Fermentation Foam

[Lepoc2635]

I've seen tons of pics on this site that show a lot of "foam" at the top of a carboy. I've only done a few batches using a carboy (vs. a bucket), and I don't remember seeing that. I always have the junk at the bottom but not the top. Should I be concerned?

 

[bradsul]

The amount of krauesen depends mostly on the yeast. It's likely the yeast strains you are using simply do not generate that much. If your beer is fermenting as it should then I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[DeathBrewer]

brew a hefeweizen and make a starter. THEN you'll see a krausen

 

[bradsul]

brew a hefeweizen and make a starter. THEN you'll see a krausen

That's for sure, I have a hefe in primary now that I pitched onto a previous yeast cake. It was bubbling in under an hour and it's foaming out the 1" blow-off right now.

 

[Philip1993]

I pitched onto a previous yeast cake.

I haven't done that yet. Do you just xfer the secondary to keg/bottle and dump a fresh cooled wort into the just used secondary?

 

[bradsul]

I haven't done that yet. Do you just xfer the secondary to keg/bottle and dump a fresh cooled wort into the just used secondary?

Generally you don't want to do it with the yeast from the secondary fermenter. I've done it before but those tend to be the least flocculant yeast so your next beer probably won't clear as well. Normally you would rack your primary when it was ready (into secondary/keg/bottle) and then rack your new cooled wort right on top. Then wait for the boom, blow-off tube is required.

 

[Philip1993]

Generally you don't want to do it with the yeast from the secondary fermenter. I've done it before but those tend to be the least flocculant yeast so your next beer probably won't clear as well. Normally you would rack your primary when it was ready (into secondary/keg/bottle) and then rack your new cooled wort right on top. Then wait for the boom, blow-off tube is required.

Thanks! I love one particular recipe/strain but wasn't ready to start culturing. This will save me some $$$ on yeast and shorten my cycle. How many generations can you safely re-pitch like this?

 

[bradsul]

Thanks! I love one particular recipe/strain but wasn't ready to start culturing. This will save me some $$$ on yeast and shorten my cycle. How many generations can you safely re-pitch like this?

Personally I've never gone above 3, I think if you want to go higher than that you should think about doing some yeast washing (wiki has more info) because of the amount of break material and trub that will have built up by that point.

 

[Jaybird]

Then wait for the boom, blow-off tube is required.

I just spent the last three hours cleaning up after the "BIG BOOM" I would recomend if your going to do this maybe pour off about half the yeast cake. I opened up my fermenting fridge and it was completly full of foam I couldn't even see the buckets there was that much foam. I wasent aware of the blow off tube requirments not that it would have mattered it was an explosion that was out of this world. this was my first and last time pitching on a yeast cake.
JJ

 

[bradsul]

I just spent the last three hours cleaning up after the "BIG BOOM" I would recomend if your going to do this maybe pour off about half the yeast cake. I opened up my fermenting fridge and it was completly full of foam I couldn't even see the buckets there was that much foam. I wasent aware of the blow off tube requirments not that it would have mattered it was an explosion that was out of this world. this was my first and last time pitching on a yeast cake.
JJ

Think of all the excitement you'll be missing out on.

 

[FSR402]

brew a hefeweizen and make a starter. THEN you'll see a krausen

Yeah you're not kidding. Out of 3 brews I have never seen it. This 4th being a Hefe and using a starter it's still there on day 10.

 

[Lepoc2635]

for the info on the kraussen. I guess I'll stop worrying now.

 

[Uncle Argyle]

My last batch was the first time I pitched directly onto the yeast cake...I thought something was wrong because of how fast and active the fermentation was

 

[Jaybird]

My last batch was the first time I pitched directly onto the yeast cake...I thought something was wrong because of how fast and active the fermentation was

did it go BOOM?
JJ

 

[Uncle Argyle]

I was using an airlock and plastic pail fermenter...and it did clog the airlock. But, a quick cleaning and sanitizing and it was OK after that. I might have to think about getting a 6.5 gallon carboy and blow off tube.

Going to try and wash the yeast this weekend after moving to a secondary...first time...keeping fingers crossed! Be nice to be able to save a few bucks there!