Different brews, different views

[peteplus1]

...of the fv when fermentation is in progress.
Took a peak after day 5 and the Krausen is still pretty hefty as you'll see...



On my last 4 brews it has all but disappeared by now. I moved the whole fv just a little, it statrted to break and bits fell down. What I'm asking is, is this normal behaviour and should I just leave well alone? Siphon from under the krausen if still there when it comes to transferring? or give it a gentle mix in with a sterilised and rinsed spoon?

 

[Kman]

Just leave it alone

 

[JapanBrew]

It's fine. Just put it in and let it be for a good time. Some posts say 1 week and measure the gravity but I usually leave mine for a good 2 to 3 weeks.

 

[Covrich]

Krausens are a law to themselves.

But different yeast strains have different behaviours too.

My recent witbier krausen was there for nearly 2 weeks. despite me harvesting and repitching straight off teh top of it (so two seperate scoops) It was nearly 6 inches and it is a low flocculator so that may be why..?

I never used it but hear S04 is up and straight down within a few days..

 

[peteplus1]

As I thought, thanks. Didn't want to disturb it yet. Taking a first reading later.
Recipe does call for 3 days dry hopping. Suspect it will have gone by next week anyway but if not, dry hop in this primary or transfer to a secondary, then dry hop? Bottling after that btw.

 

[MyQul]

If the krausen is big and there for a long time it can prevent the beer from fully attenuating as a lot of the yeast is floating above the beer forming the krausen and not in the beer fermenting it.
I use two English strains that can have this problem (wyeast 1469 and the Shepard Neame strain). If the krausen is there for ages I just swirl/slosh the FV to get the krausen back into the ber

 

[peteplus1]

This Moshi Moshi clone is almost ready to bottle. Great colour and smells fantastic. Just dry hopping currently with 3 different hop varieties.

It doesnt seem to be the 'cleanest' beer though. Ive racked into a secondary for dry hopping. Quite a lot of bits and lumps still knocking about in there. I'm tempted to strain gently through a muslin cloth into the bottle bucket. Reckon that would be ok and do the trick?

 

[Slid]

This Moshi Moshi clone is almost ready to bottle. Great colour and smells fantastic. Just dry hopping currently with 3 different hop varieties.

It doesnt seem to be the 'cleanest' beer though. Ive racked into a secondary for dry hopping. Quite a lot of bits and lumps still knocking about in there. I'm tempted to strain gently through a muslin cloth into the bottle bucket. Reckon that would be ok and do the trick?

Very warm this last week, but the weather forecast is for cooler temps this weekend. That will help the bits to drop out.

It is quite rare for an HB beer to actually need this sort of treatment and patience and gravity will come to the rescue in due course.

The worst thing that can be done with warm weather brews is bottling too early.