What is this stuff in my carboy?

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FTABS

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Joined
Aug 26, 2009
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Location
Rochester, NY
Hi All,

I've been lurking in the forums here, trying to find an answer to what I could have done to get this result...but since I wanted to sign up for the forum anyway, I thought I might as well post.

The hobby of home brewing kind of came out of left field for me. I was shopping at beers of the world (aka, heaven) here in Rochester, and picked up Charlie Papazian's "Joy of Home Brewing", and then followed that up with Palmer's book.

I decided to do a IPA kit from True Brew for my first beer (extract and came with specialty grains to steep).

I finally took the plunge last Saturday night, followed Palmer's advice pretty much right from the book, and sanitized like a crazy person (used Starsan). I had a few snags, like my filter clogging up in the funnel and me panicking and dumping most of the trub into the carboy, but overall it went well.

I pitched my yeast (kit came with 1 6g pack of Muntons) at about midnight (crazy saturday night...I know), and when I checked about 13 hours later, it was fermenting like mad.

However, there was this greenish-yellowish stuff that I didn't anticipate on the top of the carboy all the way up to the stopper, and what looked like the same on the bottom:

Imageshack - picture002hvz

By Monday night, fermentation had slowed significantly, but the buildup was still there.

I took additional pics tonight:

Imageshack - picture015ddd
Imageshack - picture005hls
Imageshack - picture007acg

Just as a note, the black specks are Oak chips that came with the kit - I steam sanitized them.

The only thing that I can think of is that I shook the carboy after pitching, as Palmer suggests, to aerate the wort...is this yeast that I inadvertently shook onto the top/sides? Could it be related to the fact that I dumped most of the trub in by accident? I'm just taking stabs at it, and I figured, rather than worry, I'll post and let the pros tell me what I did wrong...

Thanks Guys!
 
It's normal-- just a collection of trub, hop particles, and yeast. Looks like it was quite an active fermentation!

-Steve
 
Its' called krausen, it is perfectlly normal and necessary in the making of beer.

I call it the house that yeast builds...but really it IS yeast.

It is the foamy, rocky head of yeast that forms at the peak of fermentation.


Towards the end of fermentation it will fall down to the bottom, and as it doest it will pull excess proteins and off flavor chemicals that are the byproducts of fermentation down out of solution so it won't affect the taste of your beer.

Krausen is cool, especially since each one is different.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMiW-625S8o&feature=related]YouTube - Belgian Style Ale - blow off tube & krausen[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3D4qYnhMzQ&feature=related]YouTube - Homebrew clip of active yeast.[/ame]
 
Awesome, thanks for the replies and advice guys!

This forum is fantastic, I'm looking forward to learning much more from everyone and contributing what I can.

Cheers!
 
Looks like a beautiful healthy fermentation!

My biggest concern for future baths would be better temprature control. do a search on "Swamp Cooler"

Fermenting some styles above 70 is just fine, but alot of styles of ales do best in the mid to lower 60's
 
Looking at the first picture, I would say that your problem is that your fermenter is sideways and somehow glued to a wall. :D
 

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