Krausen hasn't fallen

[Louie500sl]

I brewed a 10 gal batch of a hoppy red ale 3 weeks ago, fermented in two buckets with wlp001 at about 68F. Just opened the buckets and one had no krausen on top, the other had about an inch of frothy krausen, looked very yeasty, but I know fermentation has stopped. Any thoughts why one of the fermenter's wouldn't have dropped yet? I'm hoping it's not a bug, the beer smells fine. I made a 3L starter and tried to split it proportionately between the two fermenters. There were a few differences between the two fermenters.

1) The fermenter with the krausen has about 4.5 gallons vs. the clear fermenter at 5.5 gals.

2) I filled the krausen fermenter last and just dumped from the kettle since my racking cane broke, so there is probably significantly more trub in the fermenter that has the krausen.

I'm hoping this is just random yeast behavior and not indication of an infection, my sanitation was good during the brew day, so I really don't think that is the problem. I went ahead and dry hopped both batches and plan to bottle next week, should I hold off if the krausen on the second fermenter still hasn't fallen?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Clementine]

Detergent? Krausen is the same thing as head on your beer, so it has to do with proteins and like head on your beer detergents and other head fighting chemicals might have been present? Or the trub had more proteins in it that made the krausen stronger and stable holding together longer.

I really doubt that it has anything to do with an infection. Dry hopping works so long as significant CO2 is not being off gassed, as the CO2 forms on the Hops and lifts them out of the beer defeating the point of adding them to the beer. You will have to stir in the hops with a sanitized spoon and that will drop the krausen to allow the hops into beer.

Clem

 

[pericles]

My vote is that it's just random yeast behavior. Sometimes krausen doesn't fall on its own; if you're dryhopping, it'll probably go away then. Otherwise, just package normally, and it'll take care of itself.

 

[Louie500sl]

Yeah, I'm thinking it's caused by the extra protein in the trub. I get paranoid it's a pellicle, looking forward to bottling this weekend!

 

[jfr1111]

Cali Ale will sometimes do this. It's normal. Just rack from underneath or skim the yeast crust with a sanitized spoon before packaging.