Is transferring advisable?

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rtbrews

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I have just never had anything like this happen before so I wanted to make a quick post. My primary fermented pretty vigorously for 5 days then the activity started to subside and it has now been a full 15 days. The activity has stopped, but the krausen is still as full (up to the airlock) as it was day 1.

I have never not had a krausen go down (only 10-15 batches though). The reason I ask is because I am going out of town for two weeks on Thursday and ideally hoped to have my IPA dry hopping during that time. Does transferring now make sense for the sake of dry hopping? or should I leave it be while the krausen is still full assuming there is still some activity going on that I do not want to stop?

Thank you
 
Sorry, I meant to mention. The yeast I used was Wyeast 3538 PC Leuven Pale Ale. The OG was 1.055
 
Take a gravity reading. If you are target FG then rack, otherwise leave it on the yeast. I've had Kolsch yeast krausen last for a month, even when the beer was done.
 
I am about .03 over my target, but pretty much every batch I have made has come out .02 or .03 above my target. I think that is an entirely different issue though...
 
Are you .03 over your target or .003? If you are at .03 over your target, the beer has a long way to go and you should leave it on the cake. If it is .003 over your target you should likely be safe to rack and dryhop.

:mug:
 
Every yeast strain behaves differently. I have a Belgian strong ale that still has about a 1/2inch of Krausen at 4 weeks, but its done fermenting. Tomorrow I'm brewing an English Bitter and will use Wyeast 1968. That will krausen for about 72 hours, fall and the yeast flocullate and the beer will be crystal clear in a week.

GT
 
Yeah that yeast may just act like that. I just used WY1338 for the first time, and apparently it's a "top cropper" meaning it leaves the yeast at the top when it's done. Who knew?
 
I've got the PC Leuven yeast going right now in a dubbel. It made an insane head in under 12 hours and the head dropped about 12 hours later (so krausen to nothing within 24 hours).

There are some floccs floating around on top of the beer right now.
 
Interested to see what happens here, and the advice you get. Ive only got dry yeast available currently (S-04, S-05 etc) but I havent heard of a krausen hanging around that long, obviously the yeasts Ive been using drop out quickly. Hope you get your info and make the right decision in time.

One thing I do know is not to let the dry hop go longer than two weeks or you will get grassy flavours. Thats all I have to offer :drunk:
 
Yeah, I think it must just be the way that yeast behaves because I am pretty close to my FG. I am going to transfer today and once I transfer, I should stir up a little yeast in the process and maybe bring it down another point or two.
 
Take a gravity reading. If you are target FG then rack, otherwise leave it on the yeast. I've had Kolsch yeast krausen last for a month, even when the beer was done.

^^^
Do this. Your gravity reading will tell you if it's done.
 
You don't have to rack to dry hop. Just throw the hops into primary and it won't matter too much whether its completely done or not
 
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