Cream Ale- Secondary?

On Sunday June 23 I brewed the cream ale recipe from brewing classic styles. It's my 7th all grain batch and I feel that I did all the steps reasonably correct. Within 12 hours there was active fermentation and within a few days there was a massive amount of foam at the top of the carboy. I've never had this before. Assuming this is normal: does this stuff eventually settle? Sould I transfer to a secondary to clean up the beer? Or should I just ignore it?
Thanks,
MIke

I just did my first cream ale on the 24th as well using rehydrated dry yeast. It took off fast at 74 degrees but I am using a Cool-Brewing bag and it's be down to almost 61 degrees during fermentation. It lasted longer than I'm use to as well and I thought it was the low temperature. This morning I noticed it's not as active and only about 1/4 of the size. I plan on just 14 days in the primary and then to keg. From what I've been told by many, these are ok to keg at about 10 (assuming FG has been reached) but I like to let it sit a bit longer.
I personally rarely use secondary's anymore but that's up to you. I don't find it needed for these types of beers.

Youv'e brewed 7 batches and never seen a krausen (the foam generated by fermentation) before? Or is this just an unusually large amount? Many fermentations can be very active and make a lot of krausen- many people use a blowoff tube to prevent the airlock from clogging and blowing the top off your fermenter, getting beer foam everywhere. It will eventually settle- most all fermentations produce at least some krausen. No particular need to use a secondary with this beer rather than any other beer, but if that's something you like to do it's not going to hurt anything. I typically don't secondary beers unless I'm adding something post-fermentation like hops, oak, or fruit, but that's a personal preference. Some people say hop aroma compounds can bind to yeast and so it's better to have clearer beer with less yeast in the carboy when dry-hopping too. Secondary is good for that.

This is my second time I've aerated with a stone for 15 min (air not O2) and the first time I've aerated with a stone and used a starter. So from what you are saying, I’m hopeful that things may be going right. My 6th batch is carbonating in the bottle and of the previous 5 some were good and some were well ..... not so good. Thanks for the info. I’m not going to secondary. It doesn’t sound worth the work.
Mike M

I have seen a krausen before but nothing like this. This is what i was talking about. I could only get a shot from above.

Looks good, Mike. I've got a cream ale in the carboy which I brewed two weeks ago. Because I want this light colored beer to be as clear as possible, I am going to rack it into a secondary to give it more time to clear, maybe cold crash or use gelatin if it looks like its going to need help.

Skaal!

The problem with cold crashing is that sometimes it does a great job of clearing the yeast, only to leave you with chill haze.

Thanks for the info.