Beer fermenting in Bottle or what?

I bottled my "American Dark Ale" a week ago. There are some signs of "white stuff" stuck at the edge where the beer meets the glass as shown in image. When I shake the bottle, the stuff breaks into tiny particles. Is that yeast at the bottom of the bottle?

Any idea if the beer is fermenting at all or is it contaminated?

By the way, the beer was very clean when I bottled from secondary.

Looks like an infection to be honest. That white film might be the start of a pellicle.
Leave a bottle alone for a couple weeks and see if it grows.

Also any hair or off color would confirm an infection. and NEVER bottle in clear glass.
Light skunks hops almost immediatly and leaves your beer all stinky expesially in a cascadian ale.
try a heinekan or any green glass beer and youll know what im talking about

Johnnyhitch1 said:

Looks like an infection to be honest. That white film might be the start of a pellicle.
Leave a bottle alone for a couple weeks and see if it grows.

Also any hair or off color would confirm an infection. and NEVER bottle in clear glass.
Light skunks hops almost immediatly and leaves your beer all stinky expesially in a cascadian ale.
try a heinekan or any green glass beer and youll know what im talking about

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Thanks for the analysis!

I shook the bottle, and the white lining collapsed, 3 days later,its gone except for few particles throughout.

Apart from the 2 clear bottles, rest are swing-top brown bottles. Interestingly, the brown bottles look fine except for a oil slick on top (this was observed while in secondary even!), too much diacetyl?

Also, are ale's more sensitive to light that lagers? I drink a lot of "Miller High Life Lager" and all of them come in clear glass bottles!

Miller high life, if I remember right, uses synthetic hops that don't react with uv light. I think MGD uses them too.

I thought I saw some link where they did a study on slinking with a corona, heinekin, and miller high life.

looks like white film mold to me, harmless but ugly. most likely the beer will be fine.

matteroftaste said:

looks like white film mold to me, harmless but ugly. most likely the beer will be fine.

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Thank you

scubasteve03 said:

Miller high life, if I remember right, uses synthetic hops that don't react with uv light. I think MGD uses them too.

I thought I saw some link where they did a study on slinking with a corona, heinekin, and miller high life.

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That's incredible. I was totally oblivious to this.
Thanks again!

Yeah, beer companies aren't stupid. If the beer is bottled in a clear/green/blue bottle, chances are they use hop extract that does not contain the sulpher compounds that cause skunking. No beer company is going to "forget" that beer skunks, or purposefully expose their beer to skunking.

Is that from the first half of the batch you bottled or the second half? That second half was infected. You should have probably waited to see if you could get it cleared up before bottling. Did you just suck from the bottom of the infected second half and bottle it? Just curious, I'm here to learn too.

BobbiLynn said:

Is that from the first half of the batch you bottled or the second half? That second half was infected. You should have probably waited to see if you could get it cleared up before bottling. Did you just suck from the bottom of the infected second half and bottle it? Just curious, I'm here to learn too.

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To clarify, white mold is a microbial infection and will have contaminated the fermentation vessel. Infections do not stratify selectively in the vessel and the whole batch will surely exhibit the same symptoms.

That said, i have had white mold in some wonderful beers, though your fermentor and equipment will need a thorough disinfection to eliminate the problem.

My motto is brew more and worry less. history teaches us that beers have fermented well without much tampering for a good few thousand years, even with competition introduced to your wort by other micro-organisms. Fermenting beer is a very selective environment and once pitched with healthy yeast will generally not tolerate many detrimental organisms unless you seriously screw up.

BobbiLynn said:

Is that from the first half of the batch you bottled or the second half? That second half was infected. You should have probably waited to see if you could get it cleared up before bottling. Did you just suck from the bottom of the infected second half and bottle it? Just curious, I'm here to learn too.

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I bottled only first half and prior to bottling the beer was clear as ever! And the white mold is visible only in clear bottles and not in brown bottles which could also be due to the priming sugar I directly added to the bottles.

