Unexpected growth in cranberry stout?

I recently decided to try and make a cranberry stout for a Winter Seasonal Ale, and have run into an intriguing problem. Everything has been going well untill I transfered my beer into the seconday. I steeped a pound of bruised/crushed cranberries at 150F for 10 minutes, let it cool (covered) and dropped them into the carboy. Then I transfered my beer from the first stage, which tasted good and had about 5% alcohol, over the cranberries.

So it's been sitting there for about 5 days now and I've noticed some "growths" slightly under the cranberry layer. I can't determine if it's an infection or part of the cranberry. Certainly doesn't look like it, but I'm trying to hang onto some hope. Have you guys ever seen anything like this/have any experience doing something similar? I'm going to try and keep an eye on it and see if it gets bigger.

I guess i've always assumed that if you have a healthy ferment in the first stage, then it's pretty tough to infect a beer in the secondary. This is why I put the cranberries in, instead of using an extract. Is this a bad assumption to have?

pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Alex.Popesco/SuspiciousBeer

hmmmm.

RDWHAHB. That doesn't look like a "growth" to me. Looks like some kinda trub/krausen/junk from the cranberries. I added cranberries, sort of like you did, to the secondary of my dubbel. The difference is that I used 2 pounds, and I added the cranberries to boiling water...then pureed them somewhat with an immersion blender, and boiled/simmered for 10 or 15 mins.

I had some "crud" on mine too, eventually, but it seemed to me that it was nothing more than the cranberry solids---the reason for the brownish color was, as far as I could guess, a result of the beer color seeping into the solids and discoloring them. I highly doubt you have an infection. Adding fruit to the secondary is always a weird process...I would not worry. You should see what the top of my blackcurrant white ale looks like in secondary right now...eww.

Looks healthy to me! (And tasty!)

It looks normal to me

Looks fine to me. I added Raspberries to an ale that I brewed. I steamed them for 5 minutes, then froze them while the brew was in the primary. Once I added them and they defrosted, they looked similar to your pics but more like snot balls floating in there. I took a test sample recently and it tasted fine but the real test will be SWMBO as this is her brew.

Hopfan said:

Looks fine to me. I added Raspberries to an ale that I brewed. I steamed them for 5 minutes, then froze them while the brew was in the primary. Once I added them and they defrosted, they looked similar to your pics but more like snot balls floating in there. I took a test sample recently and it tasted fine but the real test will be SWMBO as this is her brew.

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From my experience working with raspberries, you may want to do a tertiary fermentation, just another chance to get those "snot balls" away from the beer. I accidentally got a couple in a few bottles (they float and they're soft, which makes them hard to completely avoid when racking).

"Snot ball" is an apt description of their mouthfeel.

the_bird said:

From my experience working with raspberries, you may want to do a tertiary fermentation, just another chance to get those "snot balls" away from the beer. I accidentally got a couple in a few bottles (they float and they're soft, which makes them hard to completely avoid when racking).

"Snot ball" is an apt description of their mouthfeel.

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Thanks. I'll be sure to do that. On the plus side, I have this brew in my Better-Bottle so it will be easier to avoid the floating snot when I rack.

Just don't get greedy, plan on leaving more behind that you would otherwise.