intentional blowoff

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yeasty

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why cant i put my wort in a smaller primary knowing full well i will blow off ALL the crud ? whats to lose if i take precautions ??
 
You can do it, say bye bye to some of your yeasties too. Why would you strive for a blowoff?
 
reading palmer he mentions some nasty stuff in the krausen. figured why all the sweat on containing it. just let it blow ? :drunk:
 
Im fermenting in a cornie with a blowoff on the in post. It is way full and appears most of the krausen is going out the blowoff. It is having a violent ferment so I am not worried about losing some yeast. It was my plan to have the krausen go out the blowoff and seems to be working.
 
look guys bust my nuts all you want i am just reading this **** right out of the palmer book everyone says i should read. so now i dont listen to what he says and listen to you guys ? everything is left to interpretation. ask the lawyers about that one. i was just wondering if blowing all that junk off the top wasnt all that bad for a brew.
 
llazy_llama said:
You didn't know that Pol? Krausen is a surefire sign of infection. Better get to dumping those batches before they get worse! :D
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Dont you mean send it to you?

The dark stuff that clings to the side of my fermentor never makes it into my beer anyhow, it just like sticks to the fermentor. If you taste it, it is REALLY bitter and gross. I dont suggest scraping it into your brew by any means.
 
The Pol said:
Dont you mean send it to you?

The dark stuff that clings to the side of my fermentor never makes it into my beer anyhow, it just like sticks to the fermentor. If you taste it, it is REALLY bitter and gross. I dont suggest scraping it into your brew by any means.
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It's awesome on toast though, and biscuits.
 
yeasty said:
look guys bust my nuts all you want i am just reading this **** right out of the palmer book everyone says i should read. so now i dont listen to what he says and listen to you guys ? everything is left to interpretation. ask the lawyers about that one. i was just wondering if blowing all that junk off the top wasnt all that bad for a brew.
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Don't sweat the small stuff, man. If you want to blow it off, be my guest. I never have, nor have most of the people here. If you want to, go for it. If not, RDWHAHB. :mug:
 
look guys bust my nuts all you want i am just reading this **** right out of the palmer book everyone says i should read. so now i dont listen to what he says and listen to you guys ? everything is left to interpretation. ask the lawyers about that one. i was just wondering if blowing all that junk off the top wasnt all that bad for a brew
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yeasty,

Since no one is being particularly helpful, I'll put your mind to ease. Yes, there are foul tasting compounds in krausen- resins, proteins and other assorted crud. Papazian, IIRC, used to advocate allowing this to blowoff, but has since revised his stance. The truly foul tasting stuff winds up high and dry on the fermenter walls and that's where it should stay. You will lose yeast and ,ostensibly, some flavor compounds in the krausen that is blowing off, so it's not a good idea to encourage blowoffs in my mind.

Jason
 
Id be much more helpful if I knew what the heck he was talking about. I have read several books and never seen anything of the sort. That is why I asked...

I am particularly ignorant of past brewing practices since I am really a noob... so I am of no particular help thusly.:mug:
 
flyangler18 said:
yeasty,

Since no one is being particularly helpful, I'll put your mind to ease. Yes, there are foul tasting compounds in krausen- resins, proteins and other assorted crud. Papazian, IIRC, used to advocate allowing this to blowoff, but has since revised his stance. The truly foul tasting stuff winds up high and dry on the fermenter walls and that's where it should stay. You will lose yeast and ,ostensibly, some flavor compounds in the krausen that is blowing off, so it's not a good idea to encourage blowoffs in my mind.

Jason
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In fact, people used to scoop out the krausen. That's considered outdated since it does turn out that the gross stuff sticks to the sides, just don't slosh around the fermentor and mix it back in.

Palmer's words:

A head of foamy krausen will form on top of the beer. The foam consists of yeast and wort proteins and is a light creamy color, with islands of green-brown gunk that collect and tend to adhere to the sides of the fermentor. The gunk is composed of extraneous wort protein, hop resins, and dead yeast. These compounds are very bitter and if stirred back into the wort, would result in harsh aftertastes. Fortunately these compounds are relatively insoluble and are typically removed by adhering to the sides of the fermentor as the krausen subsides.
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It's a good question, but it turns out that you really don't need to worry about it.
 
