yeast skimming

[carpet19]

hello all, just came back to brewing and i need some advice please, for a newbie. my question is, do you need to skim the yeast head off the wort during the primary fermentation, some books say yes and some say no. i obviously dont want to disturb the head any more than i have to, but i dont want any off flavours either. im brewing an all grain scottish ale using fermentis yeast and at present the head looks like its going to explode. its fermenting in a 6gall brewbin with the lid off. any suggestions would be appreciated. this is my first post and i would like to congratulate everyone on an excellent site. many thanks.

[ColinKeb]

hi, i never bother skimming my yeast but if there is a lot of scum on top of it i would gently lift it off with the back of a wooden spoon. if your yeast has gone mental then i would just take enough off to still leave a protective inch or so on top of the beer. i wouldnt leave the lid off though , you are increasing the chance of infection by doing that.
good luck

[iowalad]

I have never skimmed. I leave the lid on when fermenting.

[moorsd]

I always skim!

The scum that the yeast brings up is nasty hop compounds that taste extremely bitter...yuk! It's not something you really want to sink back into the beer

Obviously sanitation is important, but I've never had any issues with infection, at the end of the day all the commercial breweries skim, so if it's good enough for them....it's good enough for me!

Skimming isn't absolutely necessary though.

[Garth]

I'd agree with moorsd, skim the dark brown crap and leave the white/cream head to do it's protective business. Some people say that the brown protein stuff imparts a bad taste to the brew

[tubby_shaw]

I also remove the brown scum, once only and then leave it to ferment out.[/list]

[SteveD]

I remove the dark brown trub/scum, and try to leave the creamy yeast head behind.....and then again sometimes I dont. Depends on wether I can be arsed The trub tastes foul and bitter, but leaving it doesn't seem to affect the beer unduly.

[Boo Boo]

Some say it is advisable to skim it off if it can be done in a sanitary way. I don't bother, as I keep my fermenter under airlock when in primary. The yeast head falls back into the brew and don't pose a problem as long as it isn't exposed to air. After primary is finished, I rack to a secondary, so keeping my beer on the trub isn't a problem.

[Andy]

I remove the dark brown trub/scum, and try to leave the creamy yeast head behind.....and then again sometimes I dont. Depends on wether I can be arsed The trub tastes foul and bitter, but leaving it doesn't seem to affect the beer unduly.

Ditto

[TheBigEasy]

When I first started I used to skim, coz that's what the books said. Now I never bother. I only lift the lid to ensure the fermentation is active then leave it be until I am ready to rack.

[Matt]

I've never skimmed, but am a little alarmed at the crap left on the surface of my current ESB after the head has fallen yesterday.

Should I try to skim the brown stuff out with a sanitised sieve, or let it settle back in and trust that racking to 2ndry and later racking to bottling bucket will lose it?



Cheers,
Matt

[tubby_shaw]

I personally would rack that to secondary now
Whether or not it affects the taste I couldn't comment as I have always removed the majority of trub. But I would "convince" myself I could taste it

[Matt]

OK TS. Thanks.

Yep. Racking due this pm.

Cheers,
Matt