krausening

[rhinoceroceros]

I read about a technique called krausening today where you add actively fermenting beer to another batch that has finished fermenting. Has anyone tried this? It seems to me like all you would get is a blend of two styles, which isn't a bad thing, in fact I would like to try it, maybe a black and tan type of thing

 

[bottlebomber]

I'm not sure what your source was, but my understanding of krausening is that you take krausen and pitch it into UNfermented wort for your yeast source. I have done this several times, and it works great. Pitching yeast into already fermented beer would have very little effect.

 

[rhinoceroceros]

It wouldn't be pitching just yeast, it would be an actively fermenting beer, yes with yeast, racked into a beer that is done fermenting. Like I said, it doesn't seem like you would be doing a whole lot to alter the beer unless you used two different styles.

 

[jhall4]

I'm not sure what your source was, but my understanding of krausening is that you take krausen and pitch it into UNfermented wort for your yeast source. I have done this several times, and it works great. Pitching yeast into already fermented beer would have very little effect.

Krausening is used to bottle condition lagers. Since yeast will go dormant or even die during a long lagering period, it can be difficult to naturally carbonate them without re-pitching yeast. The idea with krausening is to use a small portion of actively fermenting beer (you're supposed to use the same style) to introduce active yeast along with enough sugar to carbonate the beer.

Using krausen as a source of yeast for fresh wort is another matter.