Skimming

[oxford brewer]

Last saturday i brewed a Springhead Bitter from Marc Ollossons book.
I rehydrated the yeast(Danstar Nottingham,this stuff settles out well and compacts down really hard) in 400ml of cooled wort that had been taken from the boiler 10 minutes into the boil.The yeast was quite active when i pitched it into the main brew.Within one day a hard looking brown crust appeared over the wort and has remained in place ever since,a few white patches of yeast head broke through but that was all, is it safe to skim this brown crust from the wort It doesnt appear to have much yeast head under the crust,so im not sure if it is safe to do this

[RabMaxwell]

I would check the gravity if it's nearly finished i would skim it to prevent it falling in.

[spearmint-wino]

What is the benefit of skimming? I guess it removes the trub that the yeast throws up, but does this normally cause off-flavours if left to sink back into the beer?

(I only ask as I usually don't bother skimming...)

[RabMaxwell]

I used to always skim but now i use a blow-off tube all the dirty yeast & trub gets blown out. I still open up near the end & skim what's on top & stuck to the side to prevent it falling in before crash cooling.

[spearmint-wino]

ah yeah, crash-cooling... another thing i could do with working out