Can anyone identify what's floating in my secondary?

There are some seed-looking things floating in my secondary, that I can't for the life of me figure out what they could be. Has anyone ever seen this before, and can you tell me what it is?




Thanks!

Matt

Looks like it might be flakes of clumped up yeast.

-walker

Awesome, that's what I was hoping to hear (more so than big clumps of some sort of bacillus anyway ) Is it common for clumps to float up from the bottom like that? They weren't present until about 24 hours after transferring to 2ndary.

MattD said:

Awesome, that's what I was hoping to hear (more so than big clumps of some sort of bacillus anyway ) Is it common for clumps to float up from the bottom like that? They weren't present until about 24 hours after transferring to 2ndary.

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I'm just guessing here based on one pic, so please don't hold me accountable if those things are alien eggs or something.

As for it being common... it's never happened to me before, but brewing is shifty like that. No two brews will behave the same. I've pictures of some pretty crazy looking yeast clumps before (one described as a "big piece of dragon poop").

MattD said:

Awesome, that's what I was hoping to hear (more so than big clumps of some sort of bacillus anyway ) Is it common for clumps to float up from the bottom like that? They weren't present until about 24 hours after transferring to 2ndary.

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I've only brewed one batch, so take this for what it's worth, but I had some of what you're experiencing during secondary, also, albeit much less than what you have. Every now and then, I could see what looked like a little seed near the side of the carboy, and it would dissolve a little, and then drop to the bottom of the carboy leaving a little bubble trail in its wake. I assumed it was just yeast dropping to the bottom due to lack of maltose, or whatever.

I assume that's what you're experiencing, as Walker suggested, although that sure is a lot of activity? What are you brewing? I was brewing a simple nut brown ale, with just a can of Munton's LME hopped extract, and some unhopped extract. Maybe that's why I had so much less activity than you? Who knows.

looks like irish moss to me that maybe got through your strainer...

Irish moss disolves, so you wouldn't see it like that. My first guess was hop seeds, but if you didn't use whole leaf hops, then it's definitely yeast. I've had those before. What type of yeast did you use?

if it's irish moss, then I'm a new millionaire, since I didn't put any in to begin with

This batch has been problematic, the recipe is just 1#crystal malt, 6.6#amber LME, 1.5 oz. hallertauer mittelfrueh pellets (30 min) and some munton's dry brewers yeast. Also some burton's salts. OG was about 1.035, and fermentation seemed to fizzle out after only 41 hours. SG at that time was 1.016, and since my recipe said it was ok to transfer to secondary when SG had dropped by half, and the FG was supposed to be 1.008-1.012, and since I didn't know any better, I went ahead and racked it. It's only been in secondary for 2 days now, and I still don't see any airlock activity, so I don't know if I really hurt anything by racking it so early or not. I think if I could do it over again I'd repitch some more yeast in primary, but such is life. I'm gonna let this sit in secondary until my new batch is ready to rack, then go ahead and bottle it. We'll see if the gravity has moved any in the interim. If not, I'll have some nice 2% brew to pass off on visitors until the big ale I've got in primary is done. Anyway, I diverge, my point is this thing has been a PITA and I'm not surprised that it's growing alien eggs or whatever

Say Spyk'd, where'd you find the recipe for the pumpkin pie cream ale? I'm thinking about getting something along those lines in primary as soon as I get my Old Ale into secondary, hopefully it can be done just in time for thanksgiving, and I'd love to see the recipe

hop seeds could have escaped being pulverised when they crushed up the pellets.

i'm still betting on hop seeds.

MattD said:

if it's irish moss, then I'm a new millionaire, since I didn't put any in to begin with

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haha.. i guess it is the seeds.. my bad.:cross:

t1master said:

hop seeds could have escaped being pulverised when they crushed up the pellets.

i'm still betting on hop seeds.

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Don't think so Tim.

It looks and reads like it might be a Rorschach test. :cross:

However, I'm going to say it isn't floating yeast clumps or other microbial growth. If you look at them they all have the same shape and relative size, yeast clumps would be, well, more clumpy and odd shaped. I'm going to say that it looks alot like the hulls of your crystal malt. Alot of them look strangely like barley grains. So I'm going to wield Occam's Razor here and say: barley hulls.

That makes sense... I guess the real test will be in a week or so, when I go to bottle, I'll take one out and see what it tastes like if it's an alien egg, I should have a beastie burst from my chest shortly thereafter. Otherwise, maybe taste will tell something definitive!

Levers101 said:

It looks and reads like it might be a Rorschach test. :cross:

However, I'm going to say it isn't floating yeast clumps or other microbial growth. If you look at them they all have the same shape and relative size, yeast clumps would be, well, more clumpy and odd shaped. I'm going to say that it looks alot like the hulls of your crystal malt. Alot of them look strangely like barley grains. So I'm going to wield Occam's Razor here and say: barley hulls.

