Thick brown foam after 11 days.

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trainfever

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So my first batch has been fermenting for 11 days as of today. The OG was 1.050, the directions said it should have been between 1.050 and 1.055, so my OG as good. The directions said the FG should be between 1.008 and 1.012. When I tested it today, it was 1.014, so I have a little longer to go. I planned on bottling this coming weekend. My concern right now is that there is still a thick brown foam on top of the wort. Is this normal? I thought that the foam would fall into the wort after a few days or a week? Should the foam still be there when I bottle?
 
Most of the time the krausen falls, but not always. Anything with much wheat in it, the krausen is like Styrofoam.
 
Its a Belgian White. If the foam is still there this weekend but the GF is where it should be, Do I just syphon out the beer and leave the foam behind?
 
you want to test gravity for 3 days. if the FG stays consistent for 3 days, and its close to the estimated final gravity, then yes it is 'done'.

rack/siphon it to secondary, keg, or bottling bucket (since belgian wits are allowed to be cloudy IIRC)
 
malkore said:
you want to test gravity for 3 days. if the FG stays consistent for 3 days, and its close to the estimated final gravity, then yes it is 'done'.

rack/siphon it to secondary, keg, or bottling bucket (since belgian wits are allowed to be cloudy IIRC)

I'm curious, how much volume are you taking out when you test the "G"? The hygrometer that I have (i float it in the thermometer's tube) is probably about 100 mL? I'm just worried about losing too much beer! Am I too worried, is the loss (due to sampling) nothing to worry about, and just part of the game?
 
jonbeck14 said:
Is the loss (due to sampling) nothing to worry about, and just part of the game?
I think that's the way to look at it. You shouldn't lose much more than a bottle's worth of beer from the whole batch, which is the price you pay for ensuring that you rack / bottle the beer at the right time. The alternative is having one extra bottle of less good beer. And of course you'd miss out on the educational experience of drinking the contents of your hydrometer flask to see how the beer's coming along.
 
Danek said:
And of course you'd miss out on the educational experience of drinking the contents of your hydrometer flask to see how the beer's coming along.

That has helped me a lot. I get to know what the different stages taste like and how I think it’s going to come out in the end.
 
if you ferment in a bucket, just sanitize the hydrometer and drop it in.
on batches where the krausen lingers, you can just poke thru it with they hydro, or use a thief to steal a sample...but either way you've poked a hole thru it which shouldn't have any impact on the final produce as long as everything is sanitized.

and yeah, expect to lose some beer, at racking, etc. now that I all grain brew, I go for 5.5 gallon batches to ensure a full 5 gallons for my kegs, or 2 full cases of bottles.
 
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