brain/sponge looking stuff on top of beer

Hey all, Happy Friday!

I'm getting ready to bottle the Wild Dog Days of Summer Ale I found in the recipe archives here. It's been in the fermentor for 2 weeks come Sunday. I popped the carboy top and saw what you see below. I think its krausen but I wanted to make sure because I've never seen it so thick looking before. It usually falls back into the beer and settles in the trub. The beer smells good; nothing sour smelling or anything like that. Any ideas?

What's your gravity reading?

I would give it at least another week to let it settle.

I'm not sure yet. I'm not scheduled to bottle until tomorrow night. I took the top off to take a reading and saw what it looked like. I could rack from under it but I guess I'll let her be and let it fall out like you said.

You still have krausen, that means it's still fementing.
What's your gravity reading?

Skim it off. Once you gain a different fermenter set up, you'll be able to blow out a lot of the brown slime. The beer will be cleaner.

I didn't take a reading today. Last one was 1.023 (I think. Usually write it down but I got side tracked...) and the target on the recipe is 1.012. The recipe's OG was 1.063 and mine was 1.062. I was going to take a reading today, and tomorrow night before bottling, but I'll save the sample volumes and let it sit another week. I'm in no rush, really.

bobeer said:

I didn't take a reading today. Last one was 1.023 (I think. Usually write it down but I got side tracked...) and the target on the recipe is 1.012. The recipe's OG was 1.063 and mine was 1.062. I was going to take a reading today, and tomorrow night before bottling, but I'll save the sample volumes and let it sit another week. I'm in no rush, really.

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Good idea.

damn...that's a pretty crazy looking krausen. i've never seen one like that before.

yea its pretty gnarley looking. hopefully it'll go away in the coming week!

VladOfTrub said:

Skim it off. Once you gain a different fermenter set up, you'll be able to blow out a lot of the brown slime. The beer will be cleaner.

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It would be better to give it an extra day or two than try to stick a spoon/scoop in there, let alone your arm.

And no, the beer will not be cleaner if you skim off krausen. The krausen is what the yeast create to protect the wort from outside organisms.

Reno_eNVy said:

It would be better to give it an extra day or two than try to stick a spoon/scoop in there, let alone your arm.

And no, the beer will not be cleaner if you skim off krausen. The krausen is what the yeast create to protect the wort from outside organisms.

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Agreed. The beer doesn't really need my help. Ill watch it over the next week and update as to what happens.

Doubt the krausen will fall to the bottom. Just bottled a pale ale that had been in the primary for three weeks with a thick krausen on top. Can't remember the yeast i used though. I see no problem with going ahead and bottling. Just my two cents.