krausen questions...

greetings beer brewers,

i've got questions about two beers currently under brewage... these represent my second and third batches of beer to date.

one is a german pilsner - lager. Grants Classic Pilsner.

after pitching the yeast i let the carboy sit for 24 hours in my 68 degree house. later i moved the beer to my garage and have kept a temp (during freezing weather) between 46 and 55 degrees. anyway the beer never really had a tempestuous fermentation... in fact it was rather wimpy...

here are two pictures:





this is exactly two weeks in the primary now... that's it... that's as good as it got... a few bubbles on top and a bit of yeast visible on the bottom. is this normal for a lager?

now the other brew i cooked yesterday and the gaseous commotion today is spellbinding... really there is noise and odor and everything... looking at the uncovered (wrapped in towel) carboy is like viewing a maelstrom! this brew is a bavarian weizen i pitched a liquid yeast - one of those pop the inner bag thingys. and the primary is indoors @ 68 degrees...

here are two pictures:





finally, are these two different krausens normal for the type of beer?

btw, i keep both these beers covered with towels so no light can get in.

i intend to keg these after three weeks of fermentation - primary and secondary carboys - then rack into a cornelius keg and prime with priming sugar to let age for maybe six weeks...

thanks for any information about krausen. or other advise related to these two types of beer.

tws

Yes they are. You Have 2 defferant beers there, one it a Lager which is a bottom fermenting beer and the other is a weizen which is a top fermenting beer, they meaning the weizen and other top ferments have more action when fermenting then do lager or bottom fermenting beers. On your weizen there, We over here in Germany ferment our weißen at the most 10 days then rack to keg or better bottles with Priming sugar another 5 days at room temp. then 21 days at 40-41F , but thats the way we do it here. Hope i was able to help.

thanks ECarroll,

yes that does help.  I love weiben beer and have never made it before. i'll follow your guide lines for priming and kegging.

i've never made a lager before either and suspect i should leave it aging even longer... i rack to a secondary today and will pull it inside for a day to get any delayed fermentation going then back out to the garage for a week before also racking to a keg and adding priming sugar.

thanks again.

tws