lallemand kolsch pitching rate.

[Snoop]

I've just got my grain weighed out to do a fairly standard kolsch with this yeast and just noticed it's pitching rate is 1g/litre meaning I need 2 packs, I have only one (making it more expensive than liquid yeast which I'd have bought had I noticed this!).

Anyway, has anyone brewed about 20l with a single pack? OG likely to be about 1.048. Or shall I make a starter and pitch it tomorrow? Never made a starter with dry yeast so no idea of this is a good idea or not. I was intending to ferment this on the cooler side to get a cleaner beer but if I'm underpitching by that much I suspect this is a bad idea.


Ta
Simon

 

[JonBrew]

That's a bit of a bummer. I've seen a few folk get caught out in the same way with their New England yeast.

According to the technical data sheet:

"PITCHING RATE 100g/hL to achieve a minimum of 1 million viable cells/mL"

If you properly rehydrated and pitched the one pack you might get away with it; particularly if you were willing to ferment more on warm side, i.e. 16C +. However, if it were me, I'd be tempted to do a stirred starter. You wont have time to cold crash it unless you delay your brew day, and it's generally not recommended to make starters with dried yeast, but I'd say it's probably the lesser of two evils, i.e. versus potentially under pitching and fermenting cold.

Edit
Just to add to the above, I'd hydrate properly before adding to the starter wort.

 

[Pennine]

You will be just fine with one, but I would also recommend hydrating to get a quick start. they and fermentis recommend two packs for their lager yeasts as well but one is usually just fine for sub 1.050s.

 

[Hanglow]

You can make a starter, say take two grams of the dried yeast then build your starter from that, then pitch both the starter and the remaining dried yeast tomorrow.

I wouldn't put the whole packet of dried yeast in the starter, you'll just be feeding it instead of getting much growth

 

[Snoop]

I always rehydrate properly. Just gonna go with it. If it stalls I have quite a bit of french Saison yeast in the fridge. So I guess I'll finish it with that have a Saison / kolsch hybrid. The grain bill / hops is fairly similar to a really simple Saison I do with that yeast frequently and it always turns out ok.

Its defo gonna be on the cooler side (15c) as I have a schwarzbier fermenting in the fridge under pressure at that. Probs can ramp that up in a few days tho.

Back to liquid for my yearly kolsch I guess. 2 packets of dry yeast defeats the purpose really.

 

[Richard_H]

I currently have this yeast in the FV at the moment for my attempt at my first kolsch. Has gone from 1.064 to 1.010 in 12 days at roughly 20 the whole time. Very happy with that even if its stronger than I was expecting! (from memory BrewersFriend predicted around the 1.014 mark).

I only used 1 packet and rehydrated to the packet instructions except I used diluted wort rather than just water. The yeast for me was slow to start, barely troubled my airlock during peak fermentation and is still slowly eating those sugars (it was 1.014 5 days ago) despite no activity for over a week.

Going to give this another week to make sure its 100% finished and cleaned up, as your going down to 15 then yours may be even slower, the good news is the sample tasted fantastic!

 

[Snoop]

A 7.2% kolsch?! :)

Yeah I pitched it last night at 11.30pm (don't ask). It's not really doing much still. I did read it had a bit of a long lag time getting going. It's above a black pilsner which is 15c in the thermowell (under pressure). Ambient around this FV is about 17c. Finger crossed