Discernible hops from a can of extract beer normal?

Hello,

I had brewed a can of extract yesterday with a friend at my home. We brewed a Brew Canada blonde kit. We used a glass carboy to ferment as the other fermentation pails I have are in use. The process went smooth except that when i opened the can of extract there was a layer of what looked like masticated hops. The hop like material was brown as it took the colour of the malt extract it was soaked in. It was on the surface about 2 cm thick. Once added to the carboy and mixed into the water the hops turned there natural colour of green and you can clearly see that it has the stem and leaf structure of hops if you look closely. Now after one day the fermenting has begun there is a layer of about 3 cm on the top of the beer and it is a light green and composed of this hop mush.

My question is is this normal? I have used several brands of kits in the past like Muntons, Coopers, Brew Canada and Tom Caxton and have never seen this before. I was under the impression that the hops used to produce the malt extract were filtered out and removed before canning the extract.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

The beer is fermenting still and it has been two weeks. The beer is bubbling every one minute out of the air lock.

There is still green hop pieces floating on the top of the carboy. The pieces of hops are very clear to the naked eye. I will bottle the beer in three days. Technically (and I am a technician) the beer looks like diarrhea water with disgusting looking color and floating particles on the surface.

Oops. Perhaps I should have checked the expiration date on the bottom of the can! The date says 2009. Thanks Defalcos (Ottawa Canada). Well I'm still gonna drink it. ( I'm an Alcoholic).

Oh! And wait one second. Why is brew Canada placing hop leaves and stems in their cans of extract? is the "extract" to mean that it contains chunks of old hops plants from the wort production process? I cannot think of any other brand of extract that has such poor production quality standards.

Now it is clear to me why the Brew Canada kits are $16.99 which is $4.00 less than any other kit at Defalcos in Ottawa. We bought four kits at the same time and they were all expired (we only noticed after the fact). The moral of the story here folks is always check you expiration dates on your cans of extract and keep an eye out for Brew Canada products.

The beer is fermenting still and it has been two weeks. The beer is bubbling every one minute out of the air lock....the beer looks like diarrhea water with disgusting looking color and floating particles on the surface.

Click to expand...

Something's wrong... okay, I guess you already know that. It should not be still actively fermenting at two weeks. It's not over-speculating to suggest that what you thought were hops in the can, and now in your fermenter, was/is mold or some other infection. I only did one pre-hopped extract beer, but there was no trace of hop particulates in the extract. AFAIK they use prepared hop extract for those rather than pellet hops. Drink at your own risk!

I will bottle the beer in three days.

Click to expand...

If you bottle while it's still fermenting you will get bottle bombs.

Was the extract container swollen or damaged? Did you boil the extract with your brew water? If so, then it's not likely an infection. I wouldn't worry too much about the hops residue, assuming that's what it is.

A two-week ferment does seem like a long time. What was the original gravity reading and what temp is your fermenter at? What is your current gravity reading? Definitely do NOT bottle it until fermentation ceases and gravity stabilizes.

The beer is fermenting still and it has been two weeks. The beer is bubbling every one minute out of the air lock.

Click to expand...

Bubbling doesn't mean it's fermenting. You need to take a gravity reading a couple days apart. If it is the same both times, fermentation is complete.

Good afternoon,

Here is more information:

Bubbling doesn't mean it's fermenting. You need to take a gravity reading a couple days apart. If it is the same both times, fermentation is complete.

Click to expand...

You are correct. The beer is almost certainly done its fermentation I will take a gravity reading tonight as its still not in bottles.

Was the extract container swollen or damaged? Did you boil the extract with your brew water?

Click to expand...

The can was not damaged in any way and the extract can and the dextrose was boiled together with about 4 L of water and added to the carboy that contained more water. This is when the chunks and hops silt was noticed first as it was gumming up the funneling process.

A two-week ferment does seem like a long time. What was the original gravity reading and what temp is your fermenter at?

Click to expand...

The fermenter has one of them sticky like thermometers on it that was pretty much always at 22 C. Once I had a window opened (mountains of snow here now) and she went down to 18 C this was quickly corrected.

It's not over-speculating to suggest that what you thought were hops in the can, and now in your fermenter, was/is mold or some other infection.

Click to expand...

I am 99.44% sure it is not infected and that it is hops.

1. They were there from the get go.
2. They look like hop pellets that have not been filtered out of the beer.
3. No sign of mold or off colours (colors) other than the hops.

I will be taking photos of the beer in the carboy and posting them tonight. All my cameras are down in Pennsylvania now so I will have to use an RC helicopter camera but that will work.