Skimming the yeast

[Jaoqua]

When brew #1 was fermenting I had quite a changeable yeast head (krausen?). In the posts on re-using yeast it was suggested that some of the darker matter in the head was rubbish, so is it worth scraping this off the top? Or is that an unnecessary refinement in my early days of kit brewing?

[Jim]

You'll be fine to leave it there with a kit. All grain brews sometimes throw up hop debris with the first yeast head, which is best skimmed off.

It'll do no harm to skim it, as long as you sanitise your skimming device.