My first infection thread... please help me decipher these pictures

Well, as the title states, I started my Apfelwein yesterday, mid-day... and didn't notice any fermentation signs until this morning. It's slowly starting to bubble from the airlock, 1 bubble every 3-4 minutes, but there's some nasty white stuff floating on top. When should I consider aborting the whole batch??

It looks totally different from my Wit brew, so its scary

That nasty stuff floating up to the surface is YEAST....it is beginning to form a krausen on top of your cider, and it ferments. It's going to get uglier looking...and be exactly what you want it to be.

Like this!!!!





Relax.

Yay... thats what I wanted to hear. Thanks for the quick reply. I can go back to eating my breakfast tacos and hopefully a beer or 3 later today

Appreciate the quick response Revvy. My other batch looks like that pic you just posted, I guess I missed that part of the krausen forming while I was asleep on the first one.

Here is what you are missing....Timelapsed beer fermentation

Wow, yeah... in just the last few hours, the full top of the carboy is filled with a foamy krausen now, instead of those yeast deposits. Amazing how fast that stuff grows.

Did you used Ed Wort's Apfelwein recipe? If so, I thought that it doesnt form a Krausen?

Coff said:

Did you used Ed Wort's Apfelwein recipe? If so, I thought that it doesnt form a Krausen?

Click to expand...

Well... I did use Edworts recipe, but I got the yeast from one of the LHBS, and the place was rather sketchy. I wasn't sure how long the yeast had been in the store, so I wanted to make a starter. I bought some yeast starter (basically a small amount of DME) and pitched it in to my growler I had. Once I found out that my yeast was viable, I pitched it in to my secondary carboy with the apple juice.

While the krausen isn't very large at all, I believe the yeast starter allowed there to be a small krausen to form... but it's starting to go down now. It's just sort of foamy at the top, but the 5 gallon carboy was filled 95% of the way to the top, and the foam was nipping at the top. I'm watching it carefully to make sure I don't have need to scramble and find a blow off tube.

Worst case is, I'll use my siphoning tubing as a blowoff I think.

Have you gotten rhino farts yet? I thought people where just being dramatic. They weren't.

No, no Rhino Farts yet

I guess the kraeusen is there because of the malt in the extract. If its just apple juice and sugar then there should be much of a "head" formed.

Yea mine has been bubbling pretty aggressively for 6 weeks now, only a few bubbles on top.

The rhino farts have subsided though.

Mine just has a few bubbles, no krausen but I pitched it about 3 days ago. When should I expect rhino farts?