Carbonating/Conditioning with Krausening Wort

ok, so i have heard great things about making a small yeast starter/krausen beer, and picthing it into your bottling bucket to get the best possible natural carbonation.

my problem is, i am basically a moron when it comes to formulas and equasions, so when i looked at their formula for figuring out how much to add and how far into fermentation the krausening beer needs to be before adding it, my brain hurt.

can anyone explain to me an easier way to figure this out
(how much wort, how much yeast, SG, FG, how long do i let it ferment before mixing it with the wort in bottling bucket, etc.)

Just pitch it on the cake- In other words, save yeast cake from last brew and ferment with that (for the most part). A lot of brewers do it, because you have active viable yeast at start of your ferment, and they have good results. If you do a search, I'm sure you'll find some good info.

I still brew 'kits', minus some additives/modifications, so I just pitch new dry yeast... There are some good books out there as far as making starters as well- Hope someone else with more experience chimes in!

i very much appreciate your answer, however i believe that either i am misunderstanding what you have said, or you have misunderstood my question.

i know how to do a yeast starter to ferment my beer.

but i mean in regards to using a new "mini-batch" of krausening wort to mix with my finished beer in the bottling bucket for carbonation purposes.

again, i do appreciate your attempt though, thank you sir.

There is no easier way than using a formula, unless someone has made a calculator for it.

Basically you have to know the OG of your wort, and reserve enough of a volume of it to provide the same amount of fermentables that your priming sugar would. It requires precise hydro and volume measurements, and very good sanitation for the reserved krausen. I think JOHB has a chapter or subchapter on it.

MoRoToRiUm said:

Hope someone else with more experience chimes in!

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I did miss interpret your post, but the beer gods have spoken. Happy brewing!

fratermus said:

There is no easier way than using a formula, unless someone has made a calculator for it.

Basically you have to know the OG of your wort, and reserve enough of a volume of it to provide the same amount of fermentables that your priming sugar would. It requires precise hydro and volume measurements, and very good sanitation for the reserved krausen. I think JOHB has a chapter or subchapter on it.

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link saved....
thank you!

MoRoToRiUm said:

I did miss interpret your post, but the beer gods have spoken. Happy brewing!

Click to expand...

no big deal.
thanks buddy

Lots of info here and here and definitely reliable.

menschmaschine said:

Lots of info here and here and definitely reliable.

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thank you sir

OK, rather than start a new thread thought I'd latch onto this one...

I want to Krausen a Wheat beer I've got going. It's been fermenting for a few weeks now and should be near FG at this point.

Next, I'd like to add some yeast to the batch (a different yeast strain - sort of an experiment I'm trying) and bottle.

My OG was 1.052. I didn't keep any of the original wort as this idea just occurred to me.

SO... couldn't I just make a starter with DME like I typically do, add my yeast to that (a vial of White Labs) and pitch it in?

Or just pitch the vial of WL yeast in w/o a starter? I checked the calculator above, and based on my inputs it says I'll need 1.1 qt of krausen to pitch. But I'm not sure what the ratio of yeast to wort would be in that formula since I'm not using my original wort...

Any ideas??

fastricky said:

SO... couldn't I just make a starter with DME like I typically do, add my yeast to that (a vial of White Labs) and pitch it in?

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I would want to wait until the krausen beer was just starting to actively ferment, but you could do that too. I would use a larger-than-normal pitch, but not a whole tube in a quart....

If I used the whole vial with my usual stater (750ml) would that be too much to use at bottling time (for 5.5 gallons)?

I just thought I'd mention that you can also prime with unfermented wort (i.e. don't add yeast to it). You just figure the amount you need, pull it from the kettle at the end of the boil, keep it in a jar in the fridge, and at priming time, boil for 10 min, then cool and add to bottling bucket. Works very well (just make sure if you are doing partial boils, you use the gravity of the boiled wort, not the OG of the 5 gallons of beer with water added).

I just krausened my Chimay Blue clone.

