash temp was way off? Have you made the same recipe before with better results? I suppose it’s possible that pitching into such warm wort and then refrigerating caused the yeast to drop out. Also, there’s no need to warm the yeast before pitching. I get better results by taking it out of the fridge and pitching immediately.
No, never made this beer before. In fact I haven’t made the same kit twice yet. I’m at work now, so I can’t check on the mash temp. 153 degrees sticks in my mind. I mashed for 80 minutes though. 67 degrees is all the cooler I was able to get the wort down to with the warmer days. Winter works much better for cooling wort.
Brad
[quote=“Bier brauer”]No, never made this beer before. In fact I haven’t made the same kit twice yet. I’m at work now, so I can’t check on the mash temp. 153 degrees sticks in my mind. I mashed for 80 minutes though. 67 degrees is all the cooler I was able to get the wort down to with the warmer days. Winter works much better for cooling wort.
Brad[/quote]
153 isn’t a bad temp assuming your thermometer is accurate.
Every so often I place the thermometers in a glass of ice water and see if they are close to 32 degrees. I have two thermometers that are similar and they both read the same through various heat ranges so I think that the mash temperatures should be real close. Like you said, I will give it more time and see if the gravity changes. I use a T.C. refractometer to check the Brix then convert .
I’ve never been a fan of that method of calibration since I’ve had thermometers that were on at freezing or biling and off at mash temps. But since you’ve got two about the same we’ll assume they’re OK. Do you have a hydometer you can use to check gravity just in case something’s weird with the refractometer?
I do and did check the refractometer against the hydrometer. I came in around 8.5 on the brix scale which gave me 1.034 using conversion and about 1.028 with the hydrometer. I do want to check and calibrate the refractometer if needed. Directions say I need distilled water and needs to be 68 degrees I just haven’t had the time to play with it while I’m on this night shift.
I think the kits directions said FG should be around 1.015, I don’t think I will hit that even if I let it sit for long time on the yeast cake. I’ll take your advice and let it sit for another week, and take my loss if it don’t improve. Keg it and try to consume it.
But you say your hydrometer reads 1.028. Using another calculator on that site, SG 1.028 with coralating bix of 8.5 give an OG of 1.059. Close to your OG of 1.057.
I calibrated the refractometer the other day. 68 degrees ambient air temp, using distilled water at the same temperature, and it was way below 0 brix. So that just really screwed up my brix readings. I thought I was using it right. It compensates temperatures. I take hot wort and put it in a small measuring cup, I cool it till it is just warm then take a reading. Later I will look at the numbers again. But the last reading was 9.7 Brix,way higher than before the calibration. I kegged the beer two days ago. Got 20 lbs of c02 on it to carb it up. I took a taste of it tonight,not too good but I’ll try to run it through the kidneys.
If anything, I am the confused one.
Brad
It’s getting the best of me.
From my notes: OG was 14.02 brix converted to 1.057. On 07/29 I took a FG brix reading of 8.6 or 1.033. On 07/31 I got a brix reading of 8.9. How did that happen? I don’t know. On 08/01 I got a brix of 7.6 or 1.030. I calibrated the refractometer on 08/04 and took a reading another FG reading. It read 9.7. The calibration ring on the refractometer was not loose so I don’t have any idea how it got out of calibration, unless it came from the factory that way. I never checked it to see.
I just plugged in the numbers from our hosts calculators.
Brix to gravity during and after fermentation converter: 14.02 OG Brix, 9.7 current Brix= 1.027 gravity.
Approx. ABV and original gravity from current Brix and gravity converter: current Brix 9.7, current gravity (I used the number from above) 1.027 calculated to 3.515 ABV, OG of 1.054 which is close.
What do ya think? I know these have to be off because of the refractometer being out of calibration. Plus, I didn’t use the hosts calculator when checking the FG. I used a conversion table I pulled from another site not taking into account the alcohol content of the beer.
Maybe it is not as bad as it seems.
Brad
I Just used Brewheads calculator. I used the " find ABW & ABV from final SG and final Brix. I thought SG was starting gravity. I’m confused about final SG. Anyway I plugged in 9.7 for final Brix, and 1.039 for the final gravity. I got 1.60 ABV. Did I do this right? It seems like it may be because of such high numbers.
Brad
Thank you Denny! That makes more sense now. Then my numbers may be right, I think. Only thing is if the refractometer was off when I took the OG, then I may have a higher ABV because it was off @10 points Brix before I calibrated it. Maybe later I will run them again using a higher Brix to see the difference. Actually the beer is drinkable. Better than I thought it would be.
Brad
[quote=“Bier brauer”]It’s getting the best of me.
From my notes: OG was 14.02 brix converted to 1.057. On 07/29 I took a FG brix reading of 8.6 or 1.033. On 07/31 I got a brix reading of 8.9. How did that happen? I don’t know. On 08/01 I got a brix of 7.6 or 1.030. I calibrated the refractometer on 08/04 and took a reading another FG reading. It read 9.7. The calibration ring on the refractometer was not loose so I don’t have any idea how it got out of calibration, unless it came from the factory that way. I never checked it to see.
I just plugged in the numbers from our hosts calculators.
Brix to gravity during and after fermentation converter: 14.02 OG Brix, 9.7 current Brix= 1.027 gravity.
Approx. ABV and original gravity from current Brix and gravity converter: current Brix 9.7, current gravity (I used the number from above) 1.027 calculated to 3.515 ABV, OG of 1.054 which is close.
What do ya think? I know these have to be off because of the refractometer being out of calibration. Plus, I didn’t use the hosts calculator when checking the FG. I used a conversion table I pulled from another site not taking into account the alcohol content of the beer.
Maybe it is not as bad as it seems.
Brad[/quote]
When I plug those Brix numbers into my calculator, I get a starting gravity of 1.055. For your final gravity, I would use the 7.6 reading from 8/1, before you recalibrated, just to keep things consistent. 7.6 Brix with a starting gravity of 1.055 gives us a FG of 1.015. A few points higher than I would want my Kolsch, but still much better than you thought you were at.
