Crash Chilling A Foam Lager

[blink471]

Hi all.

Just another question on my road to mastering my beer making... I hope.

I have just been brewing my first lager, a Bohemian Pilsner style.
And I have been following a brewing method I found from Brulosophy which I know people would be aware of for a quicker Lagering approach.

It has been fermenting for a few weeks on recommended temp 12C for around a week and then a higher 19C temp for another week.

Gravity has reached 1008 which is what the recipe said it would when finished and its been stable at that for a few days.

I am now ready to chill to hopefully clear beer to bottle in a week or less hopefully.

I just had a peek inside carefully and was amazed at how foamy the top of the beer is still. It looks healthy and smell delicious.. but was amazed at the amount of Krausen
still there after a few weeks.
I did read it might be the lager yeast has it does this during fermentation. As I said I haven't used it before.

Will crash chilling clear this or should I wait longer?

I have attached picture hopefully showing how it looks.

The yeast was White Labs WLP800. pilsner Yeast.

Does it look ok to everyone. As when I done Ales it didnt look this active.

Cheers.

 

[danestead]

That looks like an ale krausen to me.

I find that ale krausens look like yours with light brown yeast foaming.

My lager ferments look more like the head on a beer, co2 bubbles, and far less of the yeasty krausen.

I'm a bit baffled as to why your krausen looks like that tbh. Maybe some1 else can help.

 

[danestead]

A very slight swirl may help to release the krausen and allow it to fall. Chilling your beer should also help it fall, provided it's definitely finished fermenting.

 

[blink471]

Definitely lager yeast as I said. WLP800.

Pilsner Malt is the grain.

It doesn't have an off smell... quite the opposite.


The airlock bubbled away great for the 2 weeks.

 

[manticle]

If you're sure it's finished, drop temps to lagering temps (as opposed to cold conditioning temps) and the krausen will drop.

 

[MHB]

I've seen heads like that, best described as snotty!
When people use very finely ground malt BIAB or don't recirculate until the wort is clear getting lots of flour into the kettle, then transferring too much of the trub to the fermenter.
If some or all of the above describes your brewing process I'm going to suggest the heads on the beer are basically bread dough (flour and gluten). Not what I would call best brewing practice.

If the above doesn't describe your brewing method, don't take offence. There are a couple of other possibilities but explore the obvious first.
Mark

 

[blink471]

I've seen heads like that, best described as snotty!
When people use very finely ground malt BIAB or don't recirculate until the wort is clear getting lots of flour into the kettle, then transferring too much of the trub to the fermenter.
If some or all of the above describes your brewing process I'm going to suggest the heads on the beer are basically bread dough (flour and gluten). Not what I would call best brewing practice.

If the above doesn't describe your brewing method, don't take offence. There are a couple of other possibilities but explore the obvious first.
Mark

Thanks for reply and no offence whats so ever. Im the one asking for advice.

The only one that could be applicable would be too much trub transferred into fermenter.

I don't BIAB.. and think the grains are milled pretty good.
I made sure I recirculated the runnings very well when sparging so confident with that.

But after using whirlfloc and getting a bit confused on how to use it.. (see my other thread http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/91101-whirlfloc-and-what-then/ )
I did transfer a bit of the trub over.

Not to worry... Im learning.
Will chill it and see what happens.

 

[blink471]

Just a quick update...

Just gone and had another look... and after looking at it this morning and taking picture.. I did turn the temperature right down 10C,
and its now as clear as on top.
Was planning to give it a stir as suggested but its all gone.

It also looks pretty clear in the whole brew.

I will lower temp down to 3C for a few days.

 

[MHB]

Sounds reasonable, next brew I would try leaving as much of the trub behind as you can and see if that improves the situation, for me its a question of would I be happier with 20L of very good beer or 22L of not so good.
For me its a no-brainer but that's an individual point of view.

As we gain experience as brewers and if we work on fine tuning our equipment and processes, it isn't all that hard to get very high yields and very little waste and make more of better beer. It doesn't all come together instantly and the journey is fun.
For mine, focus on beer quality first - people making good beer keep brewing - look at ways to improve equipment and methods as you practice.
Mark