Foam and Bottling

[slantedbolt]

So, for once, I searched the forums and was unable to find the answer to my questions.

So its been about two weeks since I started my first beer. There is very little activity what so ever now. The beer is starting clear and the air lock is bubbling slower then an old person at a country buffet.

I am going to take a reading tonight and on Saturday and I am guessing they will be the same.

The question is Is it ok to move the beer to a bottling bucket when there is a thick foam still on top?

Should I wait until most of the foam is gone? Or will it not go away?

 

[Revvy]

Nprmally foam on top is a sign that your beer is fermenting still and to think about even bottling it is to invite bottling bombs. However I had a wit beer that I pitched bottle harvested Hoegaarden yeast on Dec. 26th, that STILL had a 2" krausen on it three weeks later. I took a grav reading and it had reached terminal gravity, 1.010. So the beer was done, but the krausen still lingered. I finally gently swirled the beer to knock it down, and let it settle for another week before I bottled it. I'm not normally a fan of knocking them down, and usually let it do it naturally.

But some yeasts are low flocculating, and may have a difficult time. I figured since mine was bottle harvested, and I had pitched the starter at high krausen, maybe it was "genetically mutated" with the flocculation "gene" off or something. So I gently swirled it and let it fall.

I brewed another batch with another mason jars worth of that yeast several months later and had the same thing happen.

Beligan wits are notoriously long krausening.

BUT that is after three weeks in primary. Many of us leave our beers in primary for a month then bottle, to give the yeast time to finish and clean up after themselves. All my beers are a minimum month before bottling. Either 4 weeks in primary OR I rack after 14 days to a secondary for another 2 weeks.

Personally if you are thinking in terms of anytime less than that, then you are short changing your beer. And if your beer has krausen then it normally is TOO SOON to be thinking about anything.

A hydro reading will confirm that. But unless it is a belgian, with the same strain I talked about I doubt your beer id close to bottling time yet.

 

[slantedbolt]

Thanks for the info. I guess I am just impatient. So I shall wait until the Krausen is gone. I just really wanted to get this beer bottled and get another one going. I guess I will just have to go buy some more buckets!

Thanks again Revvy.

 

[Revvy]

Yep, the answer to your impatience is not to short change the beer, but to get more fermenters and brew more. Buckets are cheap.

 

[slantedbolt]

Yep, the answer to your impatience is not to short change the beer, but to get more fermenters and brew more. Buckets are cheap.

My local HBS is not that great. They are SUPER expensive for fermenters. Everything else is decent, but I have found online Ale Pails for about 14 bucks a piece before shipping.

NOW I understand why this hobby is so addicting.

 

[Ichthy]

I've had the same experience everytime I used Kolsch yeast. The krausen just wouldn't fall even though the beer finished.