Yeast cake/excessive foam

[Dines55]

Good morning.

Brewed this batch of wort Oktoberfest on the 26th of september, it is currently in fermentation. I messed up and I put the water directly from the faucet which I assume was the reason for all of the foam I had to deal with in the first couple of days...anyways, I am concerned that all of the yeast got stuck on the top and wasn’t able to ferment in then wort during the past few weeks (see the photo). As I said this has been in the Carboy since the 26th and the airlock is not bubbling but once every couple of minutes if that...did I mess this up?

 

[RM-MN]

That looks like a typical krausen. There is plenty of yeast still in the beer to complete the fermentation even with that much krausen.

Ale yeasts work pretty fast (which is why you get a large krausen) and the beer was probably done on day 3 or 4. The yeast only produce the CO2 that makes your airlock bubble during that time and any bubbling after that comes from the CO2 escaping from being in solution in the beer. That can happen for many days.

The only way to know just how well fermentation went and whether the beer is done yet is to take a hydrometer sample.

 

[brewbama]

Your problem is not the krausen. It’s that you’re fermenting in the dinning room. Get that thing in some sort of temp controlled environment.

 

[Dines55]

Your problem is not the krausen. It’s that you’re fermenting in the dinning room. Get that thing in some sort of temp controlled environment.

What should my temperature have been?

 

[rburrelli]

Temperature likely too high and not enough headspace. It looks like you needed a blowoff tube. Although it might have blown up through the airlock if that was the case.

 

[brewbama]

What should my temperature have been?

Depends on the yeast but normally an O’fest is fermented with a lager yeast. The OEM will give temp range recommendations for their yeast. That’s a good place to start.

What yeast did you use?

 

[IslandLizard]

the airlock is not bubbling but once every couple of minutes if that...did I mess this up?

That's an indication the beer is still fermenting...
Let it be, no use to take any samples now. Most of the foamy krausen will collapse and sink to the bottom when it's done. A week after that, take a hydrometer reading.

 

[Alex4mula]

When was that picture taken? After two weeks that beer should be done by now if you used ale yeast.

 

[Tipsy McStagger]

Don't worry about the crap that's stuck to the neck of the carboy.It's probably done fermenting at this point.Time to get it into keg or bottles.

 

[dwhite60]

DO NOT SECONDARY unless you're going to cold crash and lager it for a while. You could cold crash in the current carboy.

Really, you're probably good to bottle but I'd take a couple hydrometer readings over a few days to make sure it's done.

Hope it's AWESOME!

All the Best,
D. White