Krausening?

[Arbe0]

I know you guys are going to talk about not doing a secondary but for this subject lets go for a secondary. I understand that using fresh krausan in the secondary or for carbonating is a thing. Seems that fresh krausan in the secondary will help clean up some off flavors. So here are my thought about doing this, tell me if this sounds ok. First brew the lager for example but brew a little more (maybe a 5.5 gallon batch) and using the extra .5 gallons to use later. A few days before 5 gallons have fermented out it seems I could ferment the extra .5 gallons to with yeast and when it gets high krausen add it to the secondary with the 5 gallons to help out the beer. Let me know if this would work out ok. Also could this be used to carbonate beer with?

 

[mac_1103]

I'm not sure that fresh krausen in a secondary fermenter will clean up the beer any more than the yeast already in the primary will.

As for carbonating, you (usually) should only need to add some fresh fermentables. I think most people use sugar, but some do say that wort is better, and I believe that bottle or cask conditioning with wort instead of sugar is what is meant by krasening. Unless the beer has been aged at low temps for a long time you shouldn't need to add yeast. For very high ABV beers you might need to add a different yeast.

 

[hotbeer]

You are just going to be adding yeast and wort to wort you already added yeast to. Sure the yeast might be at a particular state when you add it, but that's the state that typically the off flavors are generated in from what I've read. But I might be wrong.

So adding it won't really do much at all but possible delay things cleaning up those off flavors. Which it will do if left alone in the FV.

As for carbonating, again you are adding yeast and wort. So you still need to add priming sugar of some sort or wort. No yeast required since your beer likely already has enough.

 

[Arbe0]

I normally bottle off the keg. Much easier to do.

 

[Witherby]

I know you guys are going to talk about not doing a secondary but for this subject lets go for a secondary. I understand that using fresh krausan in the secondary or for carbonating is a thing. Seems that fresh krausan in the secondary will help clean up some off flavors. So here are my thought about doing this, tell me if this sounds ok. First brew the lager for example but brew a little more (maybe a 5.5 gallon batch) and using the extra .5 gallons to use later. A few days before 5 gallons have fermented out it seems I could ferment the extra .5 gallons to with yeast and when it gets high krausen add it to the secondary with the 5 gallons to help out the beer. Let me know if this would work out ok. Also could this be used to carbonate beer with?

Kräusening is the real deal. When I brew lagers I set aside a small jar of yeast from my starter and also a 2 liter soda bottle (sanitized) of chilled wort which goes into the freezer (the wort--not the yeast). When the beer is done fermenting I thaw the leftover wort and pitch the saved yeast and basically make a fresh mini starter. When it is at full kräusen (hence the name) I add it to a keg and transfer the beer on top of that. I let it naturally carbonate at that stage at cellar temps with a spunding valve and then chill and lager for at least a month. The kräusening aids attenuation, cleans up off flavors, can add a little sulfur, and turns "green" homebrew lager into proper lager.

Kräusening (Part 1 of 3)

 

[Dland]

What we called Krausening back when I first brewed in the 90's; Bottle and cap a few large bottles of wort, put in refrigerator and add back to fermentor just before bottling or kegging for carbonation charge. Probably learned it form that ole Charley P book we had, or one of the other ones. We did not have the interweb back then.

Also have seen the term used for adding some yeasty beer from what is in fermentor to another fermentor filled w fresh wort, which I do when running more than one PV (primary fermentation vessel).

These days I keg exclusively and spunding is my usual carbonation and "clean up" process. It is the same process as krausening done a different way. Spunding is simpler and easier, but attention to timing of primary fermentation is important, so not for everyone.

I don't do starters, but run continuous fermetation, so after initial pitch, there is always a healthy pitch rate, which is kind of like krausening. Add wort to yeast cake in PV over and over. Temp control and sanitation of inputs important..and way to dump solids needed, but perhaps I digress from original topic. Have gone up to 11 batches on single pitch, and could/will go more batches, still learning how far I can go and also altering practices some from normal single brew per yeast pitch practices, ; learn as you go...

Forgive the ramble, I've been drinking beer.