Fermentation

For the Small Beer I thought I would take some pictures to show what fermentation looks like. The top layer of "foam" is called krausen and is basically all yeast. Top cropping is a process that many homebrewers and some commercial brewers (especiall Belgian Trappist ones) do by skimming the top layer to collect very healthy yeast that will be used in the next batch of beer. Its a good way to get viable, healthy yeast and it also saves money by reusing the $7.75 yeast multiple times instead of just once.

18 Hours:



26 Hours:



40 Hours:


72 Hours:



You can see the progression of the fermentation by the rise in the krausen, after about 72 hours most of the time fermentation will slow down and the kruasen will slowly fall back into the beer. Now that we have a dedicated brewing fridge we will then put the beer in the fridge at about 38 F for 4-5 days to make sure everything in suspension will drop to the bottom. Then, when we move the beer off the yeast cake we can make sure to leave everything behind resulting in a clearer beer.