Smallest Krausen ever?

I'm not worried, just interested. this is the thinnest krausen I've ever seen. ever.

I pitched the slurry off a 1-liter starter of wlp001 into a 1.055 porter. fermenting at 66-68F. this is after 2 days, airlock is very active.

My RedRye Amber started off like that for the first two days, 5.5 gals in a 6gal carboy. I almost switched out the blowoff tube for an airlock, but decided to leave it for another day to be safe. Good call on my part. I came home from work the third day and the krausen had risen all the way up the carboy and I had about 1 cup of blowoff. Pretty glad I hadn't switched to an airlock at that point.

Do you use Ferm-Cap in your boil?

no fermcap. we'll see what happens.

Almost all of my krausen(s?) look like that whether or not I use fermcap, I wouldn't worry about it.

I just did a Smoked porter and a Jalapeno Cream ale using 001. The cream ale had a huge massive krausen and the porter had one like yours. I am not sure why as all the other times using 001 it has been a large krausen.

hm, porters + 001 = small krausen?

what'd you do for your smoked porter, if you don't mind my asking. i'm considering dumping a RIS or a big smoked porter on top of this yeast cake.

altho, i'd really like to get to brewing my maibock....

krausen never got bigger. airlock activity seemed normal. was blasting away at day 2.

krausen fell yesterday (day 4). I'm gonna take a grav reading tonight (day 5) and see wtf is going on. temps have been 65-68, this is wlp001.

I have a porter with Notty going, and it never krausened more than 1.5"... maybe it's just a chocolate malt thing.

I've noticed that when I use whirlfloc I get a very small krausen for a day or so, but after that it goes back to normal. Though some yeast strains don't make huge krausens (like Ringwood).

Also, I bet the temperature the beer is fermenting at will have an effect too.

motobrewer said:

hm, porters + 001 = small krausen?

what'd you do for your smoked porter, if you don't mind my asking. i'm considering dumping a RIS or a big smoked porter on top of this yeast cake.

altho, i'd really like to get to brewing my maibock....

Click to expand...

Sure here it is:

Campfire Porter (Smoked)
12-B Robust Porter
Author: TL/JZ

Size: 6.3 gal
Efficiency: 80.0%
Attenuation: 77.0%
Calories: 199.78 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.060 (1.048 - 1.065)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.012 - 1.016)
Color: 28.44 (22.0 - 35.0)
Alcohol: 6.08% (4.8% - 6.5%)
Bitterness: 35.3 (25.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
7.5 lb Maris Otter Pale
2.0 lb Briess Cherry Smoke malt
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 80°L
.5 lb American Black Patent
1.0 lb Munich
.75 lb Chocolate Malt
22.0 g First Gold (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
21.0 g Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
21.0 g Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min
14.0 g First Gold (7.5%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
14.0 g Willamette (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 1.0 min
1500 mL White Labs WLP001 California Ale




Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.5

looks interesting!

took a grav reading today, 1.010. hopefully it won't go much lower.

tasted really good, so i guess small krausens can still make good beer

alright, what is going on?

krausen re-formend (still only 1/4") and dropped another point to 1.009. why so low? i mashed at 154F for 75min.

7.5 lb 2-row
3.5 lb munich
0.5 lb chocolate
0.5 lb black patent
0.5 lb c60L

can I add maltodextrine when i rack to keg?

Motobrewer,

Thanks for posting that picture. I've just brewed my first all grain Porter and the krausen looks exactly like yours after about 45 hours.

Did you brew end up ok?

yeah, it's kegged now, last hydro sample was good.

i'll leave it in the keg at 60F for a week or two, then chill and carb for another week or two

RDW!

btw, i realized my hydrometer is off by 4 points, so it finished at 8, which would be 1.012. good stuff!