So earlier I had mentioned the broken spigot on my primary that I managed to siphon into a glass carboy. It had been in primary for 6 days . Earlier I noticed that there was about an inch & 1/2 of foamy / spungy substance on top after the transfer, Came home this eve, bout 8 hours later & the foam has settled & there doesn't seem to be any activity at all.. Is this batch gonna spoil ? Is it any good? Should I just let it sit in there for another week or so? It's an English ale. There isn't any clarity at all... Don't really know what to do... Help again!!!
2 Answers
The foam on top was krausen - it's a mix of yeast, proteins, hop oils. During your original primary, temperatures fluctuated from 63 to 70C, so it's quite likely that fermentation wasn't complete after 6 days, and when you transferred to the carboy, fermentation continued, possibly more vigorously since the yeast were roused and resuspended as part of the transfer to the carboy.
Once primary fermentation is done, the krausen will often fall back into the beer. You can leave the beer for a further 2 weeks after this to condition and clean up. If you're impatient, you can bottle after a week, but you'll need typically 2 weeks conditioning in the bottle before the beer is at its best and fully carbonated. (By all means taste the beer before then just to get a feel for how "green" beer tastes, and how the carbonation is progressing.)
-
1And don't ever thing on throwing away any brew before you give it a try after bottling and maturing enough. :) Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 13:06
Sounds completely normal. Don't even think about it for the next two weeks.
answered Jan 18, 2013 at 3:28