One of the biggest reasons NOT to encourage a blow-off is that the krausen contains a lot of the proteins and compounds that aid in head retention. The worst head retention I have ever had in my beers were from wheat beers or beers with lots of rye that blew-off like crazy. Since I switched to foam control drops (and eliminated big blow-offs), these beer now have the BEST head retention of my brews.
 
FlyGuy said:
One of the biggest reasons NOT to encourage a blow-off is that the krausen contains a lot of the proteins and compounds that aid in head retention. The worst head retention I have ever had in my beers were from wheat beers or beers with lots of rye that blew-off like crazy. Since I switched to foam control drops (and eliminated big blow-offs), these beer now have the BEST head retention of my brews.
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Learning something new every day.

Thanks
 
Revy replied to a post a few days ago about brewers used to scoop off the krausen. Times change and now everyone lets it settle in. This is my first batch with the krausen blowing off so if I have head retention probems I will let you guys know. You can then give me head retention tips.:D
 
Funny thing this should come up. I was listening to Craft Brewer Radio. I believe it was the latest podcast from Feb. They mention skimming the krausen because "it tastes like ****". I always thought that more recently, homebrewrs...sorry craft brewers decided there was no real need to skim, like a lot of you are saying. Could there be any merit to this?

I don't like the idea of blowing off. You don't really have control. If you fermented in buckets, this would be more plausible.
 
Another choice Palmer quote:

The brown scum that forms during fermentation and clings to the side of the fermentor is intensely bitter and if it is stirred back into the beer it will cause very astringent tastes. The scum should be removed from the beer, either by letting it cling undisturbed to the sides of an oversize fermentor, or by skimming it off the krausen, or blowing off the krausen itself from a 5 gallon carboy. I have never had any problems by simply letting it cling to the sides of the fermentor.
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But blowoff and skimming are both possibilities, too.
 
polecreek said:
Revy replied to a post a few days ago about brewers used to scoop off the krausen. Times change and now everyone lets it settle in. This is my first batch with the krausen blowing off so if I have head retention probems I will let you guys know. You can then give me head retention tips.:D
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Buy it jewelry as the head starts to go away. That'll keep the head for a little while longer. But face it, at some point that head's just gonna be a memory.
 
against better advice i just put a porter in a 5gal carboy with a 3/4inch ID blowoff tube going into a 1gal pickle jar of starsan/water. all of this is sitting in a large plastic basin. wish me luck :D:mug:
 
yeasty said:
against better advice i just put a porter in a 5gal carboy with a 3/4inch ID blowoff tube going into a 1gal pickle jar of starsan/water. all of this is sitting in a large plastic basin. wish me luck :D:mug:
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That's pretty common -- not to worry. It is only those explosive beers where you lose quarts of beer and krausen that you have to worry about. Otherwise, blow-off tubes are a very good thing to use.

Hopefully there is some headspace in that carboy, though.
 
Interestingly, brewers of old used to employ a skimmer boy, whom lived with the fermenting brews, and whos sole purpose was to skim the krausen off the top of the vats. I believe this was on barleywines mostly, and was probably only done to keep from making a horrible mess all over the cave floor. . . . or maybe not, . . . . I don't know . . . . I'm just making stuff up :)
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/im...ootwindows.wmv

Sierra Nevada doesn't seem to have any issue in letting the kraeusen flow.
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Awesome video. Question about commercial BW's. Are they aged upon release or should one age when purcahsing?

COLObrewer said:
Interestingly, brewers of old used to employ a skimmer boy, whom lived with the fermenting brews, and whos sole purpose was to skim the krausen off the top of the vats. I believe this was on barleywines mostly, and was probably only done to keep from making a horrible mess all over the cave floor. . . . or maybe not, . . . . I don't know . . . . I'm just making stuff up :)
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I read that too!
 

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