RevZen

Recipes 

Hi all,

I am still a relatively new brewer (was about to bottle my 5th batch, 6th is in the secondary, 7th is in the primary). I switched from glass carboys to Better Bottles with the 5th batch so this is my first experience with them. There appears to be a kind of waxy residue on top of the beer in the Better Bottle - I (of course) rinsed and sanitized it before using it. This is an IPA which I brewed 8/20, left in the primary fermenter until 9/12 (3 wks, 2 days), and it's been there for not quite two weeks (a day shy). Any idea what the waxy residue could be? It doesn't look like yeasty bubbles.... I did not use soap to rinse it and used One-Step to sanitize - could it be a residue from that?
RDWHAHB?

Anyone ever seen this kind of residue before?

Thanks,
Susan

HolyDiver

Recipes 

Looks normal.

pericles

Recipes 

It's kind of hard to tell from the picture (although I appreciate that you posted one - it's DEFINITELY better than guessing from a written description!) From your picture, I think it COULD be yeast, traub, volatiles that bubbled out of the wort, residue from a cleaning agent. . .

Bottom line is, I've seen spots like that on fermenters both home-brew and professional, and they turn out great in spite of them. (Because of them? Without being able to identify them there's no way to tell.) So let it finish out, package it, drink it, and let us know!

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Bottled: Belgian Golden Ale.
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deggenbe

Recipes 

Let it sit undisturbed for a few days and see if the waxy surface 'grows'/'spreads'

post pics again after. maybe a few, try to get a detailed one up a little closer.

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daksin

Recipes 

Definitely can't tell from your picture, but when racking my second batch into a bottling bucket I noticed something like an oily sheen on the surface of the that seemed to build up and wrinkle/fold up as I racked. Sounds a lot like what you're describing. The beer looks and tastes great- super clear and delicious- it's definitely not infected. Must just be a thing some beers/yeasts do. I also use better bottles, if it makes any difference.

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Bottled:Monticello Barleywine, Red Nosed Tripel
Kegs:Cali Common, Imperial Common, Sunshine Belgian Rye, Sticke Note Alt
Secondary:Cherry Blackberry melomel
Primary: Honey Blonde
On Deck: Belma Pale Ale, Cluster Fug IIPA, American IIPA v1.0, rauchbier, roggenbier

RevZen

Recipes 

Thanks for all your replies - I ended up deciding to go ahead and bottle it yesterday morning (before deggenbe's advice to let it sit for a few days!). When I racked it into the bottling bucket, I left a little more than usual, avoiding that very top surface - it looked beautiful in the bottling bucket - no trace of the residue - though I lost of little of it that way - anyway 42 bottles are sitting and conditioning now, so in a couple of weeks, we'll know how it turned out. No off-taste that I could tell, though it was my first IPA.

Again, thanks to all! As we kept peering at it, my husband thought that someone online would have good advice!