Thick krauesen at 3 weeks...?

So I brewed a blonde ale from extract out of Jamil's book and I was about to rack it into a keg at 3 weeks when I noticed it still had about an inch to two inches of krauesen on top. I used one pack of US-05 dry yeast and it was at about 62 degrees for 2 weeks and then I brought it up to 68 - 70 when I saw that it still had krauesen. Some of it dropped when I gave it a swirl and there has been no bubbling but this krauesen just won't drop.

What gives?

hollowdp said:

So I brewed a blonde ale from extract out of Jamil's book and I was about to rack it into a keg at 3 weeks when I noticed it still had about an inch to two inches of krauesen on top. I used one pack of US-05 dry yeast and it was at about 62 degrees for 2 weeks and then I brought it up to 68 - 70 when I saw that it still had krauesen. Some of it dropped when I gave it a swirl and there has been no bubbling but this krauesen just won't drop.

What gives?

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Maybe its on Viagra.

Have you taken any grav readings? If fermentation's done then I'd carefully rack it out of there...I'd hold the autospihon straight up and away from the walls of the fermenter where the Krausen is. I'd try to do it slowly at first to pull the beer away from the krauzen if it's still touching it.

Revvy said:

Have you taken any grav readings? If fermentation's done then I'd carefully rack it out of there...I'd hold the autospihon straight up and away from the walls of the fermenter where the Krausen is. I'd try to do it slowly at first to pull the beer away from the krauzen if it's still touching it.

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I'll take one tonight when I get home. Unfortunately in my haste I forgot to get an OG reading but it was extract so I should be able to assume what it was.

If I read your original post correctly, It's 3 weeks old, right. I'm sure it's gotta be done fermenting. Is the Krausen all across the surface of the beer or is it just in a ring around the fermener? I'm just thinking if it's all the way across, you've got to be carefull to break through to stick your siphon into.

what's the recipe?
Mine had a thin layer of krausen as well but it was mainly due to the malto-dextrin.

It' all the way across. The grain bill was 8 lbs of light LME that I added at 30 min but I ended up using alexander's pale malt and .5lb of crystal 15 that was steeped and and then boiled with the rest of the water for the full 60 min.

just take a gravity reading..than another in a day or 2..if the same its done..

Jay

Revvy said:

If I read your original post correctly, It's 3 weeks old, right. I'm sure it's gotta be done fermenting. Is the Krausen all across the surface of the beer or is it just in a ring around the fermener? I'm just thinking if it's all the way across, you've got to be carefull to break through to stick your siphon into.

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how careful? just kinda curious about this.

i was reading this thread yesterday and didn't think to much of it until i got home last night and checked on my wheat beer. its been in the primary for almost 2 weeks and with my other beers i was used to it falling back into the beer and to the bottom of the bucket. well go figure, it still has a pretty good of krausen on top and it has hit its FG, and i want to rack it out either tonight or tomorrow.

riored4v said:

how careful? just kinda curious about this.

i was reading this thread yesterday and didn't think to much of it until i got home last night and checked on my wheat beer. its been in the primary for almost 2 weeks and with my other beers i was used to it falling back into the beer and to the bottom of the bucket. well go figure, it still has a pretty good of krausen on top and it has hit its FG, and i want to rack it out either tonight or tomorrow.

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Well since the Krausen has bitter flavors in it you don't want it to mix with the beer....So you want to carefully lower your siphon through it into the beer and draw it away from it.

Revvy said:

Well since the Krausen has bitter flavors in it you don't want it to mix with the beer....So you want to carefully lower your siphon through it into the beer and draw it away from it.

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i'm assuming that with the krausen not subsiding, that doing it this way will lose a bit more wort than it would normally correct?

riored4v said:

i'm assuming that with the krausen not subsiding, that doing it this way will lose a bit more wort than it would normally correct?

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I don't know...actually I think you may have more than if it fell to the bottom. Usually if you have a thick trub with a lot of beer left in it you end up with less...I think it's really probably an infantismal difference.

makes sense. i was thinking less only because of trying to make sure to leave a layer of wort to make sure krausen doesn't start getting sucked up.

thanks again for the help.

Well I took a reading and it was at 1.011 right in the target zone so I racked it over to the keg. I've never made a blonde but it had a bit of a skunky funk to it although it was very subtle. I'll cool it down, carb it up and see how it is.

Hate to resurrect this this thread, but I figuured it was better than starting a new one.
I have a kolsch going that is coming up on 3 weeks this Thursday. It fermented for 2 weeks at 62, at 2 weeks I went to take an SG reading, then I noticed that the krausen hadn't fallen, so I took and SG reading and was about a point off of anticipated FG. Ferment seemend done, so I moved it to a warmer spot hoping the temp adjustment would help the Krausen to fall, after 4 days, no luck yet. I want to rack this to a secondary for clearing for about a week then crash cool for three days prior to bottling. I read in this thread about "carefully" inserting the autosiphon throught the krausen, which is probably the way to go, however I was thinking about sanitizing a stainless steel serving spoon and "scooping" the krausen off the top before racking. I sounds like a small scale version of the krausen mucking performed in german style open fermentation, but was wondering what the collective wisdom of HBT had to offer.

Bump.

So if the krausen does not fall, then jusc to a careful rack? I am kinda early on this, I just started in my primary last Tuesday. I just didn't want to start a new thread with a noob question.

Tim

MX1 said:

Bump.

So if the krausen does not fall, then jusc to a careful rack? I am kinda early on this, I just started in my primary last Tuesday. I just didn't want to start a new thread with a noob question.

Tim

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I just shock i up a bit so it fell and racked away. The beer was great by the way.