What do I do if krausen does not fall?

I have a Belgian White in primary right now,its been 11 days and I just opened the lip to toss in some orange zest and noticed that there is still about a 1/2 inch layer our nasty, smelly krausen on top. I can see along the sides of the bucket that the krausen was about 3 inches higher and has dropped since. I put the orange zest on top of the krausen, in hopes that it will eventually fall in with the krausen.

I was doing some reading on here about krausen and had a question.How long will it take for the krausen to fall completly? Lets say the rest of the krausen does not fall.. what do I do when it comes to bottling? Should I rack under the krausen of scrape it off the top? Also, if the krausen does not fall, the zest wont fall.. do you think the zest will still be beneficial?

I would not worry too much....just let it sit for a while. You can do some gravity readings over a few days to make sure your fementation is complete...It should fall back eventually.

But what happens when I take a FG reading and it says it done and the krausen is still on top? Scrape it? Rack under?

What is the SG right now? Is it at your expected FG?

Just wait. I have had this happen a few times with S05, fermentation was done, and the krausen was still hanging around. It dropped, and a few days later was clear. Just wait it out.

Becuase im only 11 days in I didnt think to check the FG, yet. I was gonna wait another week before checking. I hope it falls becuase all my orange zest is sitting on top of it.

just give it time and it'll be fine. I just got done bottling a Kolsch brewed on 1/15 that took over 3 weeks for the krausen to fully go away.

is it a full krausen or just the leftover krausen stuck to the walls of the bottle. This happens to me just about every batch and it always turns out great.

yep...wait 'er out...

I had some small patches of yeasties hanging out on the top of my primary when it was almost time to bottle. What I did is over the next couple days I would gently knock on the side of my bucket to encourage the clumps to go under. Don't knock hard enough to make the beer splash, just enough to send some vibration through the beer and break the surface tension to make the stuff fall. Sure enough when I bottled a couple days later most of the clumps had settled out.

It'll fall, in the off-chance that it doesn't you can rack from underneath it. If the krausen doesn't fall however, I'd bet that fermentation isn't finished yet.

Lunarpancake said:

is it a full krausen or just the leftover krausen stuck to the walls of the bottle. This happens to me just about every batch and it always turns out great.

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Its a full krausen on top.. I can see on the walls of the bucket that it has fallen already. About 3 inches has fallen by the looks of the gunk stuck to the sides...I guess I'll just wait it out and check it out in another few days.

you are right though, that is some nasty smelling stuff.

I've never tasted "satans anus" but I sure have smelled it.. Krausen is nasty stuff, indeed.

So I just now took a hydrometer test and my numbers went from 1.026 on 03/02/10 and are now at 1.020, however, the krausen has still not fallen. Not even a little. Still ugly as ever. I plan on checking it again in 4-5 days and hopefully it ready to bottle and if the krausen is still there I just plan on racking under it. Is it normal for beer to finsh with krausen still on top?

NO advice?

Use a sterile spoon,:fro: scoot the junk over and put the orange in the liquid,no biggie!

if the beer is only at 1.020, i doubt that the fermentation is done.

blackwaterbrewer said:

if the beer is only at 1.020, i doubt that the fermentation is done.

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That was my thought as well, but it seems to be moving very slowly. I wonder what his ferm temp is. I've had brews get stuck at 1020 so it might be done...but with the krausen still there I find that hard to believe.

I know its not done.. I have never thought it was done, the hydrometer readings are going down each time I take them so I know its going, just going slow. However, everytime I take a reading the krausen is still at the same level each time.. no change in the krausen. I have a feeling my fermentation is going to be done in the next week or so (per the hydrometer) and the krausen is still going to be on top.
My question was.... is it okay/normal for a beer to have reaced its FG and still have an inch thick krausen on top?

Hydrometer went down again today... beer sould be done in a dew days and krausen is still there.. I think this one is going to be a scrapper for sure!