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Saw this thread late but I would first say hop seeds but you used pellet hops so that is out of the question.

They resemble smaller grains as Levers said. Did you boil any of the actual grains? If so you are in for a mouth puckering surprise when you drink the beer!

I didn't see your recipe request the first time I read through this post. I didn't get the recipe anywhere, I made it myself. I just took my brown ale and added pumpkin and cream to it in form of lactose. I suppose I could share it with you with the disclaimer that it's the first time I brewed it, but the smell was EXACTLY like pumpkin pie.


Pumpkin Pie Cream Ale
6lbs. Light DME
1lb. Lactose start of boil.
6 15oz cans of 100% pure pumpkin (not pie filling) added to the start of the boil.

2lbs. Crystal Malt (20L) steeped.
.25lb. Special "B" steeped.
.25lb. Chocolate Malt steeped.

.5oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops @ 60mins
1oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops @ 30mins
4 Whole Nutmeg (Crushed) @ 30mins
10 Cinnamon Sticks (Crushed) @ 30mins

Irish Moss

Wyeast: London III Ale Yeast

I'm pretty confident that this will yield a very good beer, if not a very festive brew. I'll be able to critique it better after about 10-14 days when it goes into the secondary. One thing to note, as it has been noted before is that you will get alot more trub from the pumpkin, so plan on doing around 6 gallons in the batch to yield 5 gallons.

chillHayze said:

Saw this thread late but I would first say hop seeds but you used pellet hops so that is out of the question.

They resemble smaller grains as Levers said. Did you boil any of the actual grains? If so you are in for a mouth puckering surprise when you drink the beer!

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Nah, didn't boil them. Steeped them at 155F for 15 minutes, cranked up the heat and left the thermometer in, watched it climb and removed from heat at 170F. Then I took the grain bag out and added the LME, put it back on heat and brought to a boil.


That pumpkin recipe sounds good. I don't know that I'm going to make one though, I found some Pumpkin Ale (Buffalo Bill Brewery) at the store today and tried it out, and I really didn't like it. I don't think it tasted like pumpkin or pie though, so maybe it just wasn't a good batch

Spyk'd said:

I didn't see your recipe request the first time I read through this post. I didn't get the recipe anywhere, I made it myself. I just took my brown ale and added pumpkin and cream to it in form of lactose. I suppose I could share it with you with the disclaimer that it's the first time I brewed it, but the smell was EXACTLY like pumpkin pie.


Pumpkin Pie Cream Ale
6lbs. Light DME
1lb. Lactose start of boil.
6 15oz cans of 100% pure pumpkin (not pie filling) added to the start of the boil.

2lbs. Crystal Malt (20L) steeped.
.25lb. Special "B" steeped.
.25lb. Chocolate Malt steeped.

.5oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops @ 60mins
1oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops @ 30mins
4 Whole Nutmeg (Crushed) @ 30mins
10 Cinnamon Sticks (Crushed) @ 30mins

Irish Moss

Wyeast: London III Ale Yeast

I'm pretty confident that this will yield a very good beer, if not a very festive brew. I'll be able to critique it better after about 10-14 days when it goes into the secondary. One thing to note, as it has been noted before is that you will get alot more trub from the pumpkin, so plan on doing around 6 gallons in the batch to yield 5 gallons.

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Wow, I've been avoiding the "Pumpkin Threads" just because I didn't think a Pumpkin brew would appeal to me, but reading your recipe Spyk'd, it sounds really tasty. I'll be looking for reviews, as it sounds like a good one to try.

Sorry....

Ize

ill chime in.. looks like grain to me.. some may have gotten out the grain bag.... im just guessing..but if any aliens start poppin out.. lol

that pumpkin recipe looks good! i tried a pumpkin beer sat and man was it good..smelled wonderful.. almost made me wanna brew! LOL i got too much going right now.. 2 fermentors and 3 secondaries.. i just cannot brew again right now..

corn?

I don't have a clue what it is, but I've several times seen similar (if not the same) things in my primaries, and have never noticed any problems with the finished beers.

-a.

If the fermentation is stuck and you get stuck with a weak beer......Add a .5 gallon bottle of Coconut Rum to it before you bottle it then let it condition for @2 or 3 months. If you use 90 proof then that is 45% and 4.5% boost in Alcohol by volume of 5 gallons. 1 liter of 90 proof will raise the beer alcohol by 2.6% which would give you a average alcohol level.

I did it to a Brown Ale that stalled out on me. It was a wonderful beer once it mellowed. Expensive but worth it!