Krausen dropped quickly.... Is that an infection?

[LuisCheco]

This is my second batch. It is a Irish Red Ale Extract Kit from Northern Brewer.

Every thing was as expected. But today (3rd day in the fermenter) the krausen dropped. I didn't expect to drop so quickly.

Now it have a thick layer of..... I don't know what is exactly. But I don't think is infected. I have my doubts.

And why it drop so quickly?

- FYI -
I made a wort chiller. I cleaned before using it and put it in the boiling kettle 15 mins before finishing my wort.

Everything was sanitized except the wort chiller I forgot to do it before putting it in the kettle.

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[Gavin C]

Normal. Looks done or nearly done. Those are yeast rafts. Ready to package the beer this weekend by the looks of things.

100% not an infection

 

[LuisCheco]

Normal. Looks done or nearly done. Those are yeast rafts. Ready to package the beer this weekend by the looks of things.

100% not an infection

Ok, it's not infected.
But this is just the 3rd day in the fermenter. And it's supposed to be around 6 weeks.

 

[stella_tigre]

Fermentation temperature?

 

[Gavin C]

Ok, it's not infected.
But this is just the 3rd day in the fermenter. And it's supposed to be around 6 weeks.

Disregard arbitrary timeframes in kit instructions.

Without temperature control (I don't see any evidence of any control) fermentation at ambient room temperatures will finish fast. Just a few days for a ~1.05 Irish Ale is entirely expected.

6 weeks in the fermenter is absolutely not needed here. Don't believe me. Good, you shouldn't take my word for it.

On Saturday take a gravity reading. Do the same a few days later. My guess is they will be identical (assuming you measure them at the same temperature.) I'd also take a stab and say the SG will be 1.018 both times.

Yeast don't care what's written on a box. They will take as long as it takes to eat all the fermentable sugars (3-5 days for an ale with no temperature control is entirely expected, your fermentometer is not showing a reading. this means its warmer than the scale goes up to) then clean up a bit in 1-2 days thereafter. After that the beer's done and ain't going to get any more done. Bottle/keg it. With the former you're looking at 3 weeks bottle conditioning time. Well worth the wait.

Best of luck.

 

[kh54s10]

I agree with Gavin C. There is no need for this one to take 6 weeks. As little as a day or two after you get a stable gravity or to be sure fermentation is finished, wait about 2-3 weeks in primary then bottle it.

Also, your chiller was sanitized by having it in the boiling wort.

 

[BigFloyd]

Ok, it's not infected.
But this is just the 3rd day in the fermenter. And it's supposed to be around 6 weeks.

If you fermented on the warm side, krausen can form and drop pretty quickly. That doesn't, however, mean that it's done. Leave it alone for another week before taking a gravity reading.

Having the chiller in the boil for 15 min sanitized it just fine.

 

[Magnus314]

Looks amazeballs, I'm jelly. That's what I *WISH* all my ferms looked like.

Turn off those fluorescent lights or cover it for the rest or skunk city.

 

[LuisCheco]

Disregard arbitrary timeframes in kit instructions.

Without temperature control (I don't see any evidence of any control) fermentation at ambient room temperatures will finish fast. Just a few days for a ~1.05 Irish Ale is entirely expected.

6 weeks in the fermenter is absolutely not needed here. Don't believe me. Good, you shouldn't take my word for it.

On Saturday take a gravity reading. Do the same a few days later. My guess is they will be identical (assuming you measure them at the same temperature.) I'd also take a stab and say the SG will be 1.018 both times.

Yeast don't care what's written on a box. They will take as long as it takes to eat all the fermentable sugars (3-5 days for an ale with no temperature control is entirely expected, your fermentometer is not showing a reading. this means its warmer than the scale goes up to) then clean up a bit in 1-2 days thereafter. After that the beer's done and ain't going to get any more done. Bottle/keg it. With the former you're looking at 3 weeks bottle conditioning time. Well worth the wait.

Best of luck.

Gavin,

It is temperature control. I have the fermenter inside a chest freezer with a digital thermostat set at 65 F +/- 1.

And yes. I live in a warn area (Dominican Republic). But I personally don't think temperature is variable to consider because it been in the chest freezer since day 1.

Another thing I didn't mention.... The OG (1.03) was a little bit low compared with the one in the box (1.044). But another mistake I did while taking the OG, I didn't mix the wort with the cold water very well. This could be a reason my OG was a little off?

P.S.: Sorry english is not my native language.

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[Zigs6]

Did you mean 1.030? That's pretty low. That will ferment quickly if that's the case. I agree with everyone else though. The fermentation looks normal and 2 weeks in primary should be plenty especially for that style. Just measure your final gravity after 2 weeks and if it is at or below what your target FG was, bottle it up.

 

[LuisCheco]

Did you mean 1.030? That's pretty low. That will ferment quickly if that's the case. I agree with everyone else though. The fermentation looks normal and 2 weeks in primary should be plenty especially for that style. Just measure your final gravity after 2 weeks and if it is at or below what your target FG was, bottle it up.

Yeah! How can I boost my FG knowing that my OG is pretty low?

 

[max384]

Yeah! How can I boost my FG knowing that my OG is pretty low?

It sounds like this is an extract batch, right?

If so, don't worry about your "low" OG. Unless you spilled a bunch of it, added way too much water, or otherwise really messed up, it is pretty darn near impossible not to reach your kit's target OG. What probably happened is that you didn't stir it enough, and the more concentrated denser wort settled to the bottom and you took a gravity reading of the top less dense layer. I'd just use the kit's target OG as yours, since it's very unlikely you missed it by that much.

BTW, your English is great! Better than a lot of native speakers on this forum!

 

[Gavin C]

Gavin,

It is temperature control. I have the fermenter inside a chest freezer with a digital thermostat set at 65 F +/- 1.

And yes. I live in a warn area (Dominican Republic). But I personally don't think temperature is variable to consider because it been in the chest freezer since day 1.

Another thing I didn't mention.... The OG (1.03) was a little bit low compared with the one in the box (1.044). But another mistake I did while taking the OG, I didn't mix the wort with the cold water very well. This could be a reason my OG was a little off?

P.S.: Sorry english is not my native language.

No worries mate. Your English is solid.

Great stuff on the temperature control with the Inkbird and chest freezer. This means your beer is likely in great shape*.

1. The low OG you measured (I'm going to assume and extract kit) will be related to the top up water not mixing. That's not a problem.

2. This is not a big beer at 1.044 and being an ale at 65F, what you are describing is entirely normal and expected. Krausen dropping to gone (yeast rafts remain) within a week.

3. The probe on the thermostat. Hope you were measuring the beer temperature and not the air temp in the freezer? If so that is good.

*If not then it means the ferment was not controled as well and likely would have gotten into the low 70's perhaps even higher, you just don't know unless you're measuring and controlling it.

It's easy to measure and control the beer temp. No special kit is needed. You may already be doing just that. Disregard as needed.

I believe you can control things tighter than +/-1F with the Inkbird, I'm not sure.

Easy and effective way to measure beer temps