What the hell's floating in my beer?

Phan71 · 08-08-2007, 03:45 AM

Okay, I checked on the Wheat Ale that I have in the secondary, and there are little "things" floating in it. The best I can describe is that they look like little, tiny seeds floating in the beer. What the hell? I've never seen this before. Can anyone tell me what this is? Is it some kind of infection? Is it normal?

I took some photos, but they really didn't turn out. Here they are, for what it's worth.

Orpheus · 08-08-2007, 03:50 AM

I call that the 'sesame seeds.' Many of my beers had it, and they were problem free. I think it's just little clumps of yeast.

Dr Malt · 08-08-2007, 04:02 AM

It can be yeast or trub or both combined. If your beer does not have any objectionable smell or taste, don't worry about it. I have seen them from time to time too in my beer.

Dr Malt

Phan71 · 08-08-2007, 04:09 AM

I pulled off the cap and sniffed it, and it smells okay.

I've just never seen this before, so of course I shifted immediately to "panic" mode.

Thanks for the reassurances!

**Biermann** · 08-08-2007, 04:19 AM

It's yeast. Don't worry about it.

RDWHAHB. . .

and for what its worth. . .having stainless conicals (so I can't see this kind of crap), has lowered my stress level 10 fold. Just don't look at it.

Cheers.

Desert_Sky · 08-08-2007, 04:29 AM

its ruined.

please continue to condition, then bottle and ship to me for proper disposal

bandt9299 · 08-08-2007, 05:34 AM

I always have these seed looking things, I thought they were hop seeds or something, No worries whatever thay are.

Phan71 · 08-08-2007, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chimone

its ruined.

please continue to condition, then bottle and ship to me for proper disposal

Oh, good! A bad beer disposal service! What's the address for that?

robrobrob · 08-08-2007, 03:19 PM

Wow! I just noticed the same thing in my Oatmeal stout that I racked into secondary yesterday and had come on here to ask the same question!

zoebisch01 · 08-08-2007, 03:34 PM

Yeah, in so many of the cases we have seen here and from my own experience, the majority (and I mean like over 95% of the cases rough guess) there isn't an infection but just some funkly by product of fermentation. Tbh, it is a pretty ugly process. The final product is nice though.

Additionally, there is nothing you can do in the event of an infection really (in terms of 'saving' it) and the advice I always give is to ride out the fermentation, bottle/keg it and then after the required conditioning time, taste. Then and only then can you really know if it is screwed up. Even repeat recipes can proceed differently from batch to batch.