Anyone ever tasted Krausen?

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

r8rphan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
2,104
Reaction score
59
Location
Shingletown
I brewed a Batch of IPA this weekend, and tried a new bucket blow off method for it.. I pitched Saturday afternoon, and as of this morning, there was no gas pressure in the blow off tube, So I was going to pitch another packet of yeast, thinking that there was something wrong with the first packet..

When I pulled open an edge of the lid I saw that there was a good layer of Krausen on top.. meaning the yeast was okay but my blow off tube was leaking.. badly..

Seeing as the krausen had not risen all the way to the lid, I decided it was safe to just use a regular air lock.. So I sanitized another lid, stopper and airlock and installed them..

On the first lid there was some krausen on it.. I tasted some.. It was sour as hell... Now I don't know if krausen just tastes nasty or if my batch is infected, or if this was just old stuff that had spoiled from when I first shook the thing after brewing, and the bucket had not yet filled with C02...

My sanitation habits are pretty meticulous, so I'll be surprised if I have an infection.. but anything is possible.. Anyone have experience with this?

I rocked the thing back and forth on a couple occasions thinking the yeast was not taking off, with the idea of rousing it might help, now I'm hoping that I didn't wash some spoiled crap off the lid into the beer and infect everything..

Thoughts, stories, comments?
Thanks,
:mug:
 
if you have a big, healthy krausen going (which is sounds like you do), there probably aren't any other microbes doing anything significant in your beer. i wouldn't put much stock in how the krausen tastes, who knows what it's even made up of.
 
I read a story once (germanbeerinstitute.com,I think),where it said the Germans make beer with the krausen skimmed off other beers. I don't think they said how,though?...:drunk:
 
I had some huge blowoff on my last one, so I gave it a taste. It was incredibly bitter. Couldn't get rid of the taste in my mouth for a couple of hours.
 
Well...being so bitter,I wonder if the Germans used it to not just ferment another brew,but flavor it as well? Like their version of an English bitter?
 
It should taste bad(to most people at least) and it is true that a lot of commercial breweries will skim the krausen off the top and remove it, you can also do this with your own brew, but it is usually not recommended due to sanitation.
 
r8rphan said:
I brewed a Batch of IPA this weekend, and tried a new bucket blow off method for it.. I pitched Saturday afternoon, and as of this morning, there was no gas pressure in the blow off tube, So I was going to pitch another packet of yeast, thinking that there was something wrong with the first packet..

When I pulled open an edge of the lid I saw that there was a good layer of Krausen on top.. meaning the yeast was okay but my blow off tube was leaking.. badly..

Seeing as the krausen had not risen all the way to the lid, I decided it was safe to just use a regular air lock.. So I sanitized another lid, stopper and airlock and installed them..

On the first lid there was some krausen on it.. I tasted some.. It was sour as hell... Now I don't know if krausen just tastes nasty or if my batch is infected, or if this was just old stuff that had spoiled from when I first shook the thing after brewing, and the bucket had not yet filled with C02...

My sanitation habits are pretty meticulous, so I'll be surprised if I have an infection.. but anything is possible.. Anyone have experience with this?

I rocked the thing back and forth on a couple occasions thinking the yeast was not taking off, with the idea of rousing it might help, now I'm hoping that I didn't wash some spoiled crap off the lid into the beer and infect everything..

Thoughts, stories, comments?
Thanks,
:mug:
Click to expand...

Traditional German Wheat Beers are made by skimming off the krausen intermittently to reduce bitterness. That being said, I think that Krausen should be very bitter, possibly sour tasting by another description; sounds like you're beer is fine man!
 
^^^I remember seeing a pic of the skimming. But the gemanbeerinstitute.com lists a "Krausenbier" with the double dots above the "a". But the link is broken to the full description of the style.
 

Similar threads

_Keven
Question on if this mold made it into my fermenter
Replies
3
Views
512
hotbeer
hotbeer
RyPA
Fermentation issue
Replies
23
Views
849
RyPA
RyPA
arcticus
Pellicle with Sourvisiae?
Replies
1
Views
283
day_trippr
day_trippr
Gadjobrinus
Wyeast 1469 - injection of pure O2 after 18 hours?
Replies
11
Views
502
Gadjobrinus
Gadjobrinus
F
(Unintentional) open fementation likely infected
Replies
4
Views
733
adhomebrew10
adhomebrew10
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top