Carbonation by Krausening

Those of you who have ready my bottle bomb thread will be relieved to hear that I have no intention of doing this for the foreseeable future.

However, I know that the Anchor Brewing Co use this method to carbonate their steam beer and I was wondering if any home brewers have experience of doing it?

How easy is it - would it just be a case of keeping some wort back (freezing it?) then adding it back to secondary as a batch prime?

Are there any reliable sources of information online?

Never even heard of that mate. I'll have to look into that one....

I believe krausening involves adding a proportion of actively fermenting beer to the finished beer, just before bottling, 10-15% springs to mind but double check. The yeast are in peak condition and they naturally carbonate the beer when bottled. I think it comes from traditional German brewing practices where adding sugar (and possibly even CO2) to prime isn't allowed under their purity laws.

To do this you need to have another brew on the go and at high krausen when you want to bottle. If the beer is very different in flavour/colour than the one you are bottling it may affect the end result. For a large brewery producing tons of the same beer, this isn't a problem.

I think you could definitely try saving a proportion of wort after the boil and freeze it and then use it to carbonate your beer with but I don't think that is technically krausening.

I had never heard of it before but it seems beersmith have an explanation of why it was done and a calculator (in US measurements) of how much to use here http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/03/22/krausening-home-brewed-beer/ though not mentioned I imagine it also got the beer into condition quicker as the yeast would be more healthy. How much did you use in the bottle bombs?

simon12 said:

I had never heard of it before but it seems beersmith have an explanation of why it was done and a calculator (in US measurements) of how much to use here http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/03/22/krausening-home-brewed-beer/ though not mentioned I imagine it also got the beer into condition quicker as the yeast would be more healthy. How much did you use in the bottle bombs?

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I thought I was using 3/4 of a teaspoon (about 3.75g) of caster sugar, but it turns out my spoon isn't a "proper" teaspoon and I actually added 6.5g. My ale bottles have all been fine (just over-fizzy) but my poor 750ml former Birra Moretti bottle couldn't take the strain.

It's done in Germany as sugar is a no-no if you're following the Reinheitsgebot. As far as I'm aware, you simply add some reserved wort (freezing and defrosting should be ok. I'd thaw, boil and cool to ensure it's sterile) to the bottling bucket.

No idea on volumes, but would assume there's calculators online?

I have done this for Belgian style beers. I scooped off the Krausen after a couple of days in the primary and put this in the fridge. After primary fermentation was done I siphoned the brew into a secondary and left this in a cool place (shed) for a week, with dry hopping. Meanwhile I made up a starter culture with the Krausen yeast using a spraymalt base (procedure as given in Graham Wheeler’s “Brew your own British Real Ale”). Just prior to bottling I added the aforementioned starter plus a sugar solution (200g sugar dissolved in about 300ml boiled water for a brew volume of 20 Litres) into the secondary. I then left the bottles in a warm place for a couple of days then cool conditioned for 6+ weeks. This gave a very well carbonated beer. I got the idea from the “brew like a Monk” book by Stan Hieronymus. I used recycled 750ml Leffe bottles with wire enclosures the first time in but have used crown caps subsequently - no bombs but caveat emptor …

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and wanted to register an account anyways, but reading the thread motivated me to do so immediately.

Maybe I can help a bit:
First of all some clarification about the names:
Kräusen (e.q. Krausen in english) means the froth created by the yeast through fermentation. There are three stages of fermentation which can easily recognised on the Kräusen:
1. The build up: Yest is growing therefor the Kräusen is building up, but has "holes" and looks like fluffy clouds
2. The pedal to the metal stage: Yest amount is fully developed and the Kräusen/froth is even like summer clouds in Scotland but not so gray
3. The end stage: The Kräusen is shrinking and a ring which is called "Krausenring" stays at the wall of the fermenting vessel.

What we are talking is called "Kräusenbier". There are a few breweries in Germany which are selling these beer. One of my favourite is Höpfner Kräusen which is a crispy refreshing beer. It looks similar to a Hefeweizen, but is lightly hopped.

However: Krausenbeer means only that a fully fermented beer is mixed with a beer in phase 2. So it can be a top fermented or a bottom fermented beer, brewed with less or more hop whatsoever. As breweries tend to have several fermentation vessels. I think to remember the Höpfner brewery has 5 olympic pool sized ("conditioning pools") in their cellar. So the just start brewing a new batch when the first one is almost done. After a few days the pump a part of the new batch into the finished one.

It has been a while when I visited the brewery so please don't ask me in which relations the mixed new with finished beer. I think (because of the open fermentation pools) it was a top-fermenting beer. Hope this helps.

Grüße
Germlish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewing#Conditioning

Cheers GermLish, always enjoyed German Beer. Don't know much about making it but i love drinking it and have had amazing times in Germany. Welcome to the forum and thanks for the info. :)

Thanks BeerCat,

I'm just starting and I'm missing my Kräusen so much, that I spent 350.- to by a BIAB equipment. My goal is to brew a similar delicious beer here in UK, but I know it will be a steep learning curve and lots of experimenting.

I have a little experience in brewing though, helped my friend sometimes but think doing it alone is something else. Also his equipment (20.000 litre mash tank) versus mine (30l) is a bit more sophisticated

But hey, everyone had to learn to walk, and these are my first steps. Will start with all-grain kits, follow the recieps and after a few brews I will start experimenting. Hopfully my brewmeister will help me with the recipe. It's hard though as he keeps these secret and hell, he can drink like a camel so no chance to make him drunk...

I'll keep you posted.