The Krausen won't fall!

Hello all,

New guy here, first post but I've been reading this forum and brewing with a buddy that's a regular here. I put my first beer in the fermentor on New Years Eve and it went pretty crazy for the first week. I had to switch from an airlock to a blow off tube after two days because it filled up with beer. Now it's been two weeks and is still bubbling about once every 6 seconds. The problem is that the Krausen will not fall. There's a good 6 inches of it still floating and maybe 1/2 an inch on the bottom. Here's my recipe and what I did below. Is this normal? (PS If your airlock fills with beer and you half-filled the airlock with star san don't drink it it. It tastes funny.)

Belgian Wit
Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Belgian Yeast W3944 Wyeast (slap pack)
Yeast Starter: No
Size: 5 gallon
Size of the Carboy: 5 gallon
OG: 1.062
Boiling Time: 60 minutes

6# dry wheat malt extract
1# wheat malt (steep 30min)
1# Belgian Sugar
1 ounce orange peel
1 ounce tettnanger (15 min)
1 ounce styrian golding hops (1 hour)
1 ounce corianger (2 min)

Start san on everything. Full boil on a turkey fryer in a keggle. Immersion chiller, chilled to 70. Shook the crap out of the carboy for 5 minutes before pitching the yeast. Placed in a temp controlled freezer @ 68 with a 2 degree differential. I've left it alone except for looking at it every day and switching over to the blow off tube which is going into a bucket of sanitized water.

Any ideas? Should I just leave it alone and bottle it when its done or wait for the Krausen to fall to the bottom?

My advice: definitely let it keep going. I had a Belgian Wit once that kept a slow and steady primary ferm for over 3 weeks. Once it starts to settle, definitely use a hydrometer to check the gravity; it's the only true way to tell if everything has finished.

Cheers!

hell yeah let that thing ride!

What you are seeing on the bottom isn't krausen, but trub from material - such as yeast - falling out of suspension. Are you seeing white krausen on top or is it brown from spent yeast, etc. sticking to the side of your carboy (I take it you are using a carboy since you can see the bottom)? If you had to use a blowoff it's possible you aren't looking at krausen but are indeed seeing material stuck to the inside of the carboy...have you taken the tube off and looked down into the carboy to see if you can see foam?

Whatever the case, give it a bit more time...

Happens some times. The trub picks up yeast and the yeast floats on top as its still off gassing CO2. Once it all dies down the yeast and trub will drop off and floc down to the bottom. Looks like a aweful mess though. One of the reasons I overbrew and decant off the trub before I pitch yeast.

Great, thanks so much guys for your feedback. The top layer is definetley a brownish white color and its full of stuff, not just stuck to the sides of the carboy. I guess I just need to be a little more patient and stop worrying so much. I was planning 1 more week before bottling but maybe ill wait a little longer to see what happens. Leaving it for another week or two can't really hurt anything from what ive read.

The big question is... what is the SG right now? Haven't you taken a hydrometer reading and checked it? That will tell you way more than any of us can.

I have the same problem too. The krausen is at the top and a lot of foam is blowing through the airlock and bubbling out. I have taken the airlock out about a dozen times since Sunday to clean it out and then put it back in. I guess I have a good ferment going too. From everything I have read I don't think it will be a problem. Good luck.

I haven't taken a hydrometer reading in 2 weeks because I assumed the yeast wasn't finished. I was going to wait another week or so. I'm a little paranoid about bothering the beer while it's fermenting so I haven't checked the gravity. I'll check it tomorrow and post the gravity.

use a wine thief or turkey baster so you can see what you are doing (instead of dropping it into the carboy and trying to see through the krausen)...but I think fermentation is still actively occurring and frankly would just leave it alone for another week. The yeast don't pay nearly as much attention to the time they've spent in the fermenter as you have and I think another week will do the trick...

arondee said:

I haven't taken a hydrometer reading in 2 weeks because I assumed the yeast wasn't finished. I was going to wait another week or so. I'm a little paranoid about bothering the beer while it's fermenting so I haven't checked the gravity. I'll check it tomorrow and post the gravity.

Click to expand...

Your original plan was correct. No need to mess with it and check the gravity yet. Just let it ride another week or 2 and then check it to see where you're at

Great I'll just leave it alone for another week or two and start another batch .

On the contrary. If you're sanitary, there is no reason not to check your gravity regularly. I check mine weekly. Break out the hydrometer and wine thief and see what's going on. You can check it anytime you want, especially if it seems to be doing anything out of the ordinary. Nobody here is going to be able to tell you what's happening in you fermenter. Take a sample and find out.

I went ahead and took the gravity. It's at 1.030 after 2 weeks and it started at 1.062. Sound about normal? It's starting to taste pretty decent.

Let it go some more. That seems to be high for a final gravity.

Yep. Seems like you have a slow and/or stuck ferment. Leave 'er alone.

It also seems high for the OG. I believe my extract Belgian Wit was around 1.044 and ended around 1.015.

The recipe I found called for 6.6 pounds of liquid wheat extract and I used 6 pounds of dry extract. Would that account for the difference? I know that you need less dry extract than liquid but I wasn't sure how much. It was supposed to be 1.052 with the recipe.

And the problem is.....

You don't have one, quit looking for one. It's fermenting beer, keeping to it's own schedule.

Would you say the beer is pretty well protected if there's a large krausen that blows off your air lock and it remains exposed all night

I would RDWHAHB but I don't have any ready my lager is about a week from being ready

No you're not protected at all the beer has been ruined. Let the fermentation finish, bottle it, then send it to me for disposal. In all seriousness everything should be fine. Its pushing out so much co2 it probably wasn't exposed to much oxygen. Replace the air lock with a blow off tube and all will be ok. By the way, this beer I started the thread about turned out great and the krausen never did fall.