Kolsch WLP029 - Cold Crash / Kegging / Conditioning?

[djonesax]

Last week I brewed a 10 gallon batch of Kolsch with WLP029. After 7 days at 68 degrees, fermentation looks complete. Most of the directions I have read say something like, primary 1-2 weeks, secondary 2 weeks, cold crash 2 days, then cold condition for 2 weeks or so...

My question is, if fermentation is done, what would be the difference if I were to just rack it next week (14 days primary) into kegs and let it sit at 38 degrees for a few weeks?

Is is necessary for cold crashing and conditioning to be two separate steps when kegging and not bottling?

Thanks,

David

 

[Jimmyjim]

My opinion.

Skip the secondary.

Cold crashing will reduce the amount of sediment that will settle in your keg.
I have done this both ways, no noticeable difference in taste.

2-3 weeks on gas in the kegerator and it's good to go.

 

[Indian_villager]

I went grain to glass in 2 weeks with WLP 029. I just finished fermentation and then threw it into a keg. Giving it a week in keg does help the flavor quite a bit. If you want clarity gelatin works great. I've had a batch made with 029 go crystal clear with gelatin.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Skip the secondary; it accomplishes nothing that your keg can't do. Kolsch is a quick-turnaround beer, so throw it in a keg, hook up the CO2, and give it a week or two then drink up. May want to also include gelatin in the keg because Kolsch doesn't clarify well.

 

[WileECoyote]

Last week I brewed a 10 gallon batch of Kolsch with WLP029. After 7 days at 68 degrees, fermentation looks complete. Most of the directions I have read say something like, primary 1-2 weeks, secondary 2 weeks, cold crash 2 days, then cold condition for 2 weeks or so...

My question is, if fermentation is done, what would be the difference if I were to just rack it next week (14 days primary) into kegs and let it sit at 38 degrees for a few weeks?

Is is necessary for cold crashing and conditioning to be two separate steps when kegging and not bottling?

Thanks,

David

Hello, we use this yeast often on a amber beer for my wife, we have found that the taste of every beer we have used the kolsch yeast on seems to need 2.5 months to mellow and become really good beer.

The kolsch yeast produces a sulfur taste (its even stated on the yeast manufactures site) and it takes at least 2.5 months of aging for that sulfur taste to dissipate completely, taste is very subjective, so its really up to you and your taste buds whether or not you like the sulfur taste in your beer or not, also my wife and I do not like the flavor of young beer, we like the taste of aged/conditioned beer much better.

I would like to suggest that you try a beer or 2 each week out of the same batch, until 3.5 months old, keep age/conditioning them during this time, except the 1 or 2 your chilling to try, after you will know exactly how long to age your next batch of that beer on that yeast for your taste.

When using the kolsch, I primary for 14 days @ 65 deg, secondary for 2.5 months @ 70 deg, keg and chill to 35 deg over night, then set it and forget it carbonate it @ 35 deg for 10 days @ 9 to 10 PSI, this works very well for our taste.

To answer your question about skipping the secondary, IMO kolsch yeast needs at least that much time in secondary to let that sulfur taste mellow and dissipate in the beer, that is what the secondary is for when using kolsch, it also lets the beer age/condition a bit too, that really helps the flavor of the beer come forward and the beer flavor will become smoother too.

I hope this helps !

Cheers

 

[masonsjax]

I use this yeast on loads of different styles. I've never gotten any sulfur from it myself, but it does take time to flocculate. I have a traditional Kolsch tapped now that's crystal clear. It took a few weeks in the keezer to clear up, but I don't cold crash or secondary. Just primary for a couple weeks and keg it.

 

[djonesax]

The kolsch yeast produces a sulfur taste (its even stated on the yeast manufactures site) and it takes at least 2.5 months of aging for that sulfur taste to dissipate completely

I brewed 10 gallons of this so hopefully aging wont be an issue for at least ONE of the kegs I know some recommend the secondary and some say its not required. Concerning the sulfur taste, What is the general opinion of skipping secondary, kegging and aging at 38-40 degrees for a few weeks? I guess what I am asking is will aging at 38 degrees help to dissipate the sulfur taste or is 70 degrees required?

Im going to brew another 10 gallons this friday night. I have a yuengling on tap now, and when thats gone, I'll serve the current 10 Gallons of Kolsch while the new 10 gallon batch can secondary or condition in the fridge.

David

 

[WileECoyote]

I brewed 10 gallons of this so hopefully aging wont be an issue for at least ONE of the kegs I know some recommend the secondary and some say its not required. Concerning the sulfur taste, What is the general opinion of skipping secondary, kegging and aging at 38-40 degrees for a few weeks? I guess what I am asking is will aging at 38 degrees help to dissipate the sulfur taste or is 70 degrees required?

Im going to brew another 10 gallons this friday night. I have a yuengling on tap now, and when thats gone, I'll serve the current 10 Gallons of Kolsch while the new 10 gallon batch can secondary or condition in the fridge.

David

Hello, 70 deg is not required, but aging and conditioning both will happen faster at warmer temps, when you cool down your beer everything slows way down, the colder the temps the slower everything happens, temps directly affect how fast or slow things happen in your beers.

The sulfur taste will dissipate much faster at 70 deg than if you cool your beer down to 38 to 40.

Also the sulfur taste is very subjective depending your taste, like I said before some people don't taste it and others do, My wife and I can taste it, and are maybe even a bit sensitive to it, I would like to suggest, that you should sample your beer and see if you can taste the sulfur taste or not, that way you will know what to do.

