Holy Krausen!!

Wow!! My German hefe is well underway and I'm very surprised at how "tall" and thick teh krausen was!! Very white (I strained much of the hop particulates before pitching, I wonder if that has anything to do with anything)

In my four batches, I've never seen the krausen creep up that high in the fermentor. Is it just the WL hefe yeast?? Or does it have something to do with a higher percentage of fermentables\sugars being present from a "better boil"??

The only thing I did differently was to steep a little longer than I have before (approx 45min) and I maintained a solid pre-boil temp of 155-160° coming from a "cold start" with the specialty grains...I'm impressed!

If it's getting close to the top, you might want to think about a blowoff hose.



Dan

yeah, I'm over the hump now. Last night was the "apex" of it. The only way I figure I can say this is because this afternoon the krausen properties have become, well, less complex? The "tightness" of the pattern is going away. The "bubbles" or larger and have a glossier look on the top. No noticable "fall" in it just like the CO2 push is relaxed. I worried about blow off though and kept a close eye on it. The tube was situated right next to just in case...

I brewed a hefe with WL300 a couple of months ago and had to attach a blowoff for the first time. My OG was a whopping 1.067 though, so I had expected it, what was your OG?

Yeah my hefe had a lot of krausen as well. I think it's normal for the style (or at least for those yeasties).

much lower than that as I did a late extract add and I think that affected it, it was 1.044 (at about 65°) but I used Beer Smith to check my home brew shop's brewmaster's recipe and look at the style profile and the gravity was within the style's range....soooo.....not quite sure what to think or if I even need to....about it.

Yeah that's about right for the style, I only got such a high OG because I was messing around a bit to see what would happen with it, not really sure how it turned out yet, it is still a bit green. It sounds like the big krausen is just what the hefe yeast likes to do.

I have heard of tons of people that have had to use a blowoff for their hefes. I had the airlock get clogged with krausen and the lid blow off completely. It is just what the style does I goes, I used White Labs American Hefe yeast.

ilikestuff said:

I have heard of tons of people that have had to use a blowoff for their hefes. I had the airlock get clogged with krausen and the lid blow off completely. It is just what the style does I goes, I used White Labs American Hefe yeast.

Click to expand...

I was worried about that and had a tube at the ready, it never came to it...I'm using a Beer Machine to ferment in and when I upgrade to buckets or carboys I'm going to take the "nod" from the design of that little "keg" and add a pressure gauge and even though the quick and practical fix is to use a blow off tube, I'm going to look into what they have on the Beer Machine by way of a "de-foaming" cup or device....looks to me like a simple cup like apperatice that "encases" the area around the airlock and employs a "de-foaming" disk (allegedly coated with some "chemical" that retards krausen) It might be easy, it might be a waste of time.....just interesting though....it works.

$5.00 at Lowes.