Once I transfered wort from my kettle to the fermentor, I dumped the hot break in a sanitized 2L beaker and covered it. Into the fridge it went for a day or so.

All the particulate settled to the bottom, and the usable wort rose to the top. I dumped the wort into a plastic water bottle and froze it. (two bottles actually, one 500ml and one 600)

Once I did the calculation (okay, I did it with an online calculator,) I realize I needed 575ml of wort to krausen. I pulled out the 600ml bottle and boiled it for 10 minutes in a flask, then let it cool for a few minutes and dumped it into a sanitized keg. I racked the beer from the fermentor on top of the new wort and capped the keg.

We'll see how it turns out in a month or so.

B

A subtle distinction perhaps, but IMHO kraeusening is priming with fermenting beer (not gyle/speise/wort).

944play said:

A subtle distinction perhaps, but IMHO kraeusening is priming with fermenting beer (not gyle/speise/wort).

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Many people use the terms interchangeably, but yes, true kraeusening is done with actively fermenting beer.

bad coffee said:

I just krausened my Chimay Blue clone.

Once I transfered wort from my kettle to the fermentor, I dumped the hot break in a sanitized 2L beaker and covered it. Into the fridge it went for a day or so.

All the particulate settled to the bottom, and the usable wort rose to the top. I dumped the wort into a plastic water bottle and froze it. (two bottles actually, one 500ml and one 600)

Once I did the calculation (okay, I did it with an online calculator,) I realize I needed 575ml of wort to krausen. I pulled out the 600ml bottle and boiled it for 10 minutes in a flask, then let it cool for a few minutes and dumped it into a sanitized keg. I racked the beer from the fermentor on top of the new wort and capped the keg.

We'll see how it turns out in a month or so.

B

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How did this turn out? Seems like a pretty good use of all of the hot break muck (but mostly wort) left over after the boil. Did it give good results or is it better to accurately hit your desired volumes of CO2 using corn sugar?

fratermus said:

There is no easier way than using a formula, unless someone has made a calculator for it.

Basically you have to know the OG of your wort, and reserve enough of a volume of it to provide the same amount of fermentables that your priming sugar would. It requires precise hydro and volume measurements, and very good sanitation for the reserved krausen. I think JOHB has a chapter or subchapter on it.

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The link is no longer working. Anyone happen to have the calculator around? Or another working link? Thanks!

if i were to need 1 quart of krausen, how much yeast is used to make it? wouldn't too much yeast thin out the beer that the krausen is pitched into?

boodyrischous said:

Many people use the terms interchangeably, but yes, true kraeusening is done with actively fermenting beer.

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Where's the dividing line where it turns from wort into beer?

Hello everybody,
since links are not always working, I post the simple formula I usually use and that works fine for me:

KrausenLiters = (CO2diff * FermentedBeer * 1,8) / (OG - FG)
where:
- KrausenLiters is the volume of the batch composing the krausen expressed in liters (its density has to be the same of the batch OG)
- CO2diff is the difference from the CO2 that you want to have and the CO2 dissolved in your fermented beer
- FermentedBeer is the fermented worth expressed in liters
- OG and FG are the batch OG and FG.

I usually make around 30 liters (about 6.50 gallons) and I take apart 2 liters (a bit less than 0.50 gallon) and store them in sanitized plastic bottles in the freezer. The day before bottling I put them in the fridge. When it's time to bottle, I see how much fermented worth I'm going to bottle (so FermentedBeer), add the correct amout of Krausen (usually from 1.5 to 2 liters) and let the last yeast in the bottle do the carbonation.

I never had problems with this process and I would add an already fermenting Krausen only if I wanted to carbonate with a different yeast. But in this case I don't know pitching rates.

Hope it helps, cheers from Italy
Marcello

Just found this thread after hearing "Fully Krausened" for the first time. I was stumped. Its a really interesting process that I have never heard of! Here is an active link:

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/krausening.html

Wondering if any homebrewers actually do this for bottle conditioning?