As for the second half of the batch, since I ran out of bottles I slipped the air lock back on. 5 days later the beer was coated with pellicin bacteria (white strands) which I believe could be due to the oxygen exposure during bottling while the protective layer of carbon dioxide escaped when I opened up the Carboy. Leaving the rest of the beer still in Carboy was a very stupid thing to do.

TopherM said:

Yeah, beer companies aren't stupid. If the beer is bottled in a clear/green/blue bottle, chances are they use hop extract that does not contain the sulpher compounds that cause skunking. No beer company is going to "forget" that beer skunks, or purposefully expose their beer to skunking.

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Well this explains why most breweries and pharmaceutical companies stick with brown bottles

socencounter said:

I bottled my "American Dark Ale" a week ago. There are some signs of "white stuff" stuck at the edge where the beer meets the glass as shown in image. When I shake the bottle, the stuff breaks into tiny particles. Is that yeast at the bottom of the bottle?

Any idea if the beer is fermenting at all or is it contaminated?

By the way, the beer was very clean when I bottled from secondary.

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Unless I am missing something, I don't see any Grolsch gasket on your swing top. Is impossible that your beer is still fermenting in the bottle. I just don't see how the ceramic, or white plastic top would seal against the bottle. I think you still got fermentation going on.

MollyHatchet said:

Unless I am missing something...

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Yes, if you look close the gasket is white.

Zamial said:

Yes, if you look close the gasket is white.

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Thanks, I did miss that!

BobbiLynn said:

Is that from the first half of the batch you bottled or the second half? That second half was infected. You should have probably waited to see if you could get it cleared up before bottling. Did you just suck from the bottom of the infected second half and bottle it? Just curious, I'm here to learn too.

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----- A MONTH AGO------
I added some honey to the second half (left over from bottling the first half, which was infected with pellicin in the carboy) and yet another safale dry yeast. It fermented for a day and showed no spores post addition of the yeast.

----- 2 WEEKS AGO -----------
I bottled the second half 2 weeks back (added priming sugar to the bottles individually).

----PRESENT DAY------
I finally cracked open 1 bottle after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning. The results are astounding. As you can see from the image, my beer has transformed from pellicle - to - undrinkably sour - to - delicious beer with a incredibly think head very similar to belgium beers. In fact the head was so thick I needed a spoon to show me the way

Another "Glad I didn't dump it" love story! :rockin:

Hey,
glad this beer is alive, enjoy the stress free drinking!

I had a pumpkin ale I made last fall that developed the same pellicle. It developed after I added my spice tea. I thought it could be from the oils in the freshly ground spices. I racked from under it and it showed up in the bottles. After some reading, I figured it was white mold. I refrigerated it and drank quickly. It was really good and had a nice thick head like in your pictures. I wish I had saved some because the last bottles I drank were really starting to age well. By the way, I cleaned all me equipment really well and haven't had it return. I did replace my tubing, but I was overdue on that anyway.

jrgroucho said:

I had a pumpkin ale I made last fall that developed the same pellicle. It developed after I added my spice tea. I thought it could be from the oils in the freshly ground spices. I racked from under it and it showed up in the bottles. After some reading, I figured it was white mold. I refrigerated it and drank quickly. It was really good and had a nice thick head like in your pictures. I wish I had saved some because the last bottles I drank were really starting to age well. By the way, I cleaned all me equipment really well and haven't had it return. I did replace my tubing, but I was overdue on that anyway.

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Then the old saying is true I guess, "Time heals everything", Even BEER

TopherM said:

Another "Glad I didn't dump it" love story! :rockin:

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I am thinking of adding a small amount of hydrated dry yeast syrup plus the priming sugar/DME to my upcoming batch at bottling. I hear Trappist breweries do this since almost all the beers they make are bottle-fermented and ready to drink in just 2 weeks. Thoughts on this?