Stirring up the yeast cake

[Waratah67]

I was watching a Youtube clip (Chop and Brew I think) and the guy they were filming (a US craft brewer) started gently stirring up his yeast on day three with a long spoon. He said yeast tend to get "lazy" and stirring them gets more contact with sugars to drop the FG and clean up off flavors. He seemed to think the benefits offset the risks of infection.

So I have tried it with my last couple of brews and definitely seems to drop the FG an extra 2 or 3 points and creates a cleaner mouth feel (not sure about flavour though) - no infection issues.

Does anyone else do this?

 

[Yob]

only if im having trouble, slowly raising ther temp throughout ferment does the same thing really

 

[yankinoz]

I'll second what Yob says.

Let me play curmudgeon for a moment. Too many posts about fermentation experience leave out essential information. I don't mean to single out Waratah67 or aussiehomebrewer; it's general.

Temperature is usually relevant. Most posts seem to recognise the effect on esters, phenolics and off-flavours and accordingly include temp, but it is also a frequent explanation of long lag times, stuck fermentations, fast flocculation, and more. My first thought on reading this post was, is there temperature control?

 

[lobedogg]

Might pick the cube up (which I ferment in) and give it a bit of a swirl to speed things up little, but never stirred. I also ramp up by a few degrees towards the end of fermentation where possible.

 

[Waratah67]

@Yankinoz - I imagine it was temp controlled as it was in a commercial brewery, and it was also open fermented.

 

[Coo brewing]

I've been open fermenting for about 4 brews now and I really like the beers I'm getting from it as long as you catch it just before the crausen completely drops your ok

 

[michaeld16]

I've been open fermenting for about 4 brews now and I really like the beers I'm getting from it as long as you catch it just before the crausen completely drops your ok

What do ya mean by catching the krausen before completely dropping?

 

[tugger]

When open fermenting the crausen forms a shield over the top of the beer. As soon as it starts to show signs of fading you should transfer to a sealed fermenter or get the lid on as oxygen will get in allowing bacteria to take hold.

 

[Coo brewing]

Yep normally on about day 3-4 it drops out make sure to top crop the yeast .the first 8 hours I get all hop break come up to the surface chuck that out .it fills the whole house with hop aroma love it .then from the next day sanitize spoon and scoop of all that lovely yeast if you put your spoon in about half way and try to just kick it around with it try not to splash ( could cause oxydation ) day 3 ish keep an eye if all crausen has gone pull it into sealed fermenter

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Yep normally on about day 3-4 it drops out make sure to top crop the yeast .the first 8 hours I get all hop break come up to the surface chuck that out .it fills the whole house with hop aroma love it .then from the next day sanitize spoon and scoop of all that lovely yeast if you put your spoon in about half way and try to just kick it around with it try not to splash ( could cause oxydation ) day 3 ish keep an eye if all crausen has gone pull it into sealed fermenter

call me a naysayer but that sounds like you're introducing a huge chance of infection for no real tangible benefit?

If you really want to harvest krausen couldnt you just rig up a fancy blow-off valve?

 

[sponge]

Every time I've top-cropped I've just sanitized a measuring cup and taken off some krausen and thrown it into the receiving wort. Never had an issue thus far..

 

[Dave70]

So why not rig a stir plate up and have it spinning away for the first few days? Couldnt really see it having enough balls to create a vortex and oxidize the wort.