weird colors on krausen ring in fermenter

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JasonO

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Hey guys, so this is my first fermentation in my new conical fermenter. Everything was cleaned and sanitized with star-san before using. I just kegged my beer and noticed some weird colors on the krausen ring after the fermenter was empty. The top of the beer was clear no nasty bubbles/film/spots. I don't think it was an infection but just strange. Has anyone seen anything like this?

-Simcoe IPA-
13lbs 2row
1lb corn sugar
1lb crystal 60
8oz cara-pils
9oz light dme (make up for bad mash)
Wyeast American Ale II (Starter used)
Lots of full leaf simcoe (continuous addition)

1.074 og
2 weeks primary
2 weeks secondary
10.15 fg

-Jason

nkYkO.jpg
 
The kreausen ring looks normal with the exception of the purple.

Strange, but cool. My first thought would be that if you dry hopped, it is the leaf matter from the hops causing the coloration, but I would have no clue as to why.

Very interesting, I am curious to know what others think.
 
The kreausen ring looks normal with the exception of the purple.

Strange, but cool. My first thought would be that if you dry hopped, it is the leaf matter from the hops causing the coloration, but I would have no clue as to why.

Very interesting, I am curious to know what others think.

yeah I have no idea, I have not seen anything like this before. No dry hopping either.

The only thing I could think of was I did scrub the bottom of the conical with a green scrub pad to clean up the metal some, it was a little rough from the spinning process. I forget where I read it but I think other has done this as well with the blichmann conicals.

After that I washed it a bunch of times. Maybe some stray stainless particles and yeast playing?
 
yeah I have no idea, I have not seen anything like this before. No dry hopping either.

The only thing I could think of was I did scrub the bottom of the conical with a green scrub pad to clean up the metal some, it was a little rough from the spinning process. I forget where I read it but I think other has done this as well with the blichmann conicals.

After that I washed it a bunch of times. Maybe some stray stainless particles and yeast playing?

FWIW, I normally scrub my stainless with BKF before using it and allow it to completely dry to make sure it is passivated (passified???), and to remove any contaminants the fabrication process may have left on the surface.

It will be interesting to see if it happens with your next fermentation, but I'll assume that it was a one time thing.
 
i've noticed a similar purple ring in my conicals on occasion. I'm not sure exactly what it is but for me it seems to be present when i carried over more trub into the fermenter. I've been doing a better job of straining out hop particles from the boil kettle and haven't seen it in a long time. Could be a coincidence, but that is my experience. I don't think its an infection though, my batches with the purple ring turned out great.
 
FWIW, I normally scrub my stainless with BKF before using it and allow it to completely dry to make sure it is passivated (passified???), and to remove any contaminants the fabrication process may have left on the surface.

It will be interesting to see if it happens with your next fermentation, but I'll assume that it was a one time thing.

thanks for the info! I actually just picked some of that up to clean my stainless kettle. I'll give that a shot in my fermenter! It did wonders in my kettle.

When I washed out the fermenter after this brew I did notice a little bit of a grey tint on the towel when drying it off.

-Jason
 
thanks for the info! I actually just picked some of that up to clean my stainless kettle. I'll give that a shot in my fermenter! It did wonders in my kettle.

When I washed out the fermenter after this brew I did notice a little bit of a grey tint on the towel when drying it off.

-Jason

That grey is actually stainless steel, once it dries, just polish it off with a clean towel, and your steel will be repassivated.

In essence you are removing a very thin protective oxide layer, and as it dries the oxygen from the environment repassivates the steel.

IIRC, I think that's right.
 
That grey is actually stainless steel, once it dries, just polish it off with a clean towel, and your steel will be repassivated.

In essence you are removing a very thin protective oxide layer, and as it dries the oxygen from the environment repassivates the steel.

IIRC, I think that's right.

Thanks for the info. I was doing some reading on the topic today your right on the money. I should be set now hopefully. After cleaning with BKF and letting things dry there was no residue on the towel.

Also nice kegerator setup!! I did something almost identical to yours and it works great.

-Jason
 
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