Wyeast 3522 question

I have had that gooey looking krausen sitting on top of my beer for well over a week now. I have never had a fermentation that looked like this. The krausen generally settles out after about 4-5 days. I assume this is normal for 3522? Anyone else had similar experience with this yeast?

Perfectly normal.

Just give it plenty of time to finish up. Sometimes Belgian yeasts can start fast, and then chug along for quite a while. I had one ( not sure which yeast, but Belgian) churn along for a full three weeks. Carboy looked like a lava lamp for the full three weeks. Big krausen on top the whole time too.

beergolf said:

Perfectly normal.

Just give it plenty of time to finish up. Sometimes Belgian yeasts can start fast, and then chug along for quite a while. I had one ( not sure which yeast, but Belgian) churn along for a full three weeks. Carboy looked like a lava lamp for the full three weeks. Big krausen on top the whole time too.

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Good to know. I wasn't sure if my fermentation temp was too low (64F) or what. Thanks!

PhelanKA7 said:

Good to know. I wasn't sure if my fermentation temp was too low (64F) or what. Thanks!

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You are at the very low end for that yeast. You might want to get the temp up some to help it finish up. If you can get it to the low 70's that should speed things up a little. Flavor is pretty well set by now, so you want to get it to finish up.

PhelanKA7 said:

I have had that gooey looking krausen sitting on top of my beer for well over a week now. I have never had a fermentation that looked like this. The krausen generally settles out after about 4-5 days. I assume this is normal for 3522? Anyone else had similar experience with this yeast?

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Using the same yeast on a Northern Brewer Surly Cynic partial mash recipe, I've got about 1/2 inch of krausen after 16 days (!!) in the primary. What's more, NB says that the apparent attenuation for this yeast is 72-76%, but with OG of 1.053 and current SG of about 1.01, I'm looking at attenuation of about 81%. That's high enough that I'm actually doubting my gravity reading. Flocculation is also supposed to be high, which should mean more yeast settling out, not less. All of this has me a little confused. I've never seen krausen in the primary after even 1 week.

I'm going to swirl it a bit, wait a couple days and take another gravity reading, but if I'm already at the high end of apparent attenuation (or beyond) for this yeast, I doubt it's going to change.

This was our first partial mash, and our first use of an outdoor propane burner, and... I don't have high hopes. We couldn't keep the mash temp steady, and I think we scorched something during the boil, based on the sediment in our first gravity sample. Lots of learning that day. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it?

Trippel-A said:

Using the same yeast on a Northern Brewer Surly Cynic partial mash recipe, I've got about 1/2 inch of krausen after 16 days (!!) in the primary.

I'm going to swirl it a bit, wait a couple days and take another gravity reading, but if I'm already at the high end of apparent attenuation (or beyond) for this yeast, I doubt it's going to change.

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It did change. After a swirl and 5 more days, the krausen fell in and SG dropped to 1.008. Because it took so long to settle, and flocculation appeared low, I added isinglass to the secondary. I hope that was a good idea...