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Date: 10 Aug 2006 18:10:40
From: Don Levey
Subject: Skimming Krausen
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You may recall I did what was for all intents and purposes my first
all-grain this weekend. It's been happily fermenting along in the
bucket, and I'm looking toward transferring to secondary.
I've got a large layer of what looks like cat vomit resting on the top
of the liquid; it has spent hops, krausen, and the like. It's solid
enough that I can't actually see the liquid itself, and if I rack I
need to know where the trub layer underneath is resting. Is it reasonable
to just use a (sanitised) spoon to scrape off the crud before racking?
--
Don Levey $ cd /pub
Framingham, MA $ more beer
NOTE: email server uses spam filters; mail sent to salearn@the-leveys.us
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Date: 11 Aug 2006 00:23:59
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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On 10 Aug 2006 18:10:40 -0400, <Don_RCB@the-leveys.us > wrote:
> You may recall I did what was for all intents and purposes my first
> all-grain this weekend. It's been happily fermenting along in the
> bucket, and I'm looking toward transferring to secondary.
>
> I've got a large layer of what looks like cat vomit resting on the top
> of the liquid; it has spent hops, krausen, and the like. It's solid
> enough that I can't actually see the liquid itself, and if I rack I
> need to know where the trub layer underneath is resting. Is it reasonable
> to just use a (sanitised) spoon to scrape off the crud before racking?
Just leave it alone. The trub should be on an even layer all across
the bottom. I can't think of why you really need to see where it is.
IMO, just rack out of the fermenter and ignore the krausen.
John.
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Date: 10 Aug 2006 23:22:33
From: rjwhite6
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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On 11 Aug 2006 00:23:59 GMT, John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net >
wrote:
>On 10 Aug 2006 18:10:40 -0400, <Don_RCB@the-leveys.us> wrote:
>> You may recall I did what was for all intents and purposes my first
>> all-grain this weekend. It's been happily fermenting along in the
>> bucket, and I'm looking toward transferring to secondary.
>>
>> I've got a large layer of what looks like cat vomit resting on the top
>> of the liquid; it has spent hops, krausen, and the like. It's solid
>> enough that I can't actually see the liquid itself, and if I rack I
>> need to know where the trub layer underneath is resting. Is it reasonable
>> to just use a (sanitised) spoon to scrape off the crud before racking?
>
Oops. Now to answer your question.
This is normal brewing stuff. Just try to leave as much behind as you
can when you rack but I wouldn't mess with it otherwise.
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Date: 11 Aug 2006 08:48:27
From: Don Levey
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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rjwhite6 <rjwhite6@cannedspam.msn.com > writes:
> On 11 Aug 2006 00:23:59 GMT, John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net>
> wrote:
>
> >On 10 Aug 2006 18:10:40 -0400, <Don_RCB@the-leveys.us> wrote:
> >> You may recall I did what was for all intents and purposes my first
> >> all-grain this weekend. It's been happily fermenting along in the
> >> bucket, and I'm looking toward transferring to secondary.
> >>
> >> I've got a large layer of what looks like cat vomit resting on the top
> >> of the liquid; it has spent hops, krausen, and the like. It's solid
> >> enough that I can't actually see the liquid itself, and if I rack I
> >> need to know where the trub layer underneath is resting. Is it reasonable
> >> to just use a (sanitised) spoon to scrape off the crud before racking?
> >
> Oops. Now to answer your question.
>
I *used* to have cats, which is how I know what it looks like...
> This is normal brewing stuff. Just try to leave as much behind as you
> can when you rack but I wouldn't mess with it otherwise.
It's just a little more... assertive than I'm used to. I have vague
memories of being on a brewpub tour where they mentioned skimming
the krausen, and wasn't sure if it would be reasonable to do (not
necessary, mind you, just reasonable for convenience sake).
--
Don Levey $ cd /pub
Framingham, MA $ more beer
NOTE: email server uses spam filters; mail sent to salearn@the-leveys.us
will be used to tune the blocking lists.
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Date: 11 Aug 2006 15:54:53
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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On 11 Aug 2006 08:48:27 -0400, <Don_RCB@the-leveys.us > wrote:
>> This is normal brewing stuff. Just try to leave as much behind as you
>> can when you rack but I wouldn't mess with it otherwise.
>
> It's just a little more... assertive than I'm used to.
This wasn't a wheat beer by any chance?
> I have vague
> memories of being on a brewpub tour where they mentioned skimming
> the krausen, and wasn't sure if it would be reasonable to do (not
> necessary, mind you, just reasonable for convenience sake).
