Should or Shouldn't I remove Krausen collar???

Hi Guys,

New member to this but glad to have joined for some needed experience and knowledge from other users. My question is that I brewed my second batch last Friday evening and to be honest went very well as my first brew was at xmas and it was a kit which I wasnt really gone on because it came with a canadian blonde brew which isnt for me. This time I brewed a Cincinnati pale ale which is more to my taste and recipe from the "How to Brew" book by John Palmer.

Im confused whether to remove the krausen collar or not, I personally cant see any benefit from doing so but the last 'coopers kit' I used said to do so. Is their a possibility of contaminating my brew by exposing it to O2 or will it be ok to leave the collar in situ???? My recipe is below and any comments are greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks
Denis

Ingredients:
3-4 lbs. of Pale malt extract syrup, unhopped.
3 lbs. of Amber dry malt extract.
12 AAUs of Bittering Hop, Northern Brewer
5 AAUs of Finishing Hop, Cascade
1 Vial of calafornian ale yeast

Just leave it. It's not doing any harm.

Leave it be. Let the yeast fall through and it will help clear/clean the beer.

Cheers Guys,

Was thinking about 3 weeks before bottling to leave good time for conditioning as I only have the single fermenter at the moment, newbie to this game so excuse the questions, although the last time I bottled straight away as soon as my fg was stable over 2 days...Presume the extra time wont do any harm??? Thanks again

Gugs44 said:

Cheers Guys,

Was thinking about 3 weeks before bottling to leave good time for conditioning as I only have the single fermenter at the moment, newbie to this game so excuse the questions, although the last time I bottled straight away as soon as my fg was stable over 2 days...Presume the extra time wont do any harm??? Thanks again

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Three weeks is a good baseline. Wheat beers can take less, your darker/heavier/more complex beers can benefit from more. But no, your beer won't suffer from some more time. Your patience will, but not the beer.

Just leave it, it won't hurt the beer at all. Plus, you don't risk infection/oxidation.

Another leave it... I've even had chunks of krausen still floating on top of my brews all the way until I kegged them. They turned out just fine.

Gary

leave it be till it's ready to be kegged/bottled.

He has the newer Cooper's DIY fermenter. You gently remove the krausen collar after krausen has fallen to reduce head space. Co2 being a heavier gas than air,it'll stay in place in below where the collar is removed. Just do it gently,but quickly. That's the way it's designed to be used. Sure you don't have to,but it is designed to get that ring around the collar away from the beer. It's bitter.

Dittos for removing, I have the same fermentor.
You dont have to remove it but that fermentor specifically has the krausen collar peice for removal and ease of cleaning.

I've made a couple batch's with mine and removed the collar, no biggie either way, keep in or remove.

unionrdr said:

He has the newer Cooper's DIY fermenter. You gently remove the krausen collar after krausen has fallen to reduce head space. Co2 being a heavier gas than air,it'll stay in place in below where the collar is removed. Just do it gently,but quickly. That's the way it's designed to be used. Sure you don't have to,but it is designed to get that ring around the collar away from the beer. It's bitter.

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I'm not following you. "Remove the krausen collar after krausen has fallen to reduce head space." I'm totally lost by this sentence. Please explain.

Yes, the stuff that makes up the krausen ring IS bitter. Which is why it should be left in place. Disturbing it might get big chunks of it back into the beer.

How is this the first time I'm hearing about a Cincinnati pale ale!?!?!?

I just dont really see the chance of oxidation in leaving it.

Opening the vessel to remove the krausen would only let OUT the built up gasses allowing oxygen inside...
Thats my thought process anyways.

I use my older style coopers fermenter and it has PLENTY of headspace, never had a problem with any beers.

On a side note..... anyone else love the smell of the krausen? For whatever reason I do :cross:

Guess what...He's not referring to the krausen itself, as much as he's talking about a specific piece of the cooper's fermenter.

There's actually tons of thread around the webbies asking the same thing, with "oldtimers" like us (anyone who's not using one of these new fangled fermenters) being totally confused by it.

This isn't even the first thread ON HERE about it...And that thread is from 2011?!?!? So I guess it'snot so new after all.

Coopers Kit and the Krausen Collar

Evidently this piece that the guy is holding is the afore mentioned Krausen collar.

I've been taking my krausen collar off after one week. Each time I do it I say to myself "Why bother? Just leave it until bottling day." but I do it anyway because I've gotten into the habit.

The question I haven't asked myself (until now) is why do I always use the krausen collar even when I know the brew I'm doing has no need of all that extra headspace. One of the supposed benefits of the krausen collar is that it makes cleanup easier but I'm not sure I buy into that.

Next time I do a Cooper's Canadian Blonde (I know this won't throw off a big krausen) I'll forgo the krausen collar and see how much difference it makes, if any to the cleanup process.

LandoLincoln said:

I'm not following you. "Remove the krausen collar after krausen has fallen to reduce head space." I'm totally lost by this sentence. Please explain.

Yes, the stuff that makes up the krausen ring IS bitter. Which is why it should be left in place. Disturbing it might get big chunks of it back into the beer.

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Have you ever seen the DIY fermenter? It's designed with that section under the lid,but above the level of the beer to be removed when the krausen falls back into the beer. It's a different type of plastic,still food safe. So the krausen ring of gunk might not stick as well over time as ale pails or the like.
You stil have enough head space,but less than with it in place. All the co2 won't magicly spill out. You'll still have some on top of the beer. And since it's still fermenting at that point,it'll make more. You just won't need as much to fill said space.

The sole purpose of the collar, as stated by Coopers, is for ease of cleaning, the krausen collar holds most of the krausen residue so it can be removed and cleaned seperately. When the fermentor itself is cleaned its an easier task.

The collar can be disregarded completely, left in or removed after the krausen has fallen. Gimmicky - perhaps, works ok for me though.
The fermentor itself is quite large and has lots of space, especially with the collar in.

Pics of my own fermentor, I removed the collar from the batches I have made.

Seems pointless feature in my opinion. I'd rather spend a few extra minutes cleaning a piece of equipment rather than risk oxidation or infection.

Darwin18 said:

Seems pointless feature in my opinion. I'd rather spend a few extra minutes cleaning a piece of equipment rather than risk oxidation or infection.

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Definitely. They're trying to sell a problem-solver for a problem that doesn't actually exist.

Thanks again lads and great to get some sound advice, tomorrow is day 6 and it has subsided quite a bit after a really good krausen on it, I think I will remove it tomorrow just to be sure and leave for another 15 days r so before bottling...only have the PET bottles so far but looking into kegging my next batch, saves on time sanitising all 50 bottles each time

Greatly appreciate everyones advice

Ha...just seen your location, that would be like me only hearing about Guinness living in Ireland...got the recipe from "How to Brew" book by John Palmer...Sounds like a one I personally would love and smelled lovely before pitching to fermenter

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter7.html