Brown Krausen?

Yesterday I brewed my first 5-gallon extract batch. My desire was to brew a SNPA-like pale ale.
I used 6.6 lbs Briess golden light LME
0.5 lb Crystal 60
0.5 oz Magnum for 60
0.5 oz Perle for 30
1.0 oz Cascade for 10
2.0 oz Cascade at 0 mins
US-05 ale yeast

All the hops were in pellet form as my local brew shop was sold-out of fresh.
Everything went well and 15 hours later there was bubbling through the airlock and a nice krausen formed on the top. However, the krausen was a brown color and looked as if very, very small bits of the hops were in the foam. Is this normal?
I made sure I stirred the late addition of Cascade thoroughly and made attempts at keeping the bits of protein and hops from the fermenter when transferring by using a sanitized stainless steel scrubbing pad and siphoning.

Is this normal when using pellets? If not, how does one avoid this?

It is normal. No need to avoid it. Learn to love it! You have a healthy fermentation going.

Cheers!

Thanks! I had a thought of siphoning through my (sanitized) nylon grain bag for my next batch. Perhaps that would help keep some of the hop solids and trub out of the fermenter. From what I've read, it takes more than two weeks for off-flavors to develop from trub anyway. It will be out of the fermenter by then so I'll worry no more a out this batch for now.

No extra steps needed, it'll be great.

Sjt_71 said:

Thanks! I had a thought of siphoning through my (sanitized) nylon grain bag for my next batch. Perhaps that would help keep some of the hop solids and trub out of the fermenter. From what I've read, it takes more than two weeks for off-flavors to develop from trub anyway. It will be out of the fermenter by then so I'll worry no more a out this batch for now.

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I have a report from a brewer I trust that it takes more than 8 months too. I don't worry about the hops going into the fermenter. When I have the wort cooled I dump everything into the fermenter. When the ferment is over the hops settle out and get covered by the yeast cake. Rack to the bottling bucket above the yeast cake and your beer will turn out just fine.

Don't count on the fermentation being done in 2 weeks on the dot. The yeast have their own timetable. It'll be done when it's done. Did you use a hydrometer to get an OG reading? At least take a hydrometer sample/reading at the 2 week mark to see if it's done or close to it.
Never rack to secondary or bottling bucket till the beer is at FG. Not to mention,3-7 days for the beer to clean up by products of fermentation that make off flavors. It'll settle out clear or slightly misty at this same time.

The beer looks real good so far. Thanks for the reassurance. I did take an OG and it was 1.048. My plan was to leave it in the primary for 3 weeks and take another gravity then. By my calculations, if I end up with a final gravity of 1.010 it will be around 5.1% ABV. I'm not sure it will go that low. Another reply mentioned adding 0.5 lbs Crystal 10 next time. Would this help bring the OG up a little?

And on an unrelated note, the German Blonde with the DMS odor seems to have cleared up. I drank one after refrigerating for another week and I didn't notice the odor nearly as much if at all. I was pleasantly surprised at the smoothness and light body.

Half pound of crystal might raise the the gravity a point ot two.

RM-MN said:

I have a report from a brewer I trust that it takes more than 8 months too. I don't worry about the hops going into the fermenter. When I have the wort cooled I dump everything into the fermenter. When the ferment is over the hops settle out and get covered by the yeast cake. Rack to the bottling bucket above the yeast cake and your beer will turn out just fine.

Click to expand...

The time it takes to mature depends on the kind of beer you're making and the conditions it's under. Some can take just a week or two and others can take over a year.

My brew is one week into fermentation. I have some questions/concerns regarding temperature.

A previous batch of an IPA I brewed fermented at 68-70 degrees. I used US-05. I was concerned that this temp was on the high end of the range, but when I sampled the beer, it was real good. Before I sampled the IPA, put a SNPA-like clone in the fermenter and moved it upstairs where it is cooler, around 62 degrees. The first few days the fermometer read 62-64. Now that primary fermentation is winding down, it is around 60-62 degrees. I know this is the lower end of the temp range for US-05. What can I expect in terms of flavor at these temps?

It'll have a clean flavor at those temps. US-05 can go down to like 57F. So your temps should be fine.

This might gross you out but Krausen turns brown through the same process your poop turns brown... Oxygenation.