Krausening Lagers

[TM]

I was recently having trouble with diacetyl in my beers, mostly light lagers, but, also a Kolsch. I decided to try krausening. In summary, no more diacetyl.

I have tried it twice. Both times with WLP800 (Pilsner Lager) yeast.

When transferring my beer from the kettle to the fermenter I held back 2L reserve of wort in a sanitized soda bottle. I squeezed all the air out of the soda bottle when closing the lid and then froze the bottle.

I fermenter the main beer normally. When it was finished fermenting I took yeast from the bottom of the fermenter and pitched it in the thawed krausen beer. I let the 2L krausen beer come to high krausen (24-48 hours after pitch) and then added the krausen beer to the larger batch. I then let the beer ferment normally at my target fermentation temperature.

Viola, clean crisp lager bier!

The krausen process is a bit of extra work. I don't even really know if I needed it. I never tasted the beer before krausening. Since I had frozen the 2L of krausen beer, I wasn't going to leave it behind. Of course, I could have tasted the pre-krausen beer and kept the 2L reserve for a future yeast starter if it wasn't needed.

To harvest yeast for the krausen beer I used my bottling cane. I placed my thumb on one end and grabbed ten samples from the bottom of my fermenter. That was a tip I saw on braukaiser.com.

PS. I would use this forum more if there was an app.

[Ron Unz]

Interesting technique. I'm curious how well something like that would work with beers in the keg that have diacetyl.

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[Tommy Morris]

I got the idea from Andrew Oswalt. He submitted a beer (Munich Helles I think) to WoW that had diacetyl when he first tasted it. He then krausened. When he submitted, he accidentally sent one bottle pre-krausen and one bottle post krausen. The clean beer won gold for its category. Tracy Hamilton, a BOS judge, wondered aloud how a beer with so much butter taste could make it to BOS judging. That's when Andrew told the story. 

[Tommy Morris]

PS. You can also make your krausen beer with DME after the fact. That will mute the hops a bit, but, supposedly can make a bad beer much better. 

On Aug 8, 2014, at 6:46 PM, Ron Unz <eve...@gtrbrewers.org> wrote:

[Richard Bryant]

Lately I've had dicetyl form in the keg from a previously clean beer. It has confounded me. I may try Khios on a lager. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Jeremy Wickham]

I've heard about this technique when bottling, but to help with diacetyl in lagers is a great idea. 

As Richard says I tend to get diacetyl after I keg my beer. Super crisp and tasty when I rack and a month later after I have been lagering, diacetyl bomb. 

I haven't made a lager in some time since I've discovered American Ale Yeast Blend does a great job an is very lager like. I've won medals in light lagers with that yeast. It may never win a gold but does a great job. 

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Jeremy Wickham about.me/jwickham

[Tommy Morris]

There is a "For Brewers Only: The Diacetyl Test" in this link which describes how to detect unconverted AAL in your beer. AAL is a diacetyl precursor which will turn into diacetyl overtime in the keg. 

http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/diacetyl.html

The test description is 3/4th of the way down in the article. 

I haven't tried this test. 

[Richard Bryant]

Great information, Tommy. It sounds like we may simply be packaging too early especially if we are fermenting at lower temps. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Ron Unz]

That's kind of why I asked. I've heard of a few people having that issue and it would be nice to have an easy fix for beers that turn out like that 

[Ron Unz]

That's kind of why I asked. I've heard of a few people having that issue and it would be nice to have an easy fix for beers that turn out like that