I don't think it's necessary. There used to be a school of thought in old
homebrewing books that skimming the krausen will improve you beer. It's
pretty much been debunked though. The concensus these days seems to be
that it doesn't make any difference. Commercial breweries may continue
to do it more out of tradition than anything else.
John.
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Date: 11 Aug 2006 13:18:59
From: Don Levey
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net > writes:
> On 11 Aug 2006 08:48:27 -0400, <Don_RCB@the-leveys.us> wrote:
> >> This is normal brewing stuff. Just try to leave as much behind as you
> >> can when you rack but I wouldn't mess with it otherwise.
> >
> > It's just a little more... assertive than I'm used to.
>
> This wasn't a wheat beer by any chance?
>
Nope - Southern English Brown. But I used hope plugs, and wasn't
able to filter/strain before the primary, so they're floating on
the top looking like cat yak.
> > I have vague
> > memories of being on a brewpub tour where they mentioned skimming
> > the krausen, and wasn't sure if it would be reasonable to do (not
> > necessary, mind you, just reasonable for convenience sake).
>
> I don't think it's necessary. There used to be a school of thought in old
> homebrewing books that skimming the krausen will improve you beer. It's
> pretty much been debunked though. The concensus these days seems to be
> that it doesn't make any difference. Commercial breweries may continue
> to do it more out of tradition than anything else.
>
OK, sounds good. That'll probablt be tomorrow night's project, which
will give me almost a week in primary. Perhaps another week to two
in secondary, and we'll be in the keg before Labor Day.
--
Don Levey $ cd /pub
Framingham, MA $ more beer
NOTE: email server uses spam filters; mail sent to salearn@the-leveys.us
will be used to tune the blocking lists.
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Date: 10 Aug 2006 23:19:49
From: rjwhite6
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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On 11 Aug 2006 00:23:59 GMT, John 'Shaggy' Kolesar <spam@shagg.net >
wrote:
>On 10 Aug 2006 18:10:40 -0400, <Don_RCB@the-leveys.us> wrote:
>> You may recall I did what was for all intents and purposes my first
>> all-grain this weekend. It's been happily fermenting along in the
>> bucket, and I'm looking toward transferring to secondary.
>>
>> I've got a large layer of what looks like cat vomit resting on the top
>> of the liquid; it has spent hops, krausen, and the like. It's solid
>> enough that I can't actually see the liquid itself, and if I rack I
>> need to know where the trub layer underneath is resting. Is it reasonable
>> to just use a (sanitised) spoon to scrape off the crud before racking?
Please don't tell that you have cats and it was an open fermentor :-)
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Date: 11 Aug 2006 06:21:58
From: MarkMc
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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> It's just a little more... assertive than I'm used to. I have vague
> memories of being on a brewpub tour where they mentioned skimming
> the krausen, and wasn't sure if it would be reasonable to do (not
> necessary, mind you, just reasonable for convenience sake).
Don to skim or not to skim....that is the quetion....alas....
It's yet another one of those eternal debates that will be 'discussed'
until the dawn of time.
Some say skimming reduces off tastes and astringency etc from the
trub. Others say leave well alone.
In my opinion, where the question is a 50-50 call, it most probably
doesn't matter which you should do so I take the laziest, less
potential for trouble approach.
So I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about skimming. As long as
you're not leaving your beer to sit on the primary (and all that trub)
for weeks, months even, then it more than likely won't be a problem.
Ideally, you'll rack the beer to secondary as soon as the krausen
drops, so you really are minimising the time the beer is exposed to the
trub. If you think about it, all the crud thats sitting on the krausen
right now isn't actull *in* the beer as such.
Of course, if you had a conical fermenter (I don't either) you could
open the bottom valve and dump the trub at the bottom of the fermenter
every now and then and not have to worry about racking to secondary.
Regards,
Mark
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Date: 11 Aug 2006 08:41:33
From: Jim
Subject: Re: Skimming Krausen
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Don Levey wrote on 8/10/2006 6:10 PM:
> You may recall I did what was for all intents and purposes my first
> all-grain this weekend. It's been happily fermenting along in the
> bucket, and I'm looking toward transferring to secondary.
>
> I've got a large layer of what looks like cat vomit resting on the top
> of the liquid; it has spent hops, krausen, and the like. It's solid
> enough that I can't actually see the liquid itself, and if I rack I
> need to know where the trub layer underneath is resting. Is it reasonable
> to just use a (sanitised) spoon to scrape off the crud before racking?
If it grosses you out, start using plastic buckets. That way you dont
have to see how the sausage is made, and you can enjoy the wonderful end
result.
Jim
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