Scraping Krausen from primary

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dontman

dontman

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It seems to be the consensus among authors - Papazian and Palmer spring to mind, the since the krausens that form on top of in primary fermenters contain sufficient quantities of bittering elements and hangover inducing fusels that it might be worth an experiment to see if there is a noticable diff between remoiving some of this krausen or just lettling it fall back in.

For me the biggest concern is as it should be - sanitation- but I could probably do this without infection with little to worry about. I would do it by brewing for a 5.5 g batch and packing that into a 5 g carboy. Then the blow of would contain all of the krausen. I could replace the lost wort after 3-4 days with that extra .5g that was left over from the boil. What do you think? Worth a try? I don't like fusel headaches
 
seems like a lot of trouble. You're better off using a bucket and skimming the krauesen off. I never have problems with krauesen falling back in and causing off flavors. Using a secondary works for me.

I think maybe this is more of a problem for big breweries where they have huge amounts of krauesen whereas homebrewers, not so much.
 
Papazian's info is waay outdated...the basic info is fine, but he advocates a LOT of things that have been proven wrong in the last 30 years of the book... I mean he still talks about bleach and rinsing, even though MANY no rinse sanitizers on the market now...

Meaning that most of us take some of Papazian's info with a grain of salt, and krausen removing is one of them....

When the krauzen falls back down through the beer it acts like a filter, scrubber and actually draws a lot of the volatile byproducts of fermentation down with it...It's part of the process of the yeast "cleaning up after themselves."

You will find very few advocates outside of papazian that still talk about...Palmer. who is way more recent, and if you listen to his interviews updates his knowlege base quite frequently has this to say...He's NOT in the same camp as Papazian in regards to this.

How to Brew.

Fortunately these compounds are relatively insoluble and are typically removed by adhering to the sides of the fermentor as the krausen subsides. Harsh aftertastes are rarely, if ever, a problem....
.

Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring.

...Towards the end of secondary fermentation, the suspended yeast flocculates (settles out) and the beer clears. High molecular weight proteins also settle out during this stage. Tannin/phenol compounds will bind with the proteins and also settle out, greatly smoothing the taste of the beer. This process can be helped by chilling the beer, very similar to the lagering process. In the case of ales, this process is referred to as Cold Conditioning, and is a popular practice at most brewpubs and microbreweries. Cold conditioning for a week clears the beer with or without the use of finings. Fining agents, such as isinglass (fish bladders), Polyclar (plastic dust), and gelatin, are added to the fermentor to help speed the flocculation process and promote the settling of haze forming proteins and tannins. While much of the emphasis on using finings is to combat aesthetic chill haze, the real benefit of dropping those compounds is to improve the taste and stability of the beer.
Click to expand...

Nothing about removing the krauzen, just letting it fall naturally...or even better, cold crashing if you can manage it....but few of us fear the Braun Hefe....

We talked about it here awhile back...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/5gallon-primary-hate-75511/
 
Ok, I'm convinced. No krausen skimmimng. Didn't really think it would necessary.

Next question. I do not have a cold conditioning fridge. What I do have is a big laundry sink that is big enough to accommodate about 3/4 of the height of a carboy. I could easily put the carboy in the sink and pack in ice water. Probably 2/3 of the beer would be under the level of the cold water. Is this good for cold crash?
 
dontman said:
Ok, I'm convinced. No krausen skimmimng. Didn't really think it would necessary.

Next question. I do not have a cold conditioning fridge. What I do have is a big laundry sink that is big enough to accommodate about 3/4 of the height of a carboy. I could easily put the carboy in the sink and pack in ice water. Probably 2/3 of the beer would be under the level of the cold water. Is this good for cold crash?
Click to expand...

You'd have to be adding ice for 2-3 days to get the effect you want....

I've never bothered with crash cooling (I don't have a fridge) and by leaving my beers in primary for a month they are crystal clear enough as it is....
 
Revvy said:
You'd have to be adding ice for 2-3 days to get the effect you want....

I've never bothered with crash cooling (I don't have a fridge) and by leaving my beers in primary for a month they are crystal clear enough as it is....
Click to expand...

I never have either but I've been thinking about trying it out for the reasons mentioned in the paragraph you quoted.
 
What's the temp in philly getting down to these days????

If you have a garage or enclosed porch...this time of year may be good for "natural crash cooling" if you get my drift.... as long as it's not going down to hard freeze temps yet, you could leave a fermenter someplace like that for a couple of days.

In a few weeks you won't be able to unless you wanna accidently make Ice beer....
 

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