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Apart from using this method for harvesting yeast, does anyone do this and why do you do this? Do you find any flavour advantages or improvements in the quality of your beer?

People with blow-off tubes are probably doing effectively the same thing.

It’s apparently always done in real ale, which is traditionally fermented under open fermentation conditions, so I’ve started doing it, but I don’t know why I am doing it (I don’t re-use yeast). The batch we’re drinking at the moment was the first batch I skimmed and it is an awesome beer, but I haven't brewed this beer before, so I can't say if skimming improves the beer.

I was trying to figure this out. I skimmed a BRY-97 yeast batch today and tasted the krausen from the bowl. It was the most incredibly bitter thing I have ever tasted and my mouth still hasn’t recovered. It was like chewing a sprig of wormwood (I did that when I was a kid, and still remember it).

Talk to amartin


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Thanks, Already discussed here sorry. I guess I'm half awake today, but still confused about this krausen skimming.

Andrew has been top cropping his yeast I think for over 16 months.


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I think krausen skimming is a little different, because the goal is to get rid of the nasty brown bitter junk on top of the yeast. If you use a closed fermenter with a blow off tube though, most of this is just going to stick to the top of the carboy. I skim the yeast from the top because I'm cheap, and because you get a better crop of yeast from the top than you do from the bottom.

Thanks! that helps a lot actually.

I think I read something about open fermentation, (which I sort of do because I primary ferment in the kettle, but I have a lid on and I think the lid might help with the CO2 blanket), that the hop oils oxidize on the surface and give a nasty bitterness. After tasting my krausen, I think that might be right…so maybe I’ll keep skimming.

How many times do you skim please and on what days of fermentation? I'm thinking skim once on day 2 1/2 with BRY-97.

I usually skim on day 3, sometimes on day 2 if it's fermenting quickly. Most times I just skim once, but I only do it to collect yeast. I'll take about half of the surface and then stir the rest into the beer. The yeast I collect goes into a sanitized container (the smaller LME kind from NG) with some boiled and cooled water. The next day after it settles in the fridge, if there's at least a half inch or so, good, if not I collect again. Some yeasts work better than others, but I've had good luck with American strains, so BRY97 should be good.

amartin wrote:... I skim the yeast from the top because I'm cheap, and because you get a better crop of yeast from the top than you do from the bottom.

Makes sense to me when you look at it from House of Pain's point of view:

I'm the cream of the crop, I rise to the top
I never eat a pig cause a pig is a cop
Or better yet a terminator
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger
Try'n to play me out like as if my name was Sega

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