krausen didn't drop-cold crash?

[chrisdb]

I'm on my second all grain brew using belgian abby yeast washed from a previous AG brew, pitched into wort OG of 1.050 8 days ago.
I had moderate activity within 24 hours and good krausen, but the krausen hasn't dropped yet, and I haven't seen any activity for days.
I took a gravity reading of 1.012 and sampled the fermented wort and it seems to me that there are no off flavors and I believe the fermentation is completed. My calculation puts the ABV at a little below 5%, not what was intended but I missed the OG by a mile, and the OG/FG ratio seems reasonable and the wort seems to have a good flavor with little residual sweetness.
My problem now is how to clear the wort.
If the yeast is really exhausted I could carb under pressure in a keg, and am tempted to rack into a secondary and drop the carboy into a keezer (at 4 celcius) to maybe cold crash to clear the beer.
so I have two questions
1- what is the best way to clear the beer- rack, rack and cold crash, or leave it in primary?
2-what happened with the krausen not dropping? no problems flocculating with the first brew from the yeast, but the washed yeast seemed to ferment well but not 'clean up' after themselves

 

[BoxofRain]

It's only been in primary for 8 days? Give it another 2-3 weeks and let the yeast do their little clean up dance.

Eventually you can add gelatin if it isn't clear enough for you.

It happens. I brewed something 3 weeks ago and the krausen is just starting to drop.

 

[chrisdb]

thanks for that.
I think i need to adjust my expectations. the yeast are OK, I should go have a beer and not assume that anything and everything is a problem.
maybe a beer would help me chill

 

[RM-MN]

Maybe you should have 2 beers since you will be waiting another 2 weeks for the yeast to finish their job. Yeast work at their schedule, not yours and if you put them in a nice cool place, they work slower and do a better job.

 

[chrisdb]

thanks took your advice and had a couple.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

put them in a nice cool place, they work slower and do a better job.

That is not necessarily true. Once main fermentation is complete you should really warm up the beer to keep the yeast more active and get them to clean up the beer faster and better. Example with and ale fermenting with Cal ale yeast, one might pitch at 67F and hold until main fermentation is complete(3-4 days) and then gradually ramp up to 70-72 to help the yeast clean up for another 3-4 days. They actually do a better job of cleaning up if they are at a warmer temperature. If you were to move them from a warm place to a cool place before cleanup is done, they may just drop out and leave off flavors in your beer.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

To the OP-

If it is at FG and tastes good, then just rack out from under the krausen. You should be good to go. If you are having problems clearing the beer (yeast I'm guessing) I would cold crash in a keg for a week and see if that helps. If its stubborn then bust out the gelatin.

 

[chrisdb]

I blew the recipe OG so I don't have a good benchmark number for FG. It tastes 'done' and the FG (1.012) is I think the right ballpark for the OG ( 1.050). I'm not in a hurry so I think I'll just watch it for another week or so before i move it to a spot where the ambient temp is 70- 72F and see if the krausen drops.
It tastes fine, not strong but fully fermented. hoping to keep any undesireable flavors from developing. I recently brewed from this same yeast and fermented at a slightly higher temp and the yeast cleaned up nicely but i think the end result was a little astringent to my taste. it's funny that the other beer was OG 1.053 and the yeast behaved very differently. makes me think that perhaps I underpitched with the starter I made from washed yeast from the first brew.