Second batch of Kolsch. Questionable yeast.

[rneculai19]

My first batch was a milk stout which I got from a kit from brewers best. It turned out pretty good although I did learn a lot. Now my second batch is actually a Kölsch that my dad requested since he doesn't drink dark beer. I decided to try liquid yeast for the first time and they didn't have a Kölsch so I ended up getting a pilsner yeast instead. I went through the whole brewing process, activated my pilsner yeast and it was dead. Luckily I had the dry pack of yeast from the kit. I started that and it managed to start. Went through fermentation my OG and FG were in the right range. I ended up bottling it this past Sunday and this Thursday I decided to try it out since I was so anxious. The color came out as it should have and everything looked fine except very little to no carbonation. I thought it was because it didn't have enough time for the yeast to produce any CO2. I took a sip and it was sweet. No taste of beer although when I transferred it from the fermenter to the bottling bucket it smelled like beer which lowered my patience tremendously. Everything was sanitized properly right before I used it. Fermentation went as it did with my milk stout. Not a lot of bubbling but I wasn't too worried since my milk stout did the same thing and turned out fine. Now I'm curious as to why it tastes sweet. Everything went just like my last brew. It was stored in the same place while fermenting. Temperature was around the same. Although one night I remember when I came home late from work and my whole house smelled like beer. Does anybody have any ideas as to what went wrong and what I can do to fix this?

 

[snowveil]

"temperature was the same..."

What temperature was it? Was it a dry lager yeast or a liquid one?

 

[rneculai19]

Right around 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Initially I used a white labs liquid pilsner yeast in the starter. And after a half hour I saw it wasn't starting and looked at the bottle of the liquid yeast and saw that it expired in May. Then I started the dry Kölsch yeast in the same starter that I used the pilsner in.

 

[snowveil]

ok, there's a few things to comment on here.

Firstly, 65-70 is really high for a lager yeast. Hopefully you don't have too many off-flavors going on, but time will tell with this.

Second, is it only 5 days in the bottle? Or 12 days in the bottle? If 5 days, it's NOT going to be carbonated yet. Give it some more time.

What was the FG reading?

The sweetness could also just be a perceived sweetness, or could be coming from ingredients in the recipe. Care to post the recipe?

 

[rneculai19]

I know that the carbonation might not have had enough time to start. I just wanted to try it out and see how it went.

FG was 1.012.

Ingredients: 3.3 lb Pilsen LME, 2.0 lb wheat DME, 12 o.z. of Carapils grains, 1 o.z. of UK Fuggle and 1 o.z. of GR Tettnang hops.

 

[rneculai19]

I brewed it on 07/12/2014, bottled it on 07/19/2014 and had the first one last night.

 

[govner1]

Seems to me you have a couple of problems- first your ferm temp is much too high for a Kolsch. I have one just going to secondary after two weeks @ 60F. I'm it sure your primary had reached FG before you bottles. Did you check your gravity for several days to see if it was steady?
Second, it certainly didn't spend enough time in the bottle before you test tasted. 14 days @ room temp. Then cold crashing would seem more effective. Some of the sweetness could be from your priming sugar that hasn't been consumed by the yeast.
I'm not sure why you expected to see yeast activity in such a short time span. I usually don't see anything for 6-12 ours at a minimum.
Patience!


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[rneculai19]

How do you cold crash? Just put the bottles in a fridge?

I know I was being impatient, it's hard waiting around for everything to settle.

My stout I let it ferment for a week and it was done, and then I let it sit in the bottles for about two weeks or so if my memory serves me right. But the more I let it sit the better the beer gets.

My FG was steady for the last few days of fermenting.

 

[kh54s10]

There are quite a few problems here. You apparently are confusing a starter and rehydrating. A starter takes at least 18 hours on a stirplate and up to a couple of days without one. You said the first yeast was dead. You did not make a proper starter and certainly did not give it enough time. You likely threw away good yeast.
The temperature at which you fermented was quite high. I would have done that one with the lager yeast in the low 60's.
7 days is IMO too short a time for fermentation. It might have hit final gravity. Did you take two hydrometer readings 2 days apart and get the same number. If it wasn't at final gravity that would lead to sweetness.
Your beer is very unlikely to be carbonated in just a few days. It takes at least 2 weeks and more often 3 or more to carbonate properly. Until it is fully carbonated you can not get a true idea of what the final flavor will be.

I suggest that you read How to Brew by John Palmer. You can read the online version (it is a bit outdated in areas). Or buy the book. At the very least read all the how to stickies in this forum.

Keep at it. If you have problems, work to figure out what caused them and revise your next brew. As you learn. each brew will go easier and the beer should show significant improvement.

 

[rneculai19]

I slowly started reading How to Brew. Haven't had too much time to read it.

My mistake about the confusion. I rehydrated the yeast.

I'm still going to wait and see how the beer progresses. I've read on here from someone's post that they've had issues with their brew and let it sit for weeks at a time and the off flavors slowly mellowed out and the initial flavor he was going for was in full effect.


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[rneculai19]

How do you cold crash? Just put the bottles in a fridge?

I know I was being impatient, it's hard waiting around for everything to settle.

My stout I let it ferment for a week and it was done, and then I let it sit in the bottles for about two weeks or so if my memory serves me right. But the more I let it sit the better the beer gets.

My FG was steady for the last few days of fermenting.

 

[WileECoyote]

I brewed it on 07/12/2014, bottled it on 07/19/2014 and had the first one last night.

Hello, 3 weeks is a >>>Minimum<<< amount of time for a beer to carb up, also when you chill one to try it, leave it in the fridge for 3 days before trying it, this time in the fridge is needed to allow the co2 to fully get into solution.

Cheers

 

[WileECoyote]

How do you cold crash? Just put the bottles in a fridge?

I know I was being impatient, it's hard waiting around for everything to settle.

My stout I let it ferment for a week and it was done, and then I let it sit in the bottles for about two weeks or so if my memory serves me right. But the more I let it sit the better the beer gets.

My FG was steady for the last few days of fermenting.

The bold underlined statement, Yes they do !

Cheers

 

[rneculai19]

It's getting better with time. I tried one about a week ago and the sweetness went away. Now it tastes like beer but no carbonation. So now I'm assuming that maybe because the wort while fermenting reached a high temperature that it may have killed off some yeast and therefore the lack of carbonation now. I'm not really sticking my hands into this batch just because I want to let it sit and experiment. Thanks for the tips guys.