Different Yeast Behavior

[wolfie7873]

Been brewing for a year now. Up until recently, I had always used dry yeast (rehydrated before pitching) in my beer. The last two, I switched to smack packs.

In each of the two most recent batches when it came time to bottle, I noticed that there was a very thick layer of seemingly active yeast on top of the beer in addition to the sludge on the bottom.

When I used dry yeast, I would only have the sludge on the bottom - all the yeast had settled out like I thought was supposed to happen? Is this common with smack packs? Did I do something wrong? Did I just create 2 dozen bottle bombs? (I checked the FG and it was as expected)

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

means the bottles are fermenting not just carbonating, sounds like too much sugar or very active yeast, its possible the fermentation wasn't completely complete in the carboy and continued in the bottles producing a krausen in the bottle

 

[wolfie7873]

I think you misunderstood. What I meant was the krausen in the primary fermentor didn't completely settle. When I opened the fermentor, I had more or less a correct FG reading, but a thick layer of yeast on top of the beer.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

oh you just had a very active stuck yeast krausen, it happens, you can let it settle longer or scoop part of it out and see if it still ferments, if the gravity is correct just avoid it or scoop it out before using the auto siphon

it was probably the yeast type and not the smack pack too some yeast are very active

 

[Smitty27]

I've had some of the krausen on mine take quite a while to drop to the bottom. I usually don't mind, it gives the beer time to clean itself up and to make sure the yeast is completely done. If you did happen to create bottle bomb, you'll just have to invite some friends over and drink it up quickly....

 

[Alexv]

I would just give the beer more time to clear itself. Just make sure it still ferments.