OMG-what is this!?

Just opened my partial mash oatmeal stout to rack to my secondary and see this!

Is this normal? It's like a gelatinous mass on top. It's been fermenting in the primary for 16 days.

Please advise...

Haha! Title is great. It's all good. That's the krausen formed by yeast. It's supposed to happen.

It's krausen. That means it's still fermenting, as the krausen normally drops when the beer is finished. There are a few yeast strains that don't drop their krausen, but that's not common.

Cover it back up, don't rack it, and wait for it to be done. Check it in a week or so, and the krausen should be gone by then.

Thanks for the replies. Do you think it's stuck? It's been over two weeks. I got this kit from northern brewer, the yeast was neobritanica (I think I spelled it wrong).

I would have thought it would be done by now?

I'm not personally familiar with Neobrittanica but I know that Wyeast 1010 American Wheat puts off a cap of krausen like that which needs to be urged to drop. After 2 weeks or so I will gently rotate the fermenter to help it to break up and drop. Otherwise it will sit up there for a month or more. There is nothing unhealthy looking about that pic.

Pelican521 said:

TDo you think it's stuck? It's been over two weeks.

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We can't tell you, the only thing that can tell you is a gravity reading. I've had hoegarrden yeast have a krausen wit for a month on a beer, even though the gravity readings two weeks before confirmed that it was finished....

You wanna know what your beer is doing, take a reading.

Revvy said:

We can't tell you, the only thing that can tell you is a gravity reading. I've had hoegarrden yeast have a krausen wit for a month on a beer, even though the gravity readings two weeks before confirmed that it was finished....

You wanna know what your beer is doing, take a reading.

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And if you don't want to take a reading it won't hurt the beer to sit another 2 weeks.:rockin:

Well I sealed it up and I'll just wait another week. Say the hydro reading says it done but the krausen doesn't fall by next week, how should I go about racking it? Would I just stick the syphon through it?

Pelican521 said:

Well I sealed it up and I'll just wait another week. Say the hydro reading says it done but the krausen doesn't fall by next week, how should I go about racking it? Would I just stick the syphon through it?

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Yep, don't over-think it.

A little "swirl" by twisting the fermenter is what I normally do, but there's no reason to HAVE to do that. If you do not go to a secondary (not needed) then getting it to fall now might make for less sediment in your bottles, but that's just aesthetics.

Despite what you may want to do, avoid the urge to stir it back down or skim it off. That's viable during the initial stages of fermentation but now you only want to make things move a little if at all.

RM-MN said:

And if you don't want to take a reading it won't hurt the beer to sit another 2 weeks.:rockin:

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And then if it IS STUCK, the op hasn't fixed it in those two weeks, then has to, and probably wait a couple more weeks to let the beer actually clear.

This is EXACTLY the situation where people shouldn't be scared to use their hydrometer, to tell them what's going on. Anything else is just conjecture, or delaying re-jumpstarting fermentation if it is stuck.

bottlebomber said:

I'm not personally familiar with Neobrittanica but I know that Wyeast 1010 American Wheat puts off a cap of krausen like that which needs to be urged to drop. After 2 weeks or so I will gently rotate the fermenter to help it to break up and drop. Otherwise it will sit up there for a month or more. There is nothing unhealthy looking about that pic.

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The Neobrittanica is a yeast made by Wyeast for Northern Brewer...

The last time I used 1010 I had krausen chunks floating like icebergs right up until the day I racked it into the keg. It was a very yummy beer...

Gary

Thanks all. I'll wait till next weekend and then take a reading and figure what to do then.

GASoline71 said:

The Neobrittanica is a yeast made by Wyeast for Northern Brewer...

The last time I used 1010 I had krausen chunks floating like icebergs right up until the day I racked it into the keg. It was a very yummy beer...

Gary

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Personally I love it. It's almost made it to house strain status. I brewed a New Zealand hopped wheat IPA with it a month ago, and currently I'm boiling a honey wheat beer. Even though its technically a "low floc" strain, when it does drop it drags everything else down with it and creates the clearest homebrew I've ever seen. Very moderate ester and phenol production, just a slight tartness and interest beyond a neutral strain.

I just checked it again now and all of the Krausen has dropped. I also took a reading and it's at 1.016. Unfortunately, this Oatmeal Stout PM kit I got from Northern Brewer only has the OG on the instruction sheet which is 1.049 and doesn't have the FG on the sheet...

I'm going to check the gravity again on Sunday to see if it's changed, but from anyone's experience, does 1.016 FG seem like the correct number for an Oatmeal Stout?

According to the BJCP guidelines, an oatmeal stout should have an FG of 1.010-1.018 so you're right in there!

Northern brewer instructions are very basic, you have to figure out a lot on your own.

According too beersmith2 puts it at 1.012 so I think you are in the right ballpark. If you have beersmith lots of northern brewer beers are in the Help/add ons menu.