As far as secondary go's, when Primary fermentation is finished, your beer go's into secondary fermentation by its self, when you transfer to carboy or keg or bottles it will age/condition in any of those, I personally like using a carboy as my secondary fermenting vessel to age/condition as it leaves my kegs free for my finished beers, the beers are also clearer and have almost no sediment in them going into the keg, that is nice when a keg in the back of the kegerator kicks and I have to move a 1/4 or 1/2 full one out to change out the kicked keg, as moving a keg with a bunch of sediment in it will stir the sediment back up into the beer.

Hope this helps !

Cheers

 

[djonesax]

Thanks for all the feedback. I moved the fermenter into the keezer to cold crash until Friday when I intend to brew again. I think what I will do is keg the beer into two 5 gallon corny's, put one in the keezer on gas and leave the other at 70 degrees for a few weeks or until I kick the first keg. That way I can sample the difference and see if I can detect the sulfur.

David

 

[agentindemand]

Just tasted my hydro sample. Total Banana flavor. Fermented at about 58-60 for 4 days. 65 for a 2 weeks. Still in Primary. Any or have same experience with WLP029?
Very sterile environment. Infection not likely but possible I guess.
Will it dissipate as it ages?
Tks

 

[j1n]

Just tasted my hydro sample. Total Banana flavor. Fermented at about 58-60 for 4 days. 65 for a 2 weeks. Still in Primary. Any or have same experience with WLP029?
Very sterile environment. Infection not likely but possible I guess.
Will it dissipate as it ages?
Tks

I just did a batch with this yeast. i fermented at 62 the whole time. Mine tastes good, no banana or sulfur or any other off flavor. Were your temps ambient or beer?

Also i filtered this beer, i cold crashed and i still got a bunch of yeast in the filter.

 

[1van]

Weird, I do a lot with wlp029, mostly Kolsch. Never had banana or sulfur for that matter. It is a great yeast!. I typically leave it in primary for about a month as this yeast will clean up after itself. Cold crash for 3 days or so then keg. I fine with gelatin also for Kolschbiers and they have always come out clear and crisp. my experience is the colder the better with this yeast, down to 59 degrees.

 

[VApatriot]

My apologies up front as this is going to be slightly long winded.

Question for those of you who have experience with WLP-029. I brewed a NB Kolsch extract batch on x-mas eve. The OG was 1.052, made a 1000ml starter, fermented in my basement at ~65 deg. F. After 2 weeks in the primary, and around 2 weeks in the secondary the FG was 1.012, and very, very clear. So far so good.

When I bottled it I sprayed an overly concentrated (like waaay too concentrated) Starsan solution on top of my bottling sugar solution which is not my normal procedure. Normally I spray the inside of the bottling bucket, dump the excess, and pour in the bottling sugar/water, rack from the secondary, fill, cap, wait, drink and smile. Never had any problems with my process until this batch. As soon as I racked from the secondary into the bottling bucket I noticed the beer was cloudy.

The beer is in the basement at around the same ~65 deg. F. and tomorrow it will have been two weeks since I bottled it. I looked at one last night, still really cloudy in the bottle. Could the ~1-2 oz of really strong Starsan in 5 gallons of beer cause this to be so cloudy or is this just the nature of WLP-029?

I've never used it before so I have no personal experience. Lastly, I don't have a fridge to lager it, but I could move it up to the garage after a month or so. It usually stays between 30-40 degrees in the garage until spring. I really don't want to dump a batch if the nature of this yeast is to be cloudy until chilled/aged for a while. What do you all think? And thanks in advance for any and all responses.

 

[djonesax]

I dont know chemically what is happening here but in my experience starsan will make water cloudy if the there are impurities in the water. I had read once that if you put starsan in water and it's cloudy it wont be as affective and to dump it, rinse well and refill and add more starsan again.

Once again, not an expert but it sounds to me like you added too much starsan. What was the mixture ratio of starsan to water and how much did you put on the sugar?

Thanks,

David

 

[masonsjax]

Cloudy Starsan is no problem. It is effective if the pH is at or below 3.

WLP029 Kolsch yeast is very closely related to hefeweizen yeasts and does not flocculate very well. Cloudiness is common if you're not lagering beers brewed with this strain.

 

[VApatriot]

Cloudy Starsan is no problem. It is effective if the pH is at or below 3.

WLP029 Kolsch yeast is very closely related to hefeweizen yeasts and does not flocculate very well. Cloudiness is common if you're not lagering beers brewed with this strain.

I don't really know if the Starsan was cloudy or not, I mix it in a white spray bottle. As for lagering, I don't have a fridge to lager in but my garage stays between 34-40 degrees until around April. My thought is to leave it for another 1-2 weeks in the basement, then move to the garage for cold storage for as long as the temp stays below 50. I'm not worried about the beer freezing out there it never gets that cold. That's my plan for now. The weird thing is the beer was super clear in the glass carboy secondary.

 

[VApatriot]

Once again, not an expert but it sounds to me like you added too much starsan. What was the mixture ratio of starsan to water and how much did you put on the sugar?

Thanks,

David

I really don't know, I poured some in my 32 oz. spray bottle, never measured it. I seriously doubt I sprayed more than 1 oz on top of the sugar.

If I did my math right, from now on I'll only be putting in only 1.5ml per 32 oz h2o. Hopefully it'll be ok, time will tell. I know I won't be making that mistake again... I really don't want to dump a batch.