So not sure whether to do anything different than usual with this batch.... I brewed a batch of Northern Brewer's Nut Brown Ale, AG about 12 days ago now. First AG batch, hit the gravities almost dead on, everything was going great! Much more enjoyable than my prior extract brewing, which produced good beers, just wanted to try out the "from scratch" version of brewing. Anyway, six hours after yeast pitch at 68F, airlock was bubbling like a machine gun. By night, the fermenter, sitting in a 68F room, was 73F inside. To avoid letting it ferment too warm, I put it into a section of the basement that stayed just a little cooler. By morning, I checked the temp before work, and found the "fermentation chamber" to be at 59F, and no bubbling at all present. I wasn't concerned, but moved the fermenter back into the 68F room, where I let it sit for ten days. No bubbles, but I'm not really an airlock voyeur, so I didn't think much of it. After ten days, I opened to take a gravity sample, and found 3 full inches of creamy krausen covering the entire fermenter surface. I thought maybe I shocked the yeast and didn't let them finish the first day, so I moved the fermenter to a warmer (78F) room for two days. Today I opened it, and found the same thick krausen still on top of the beer. Smelled, of course, very yeasty. No sour smell or anything unusual about the krausen except for it not being supposed to be there. I took a sanitized spoon, scraped the krausen away, and took a gravity reading - 1.012. OG was 1.044 with an average yeast attenuation of 74%, so I assume the beer is fine and is complete. Just wondering what made the yeast never fall. I've had some persistent islands before, but this baby was a full-on krausen that just won't go away. Should I give it more time (for what gain?), rack to secondary to clean up, or just siphon out from under the krausen into a keg??? Has anyone seen that before? It was Wyeast 1945 NB btw. Thanks for any input..... BTW, I'm NOT dumping the beer.....
