thick krausen 6 days in

i was racking my beer into a secondary tonight and there was some really thick krausen type stuff on top still, it wasnt just foam it was real thick could this be anything not normal im pretty new to this.

It probably wasn't ready yet. Next time leave it at least a full week, if not two before doing anything. If you do see krausen, leave it alone until it settles.

so will my beer be alright?, the air lock activity slowed down to around 1 bubble every 15 seconds. the instructions i got from my LHBS told me to rack to secondary at that time. thanks. im obviously a newb

A thick krausen 6 days into fermentation isn't exactly normal, but then again, it certainly isn't rare.
The problem with instuctions from the LHBS is that the nobody told the yeast how to behave.
Your beer will probably be fine. Next time, don't rack to the secondary until the krausen has fallen and the gravity has remained stable for at least 2 days. This is much more reliable than following a timetable.

Don't believe me. Ask your LHBS.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a brew that has a thick krausen after 8 days, and is bubbling about once every 15 seconds. The only worrying thing about it is that I may not have a free carboy available for my next brew.

-a.

i hope my cream ale is going to be alright. that was the same problem i had i needed to make room for the nut brown i brewed today. oh well i guess its just another lesson learned i still have some airlock activity in the secondary so hopefully that means it will be alright. thanks for the responses

Time to buy another fermenter. Have two going at the same time.

eastcoast4130 said:

i was racking my beer into a secondary tonight and there was some really thick krausen type stuff on top still, it wasnt just foam it was real thick could this be anything not normal im pretty new to this.

Click to expand...

Hydrometer Readings my young Grasshopper.:fro:

Sound similar to what happened to me. May not be the same.

The stuff was about 2" thick, when I took samples it clumped up on my turkey fryer, and the chunks would be the consistency of caulk.

Same deal it bubbled once every 15 to 30 seconds. For about 6 weeks.

I was afraid it was ruined.

Then one day I woke up one morning and noticed that it started to drop, and a few hours later I had nothing on top but a few bubbles.

I started my brew on 12-28. My beer was conditioned in the bottle for 3 weeks and I just had the first few over the last several days and it was some of the best beer I have ever made to date.

So all I can tell you is relax, wait it out. Will it be good, I don't know but I took the stance that my process was good, and doing anything to it now may cause more harm then good. Glad I did.

Wait it out, take readings, and let the beer tell you when it is done not the calender.

yea i was just freaking out like all the other newbs post i have now read over(search option? whats that?) im pretty sure that my beer will be alright from the looks of everything now it seeems to be going good. i think there is enough residual yeast to continue fermenting, i have what looks like a slight layer of new krausen forming but it may just be gas escaping from racking to secondary. thanks again for all the replies

is it that real sticky bubly alien spawning ground type krausen? it's fine... sometimes it really gunks up and clings to teh walls of the fermenter, and you have to break the surface tension in order to get it to fall.

what kind of yeast was it?

next time just give it a shake, and get that yeast back in soulution, it will ferment if there's any sugar left and then drop out.

yea it was def what you speak of the strain was white labs east coast ale. that stuff was seriously like a almost solid yeast cake on the top layer it had a slight nasty smell to it but the beer smells fine i was def. very careful about being clean with everything but of course being new to this anything different always seems to be something bad. im glad to hear someone speak of something they have seen that sounds to be spot on with what i had. thanks everyone so much for the responses if it werent for the forums i dont know where i would be if anything like this happens again i will be sure to get a picture up for you guys.