Is it beneficial to get rid of krausen?

[Asahikun]

I am asking this in response to reading a thread in the "general" section...
From what Papazian says, getting rid of the krausen through a blow-off tube is beneficial in terms of improved flavor and reduced hangovers. Then yesterday I read that many people just use a blow-off tube to prevent blockage and consider getting rid of any krausen as an unnecessary waste of beer.
I personally try to get rid of as much of it as possible and only lose a tiny amount of beer. This is because I thought that getting rid of it was a good thing.

So what do people think about this? Is getting rid of the krausen before it settles back into the beer considered a good thing or not? What do breweries do?

[chris1kanobi]

I personally do not remove any of the krausen from my beers. I am working on building a cold side hop back, that will also serve as a filter for cold break material, which as I understand can cause more off flavors than krausen. It would be a good idea to brew a batch and remove the krausen from 1/2 and not the other and taste the difference.

[Asahikun]

Thanks for the reply.
I don't really have the equipment to try your idea.
What I'm doing is working so I'm gonna stick with it unless anyone can convince me it's a waste of time.
Does anyone know if it's good to remove it or not?

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by Asahikun
Thanks for the reply.
I don't really have the equipment to try your idea.
What I'm doing is working so I'm gonna stick with it unless anyone can convince me it's a waste of time.
Does anyone know if it's good to remove it or not?

If what you're doing is working - and you're happy with the results - stick with it. If it ain't broke - don't fix it.

It is purported to be beneficial, taste-wise, to remove kraeusen. Go to : http://byo.com/mrwizard/758.html

[kevin]

if using a glass carboy I don't know how you get the krausen out, outside of what travels through your blowoff tube. I could remove it from a bucket but then I think there is a chance of containmenation.

[Tweek]

well you can prob get a slightly cleaner beer by removing it. However if you rack on a decent schedule and you dont let your beer sit on the trub too long I would bet that one would not be able to tell the diference. I have had realactive batches that I split between containers, one with a blowoff that lost a ton and one with an airlock that didnt lose any (diferent size containers). Before I blended them back together I tasted them and couldnt tell the diference. I hate to argue with Papazian, cause I would prob lose but I really dont think removing krausen is necessary.

[Asahikun]

Thanks for the replies.
Fast_Eddy thanks for the link. It seems that some breweries do and some don't. On my present batch I had a lot of brown specs in the tube - I guess that's what he refers to as "brown yeast".

Kevin, I find that at the most active stage of fermentation, the bucket lid lifts up at the sides. I often "visit" my beer and push it down again. If you apply some pressure to the middle of the lid while holding down the sides, krausen will come gushing out. Assuming the rubber cork was sanitised properly, there is no chance of contamination using this method.

Tweek, I'm assuming that you tasted them prior to bottling. I've found that the taste before bottling is only a very rough indicator of what the final taste will be. It could be that the no-doubt subtle differences caused by the presence or absence of krausen only becomes noticeable after the beer has been conditioned. Just an idea.

[Tweek]

yes. however the taste before bottling will be the one that can tell you if something like this is worthwhile. Before you have aged out a beer you can taste all of its parts in a sort of suspension. The flavors have not melded together yet. What you are talking about would be way easier to taste while it is very young.

by all means if you are happy with the results you are getting keep it up!

[Asahikun]

Tweek, I hadn't thought of it like that. You may well be right.
Well, no one has convinced me that it's a complete waste of time so, yes, I probably will continue.
How about the hangover issue; removing krausen supposedly removes some of the fusel oils which can lead to worse hangovers. Any thoughts about this?