Guesses on what this bizarre stuff in my fermenter is?

Hi,

So I thought I'd get creative and make up a fermented drink out of the blue. Unfortunately I did not keep notes so I do not remember the exact ingredients or amounts but it was something like this:
Brown sugar.
Anise.
Sarsparilla root.
water strained from steeping in oats.

I basically boiled all of the ingredients together and then pitched in some wine yeast and let ferment for about 3 weeks. When I went to inspect at the end of the fermenting period I discovered an unusual culture type seaweed looking mass at the bottom of the jug it was in. The liquid itself is a very nice brown and has an interesting sarsparilla flavor and is seemingly around wine strength. The stuff at the bottom is kind of gray. It is thick at the bottom and then there are finger/tentacle/seaweed type of things that make up the top. The photo is of it doubled over on itself after pouring some liquid out.
And here is a photo of it after all the liquid has been poured out and the gunk is torn apart.

I'm pretty sure it is okay to drink this stuff but I'm just curious as to what it is that I've made as a by product. A yeast culture? Any guesses?

Thanks

Hi,

So I thought I'd get creative and make up a fermented drink out of the blue. Unfortunately I did not keep notes so I do not remember the exact ingredients or amounts but it was something like this:
Brown sugar.
Anise.
Sarsparilla root.
water strained from steeping in oats.

I basically boiled all of the ingredients together and then pitched in some wine yeast and let ferment for about 3 weeks. When I went to inspect at the end of the fermenting period I discovered an unusual culture type seaweed looking mass at the bottom of the jug it was in. The liquid itself is a very nice brown and has an interesting sarsparilla flavor and is seemingly around wine strength. The stuff at the bottom is kind of gray. It is thick at the bottom and then there are finger/tentacle/seaweed type of things that make up the top. The photo is of it doubled over on itself after pouring some liquid out.
And here is a photo of it after all the liquid has been poured out and the gunk is torn apart.

I'm pretty sure it is okay to drink this stuff but I'm just curious as to what it is that I've made as a by product. A yeast culture? Any guesses?

Thanks

Hi,

So I thought I'd get creative and make up a fermented drink out of the blue. Unfortunately I did not keep notes so I do not remember the exact ingredients or amounts but it was something like this:
Brown sugar.
Anise.
Sarsparilla root.
water strained from steeping in oats.

I basically boiled all of the ingredients together and then pitched in some wine yeast and let ferment for about 3 weeks. When I went to inspect at the end of the fermenting period I discovered an unusual culture type seaweed looking mass at the bottom of the jug it was in. The liquid itself is a very nice brown and has an interesting sarsparilla flavor and is seemingly around wine strength. The stuff at the bottom is kind of gray. It is thick at the bottom and then there are finger/tentacle/seaweed type of things that make up the top. The photo is of it doubled over on itself after pouring some liquid out.
And here is a photo of it after all the liquid has been poured out and the gunk is torn apart.

I'm pretty sure it is okay to drink this stuff but I'm just curious as to what it is that I've made as a by product. A yeast culture? Any guesses?

Thanks

The vertical lines or fingers as you said are created by the co2 moving thru the trub as it goes up. You can see this same thing in a regular beer fermentation.

I don't see anything that looks like seaweed... I do see what looks like trub (basically, everything that dropped out of suspension during your fermentation.)

Why did you post this in two different places?

Seems like A LOT of lees.

Sorry, new here. Didn't realize posting it on different forums would link together like this, thought I'd cover my bases.
Yeah, seaweed was a bad descriptor. Just at a loss of words. I've never seen lees do that before and the strange thing was that my wash seemed clear of sediments before fermentation.
Thanks for the replies and apologies again for the annoyance of posting it in more than one place.

It's generally not good form to post the same question in multiple areas anyways, even if it's an odd, vague question. I'd probably have put this into either the beginner's area or the general section since it doesn't fit any of the other categories.

As mentioned it's definately trub. And I expect that it's mostly composed of yeast (which is normal) and in your case, the sasparilla root, anise (depending on what form you used) and all the solids that were contained in the oats.
I've had two oat brews so far and seen other people's and there tends to be a lot of things that fall out from oats. My trub from my primary looked pretty much like that and the solids I had in mine were oats, cocoa (in one them) and yeast. So I'm pretty sure its all the solids dropping out from the oats.

How did it taste?

The taste is hard to describe. It definitely has a vague sarsparilla / root beer-esque element. It's a sipper that gives you a nice warmth in your chest. I wasn't familiar with the taste of anise before and I think perhaps there is a strong anise flavor here, kind of medicinal.
I'm attracted to the idea of creative fermenting using spices I can find at the local co-op. I think this stuff may be a decent wash it accidently fell into a "essential oil" distiller.

Looks like the pile 'o goo you got is your oatmeal mush + a little yeast lees......

If you study Beer making - you will find that neither starch, nor protein are fermentable... You typically would use enzymes in "Malted" grains to convert those starches to soluble Sugars... Some can ferment, and others add body and flavor.... In the straight cooked breakfast grain mush form, not much you can do with it...

Thanks.

you fabri-mo-catum-ed "The TRUB-inator"!