Krausen not falling back into wort..

I made a brown ale ab out 2 weeks ago.
I did a partial mash and the beer OG came out spot on to my recipes target.

I made a yeast starter 24 hours before I did my boil. I disolved 1/2 cup of light malt extract into 2 cups of boiling water, boiled it for about 10 minutes and then put it in the fridge, covered, to cool it to yeast pitching temp.
I pitched a Wyeast 1338 Smack pack into the starter and let it sit for about 24 hours. I smacked the pack and it swelled, but it did not appear to do anything in the starter wort when I grabbed it to pitch into my cooled and oxygenated wort.

I have not taken any SG readings since I don't like mucking about in my wort. I have figured out a way to visually tell when my wort is ready to be moved to a secondary which has worked with all of my beer batches successfully so far.

Anyhow, I usually wait for the krausen to fall back into the wort (3-4 days) and for the wort to darken and clarify a bit before moving to the secondary. (usually a day or 2 after the krausen has fallen back in).

Well it's been 2.5 weeks and the krausen has not fallen back in and I don't have the clarity I have expected.

HEre is a photo of the Fermenter with the Krausen



Here is a close up of the wort.



And Finally a pic of my Pauwell Kwak clone that I Was drinking when I took the pictures

Then leave it alone....if it has a krausen then it is not finished doing what it has to do.

I tend to agree with leaving it, my scottish ale took over 3 weeks to finally drop the krausen. If it had gone over four, I likely would have skimmed it off and racked it anyway. The hydrometer is the only sure way to judge - in my case the SG was down to 1.014 so I know it was done. One gravity reading before racking to secondary is a really good idea regardless.

looks like at one point in time someone needed a blow off hose

Louielizard said:

looks like at one point in time someone needed a blow off hose

Click to expand...

HA HA, I didn't even notice that until I read your post, had to do a double take.

May I suggest some OxyClean and a damp cloth.

Ha! The wonderful world of brewing.... and cleaning up afterward.

I did a porter a few months ago that sat for 3 weeks and the krausen still hadn't fallen in. I took a gravity reading and it was right on target. Few days later I checked again. When it came out exactly the same, I bottled. Haven't noticed any problems with the beer yet.

The batch that made THAT mess was a particularly rambunctious Amber Ale I made about a year ago. I HAD a blow off hose on the bucket fermenter and it STILL blew the lid clean off. Loudly, at 3am while I was trying to sleep.

I am moving soon so that will be cleaned up shortly.

SeldomSeen said:

The batch that made THAT mess was a particularly rambunctious Amber Ale I made about a year ago. I HAD a blow off hose on the bucket fermenter and it STILL blew the lid clean off. Loudly, at 3am while I was trying to sleep.

I am moving soon so that will be cleaned up shortly.

Click to expand...

A year ago? The SWMBO would probably be accepting of the blowing up in the middle of the night (well, at least after a day or two).. however, if I didn't clean that up within 24hrs I would not hear the end of it.

Wouldn't ants and other creepy crawlies be drawn to beer in the wall?? Particularly if it was still have sweet.

Bill

KillerKellers said:

A year ago? The SWMBO would probably be accepting of the blowing up in the middle of the night (well, at least after a day or two).. however, if I didn't clean that up within 24hrs I would not hear the end of it.

Click to expand...

I know that feeling!

About 8 years ago when SWMBO was in med school I was extract brewing at that time. I had a boilover and said screw it, finish up, I'll clean it in the morning. She got home from work a 4am and banged 2 pans together in the bedroom to wake me up and go clean HER kitchen.

So that day I learned a valuable lesson. No matter how tired you are, if you don't clean up....then risk death.

OK, so the Krausen FINALLY fell back into the wort and I moved the beer to a secondary.

I had strained the wort when I went frmo the brew pot to my primary, so there wasn't alot of trub for the beer to sit on when I transferred it.

But I have a pretty bad diacetyl flavor in the beer. Tastes like bandaids and oak....

The beer LOOKS really nice though.
Could I have had a bad yeast strain?

Diacetyl, bandaids, and oak?

Well, diacetyl is usually from not allowing the beer to sit long enough on the yeast to clean it up, so that's a strange one from this batch, since it sat for a long time. That yeast strain isn't well known for producing diacetyl, so that's kind of a mystery to me. Is it terribly buttery, or just a little oily?

Bandaid flavors tend to come from either chlorine in the brew water, bleach used as a sanitizer, and/or high temperature fermentation. If the temperature of the beer exceeded 72 degrees, that could be a cause.

Oak? That tends to be tannin related. If you used steeping grains at a high temperature, or did a mash that was really thin so that the ph was kind of high, that could be one cause.

The good news is that both "oak" and diacetyl clean up very well with a bit of age. Bandaid, though, not so much. Once the flavors meld together, you may have a totally different beer than you do now, so time may really help this beer.

YooperBrew said:

Diacetyl, bandaids, and oak?
Bandaid flavors tend to come from either chlorine in the brew water, bleach used as a sanitizer, and/or high temperature fermentation. If the temperature of the beer exceeded 72 degrees, that could be a cause.

Oak? That tends to be tannin related. If you used steeping grains at a high temperature, or did a mash that was really thin so that the ph was kind of high, that could be one cause.

The good news is that both "oak" and diacetyl clean up very well with a bit of age. Bandaid, though, not so much. Once the flavors meld together, you may have a totally different beer than you do now, so time may really help this beer.

Click to expand...

It hought Diacetyl was the bandaid flavor.

But yes, it has a plasticy, bandaidy flavor to it. I do ahve chlorinated water, but I prep my brew water the day before by boiling the water for 10 minutes then letting it cool down to room temp. I do this to drive off the chlorine and flouride they put into the culinary water supply.

The temp in the brew closet rarely exceeds 72 degrees. Usually it's cooler than that but during the day when I am not there it may exceed that. I suppose my next batch I should wrap a wet t-shirt around the fermentor.

Oak, I think I know where that came from. I made an IPA that I put too much oak chips into in the secondary fermentor. I guess the tannic acid soaked into the plastic, because after cleaning out the fermentor after this batch (and the batch before) I still have the smell of the oak.

I am hoping these off flavors age out.