Rack to Secondary?

[IowaStateFan]

I brewed a maple brown ale 13 days ago. There was no airlock activity for a couple of days so I opened the fermenting bucket and saw a nice layer of krausen so I left it alone until today. When I opened the fermenter to rack it to the secondary there was still a nice thick layer of yeast on top. I've never seen this before. It wasn't really foamy like I normally see when it is fermenting, it's just a nice thick pasty yeast floating on the top. I took a hydrometer sample and got a reading of 1.010. Target F.G is 1.014. O.G. was 1.049 so it's obviously fermented. I need to add the maple syrup to the secondary. So the question I have is should I rack it today, or let it sit for another few days? If I let it sit, how long should I wait for the yeast to drop to the bottom of the fermenter? Suggestions?

 

[blk94f150]

Take a hydro reading for the next couple of days. If it stays the same, it's finished.

Mike

 

[Yooper]

At 1.010, it can't go much lower! Go ahead and rack it whenever you have the time.

 

[IowaStateFan]

At 1.010, it can't go much lower! Go ahead and rack it whenever you have the time.

I figured it wasn't going to drop any more. It's just that I've never seen the yeast floating on the top like this. Any ideas why it's not settling to the bottom?

 

[jpuf]

Yoop's right, rack at will. As far as the yeast, all I can say is I've seen some butt ugly wort in my day, but the final product is usually great beer.

 

[Yooper]

I figured it wasn't going to drop any more. It's just that I've never seen the yeast floating on the top like this. Any ideas why it's not settling to the bottom?

Oh, sometimes you have krausens that NEVER go away! I don't know why that happens chemically. Sometimes it's the yeast strain, sometimes proteins, etc. I've seen it happen a few times, but usually I use WLP001 or another clean American ale yeast that drops its krausen predictably. It could be some of the ingredients you used, as well.

As jpuf said, appearances don't really matter. We've all seen some strange and ugly things in our wort, but made great beer!