Yeah, looks normal to me. Fermentation can be funky.
Post your infection
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What exactly did it smell & taste like? I never trusted no chill for this reason myself. But did you keep it sealed up?
unclebrazzie
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Yeah, I think it's important to identify the smell, if you ever want to stand a chance of remedying. An infection will smell different from, say, a load of bad hops. Yeast autolysis will smell differently from, say, clostridium.
darkgrey
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I hate to be that guy but...
I got into this hobby a few months back and really enjoyed a messed up 'light' pale ale from a while back...went ahead and made a 4gal batch of an espresso golden light with coffee barley and actual ground up espresso, which you can see on the side of the bucket. It's been three months since then and I've not had a chance to get back to my bucket...and now I'm very scared to try it, although it smells somewhat like beer and coffee, I did use some belgian yeast and it def gives off some of that fruity smell, but I just am not certain if this is a large amount of infection or not...
EDIT -- I'm hoping I'm just overreacting and this is just weird krausen remnants, but most people don't primary ferment for three months either.....lol.
EDIT2 -- I tried to cold crash a sample glass in the freezer as with my previous brews anything floating went immediately to the bottom...this wasn't the case on this brew, so i filtered it out into another glass. Nice color, decent aroma. Very very very mild taste, very drinkable. Still not sure about it, however..
I got into this hobby a few months back and really enjoyed a messed up 'light' pale ale from a while back...went ahead and made a 4gal batch of an espresso golden light with coffee barley and actual ground up espresso, which you can see on the side of the bucket. It's been three months since then and I've not had a chance to get back to my bucket...and now I'm very scared to try it, although it smells somewhat like beer and coffee, I did use some belgian yeast and it def gives off some of that fruity smell, but I just am not certain if this is a large amount of infection or not...
EDIT -- I'm hoping I'm just overreacting and this is just weird krausen remnants, but most people don't primary ferment for three months either.....lol.
EDIT2 -- I tried to cold crash a sample glass in the freezer as with my previous brews anything floating went immediately to the bottom...this wasn't the case on this brew, so i filtered it out into another glass. Nice color, decent aroma. Very very very mild taste, very drinkable. Still not sure about it, however..
IJesusChrist
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Drink it up! Just don't include that gross white stuff in your bottles 
inkman15
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Looks like a monster infection to me. The white is probably lacto. Is the black stuff the espresso or could it be mold?
myndflyte
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Yeah I doubt the coffee will cold crash. But if it tastes good, I say go for it.
Working on my second ever batch, I ran into this after moving it to my secondary. They are bubbles that are collecting together and go around the carboy in a ring.
After my first batch I noticed the yeast settled in a circle at the bottom, so I'm wondering if it's just yeast that have settled and still fermenting, or something worse could be living in my beer...
After my first batch I noticed the yeast settled in a circle at the bottom, so I'm wondering if it's just yeast that have settled and still fermenting, or something worse could be living in my beer...
Hello fellow brewers,
I am fairly new to home brewing. So new that I had 1 more Mr. Beer refill kit left and decided to test out my new equipment with it. On the wort where there are no bubbles there are small brown clumps of something. I dont think that my beer is infected but I am just curious. What are your thoughts?
I am fairly new to home brewing. So new that I had 1 more Mr. Beer refill kit left and decided to test out my new equipment with it. On the wort where there are no bubbles there are small brown clumps of something. I dont think that my beer is infected but I am just curious. What are your thoughts?
BGBC
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Looks fine. Probably just off-gassing after racking or could have awoken the yeast and they're doing a little more work.
Also looks fine. Brown clumps could be break material from the boil, hop matter, etc.
kombat
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been gone from home for work, and the wife sent me these pictures. she reports that this stuff appeared over the last couple days. the beer has been in primary for almost a month and is still burping through the blow-off tube every 15 seconds or so.
my questions are what is in my blow off bucket and what is the layer that looks like paint over spray above the yeast cake?
my questions are what is in my blow off bucket and what is the layer that looks like paint over spray above the yeast cake?
Definitely an infection, but doesn't look like lacto. Maybe Brett?
BGBC
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been gone from home for work, and the wife sent me these pictures. she reports that this stuff appeared over the last couple days. the beer has been in primary for almost a month and is still burping through the blow-off tube every 15 seconds or so.
my questions are what is in my blow off bucket and what is the layer that looks like paint over spray above the yeast cake?
Who cares what's in your blowoff bucket? It's exposed to air right? Could be anything. You might want to replace it with a fresh bucket of starsan, or better yet, switch to an airlock at this point.
Your yeast cake looks fine too.
I'm with BGBC. Your blow off bucket is open so an infection is not surprising. As long as the fermentor isn't showing signs, you're good.
The "spray paint" above your yeast cake looks like still-floculating and dropping yeast clumps. Colder temps will speed the drop, but it looks normal to me.
The "spray paint" above your yeast cake looks like still-floculating and dropping yeast clumps. Colder temps will speed the drop, but it looks normal to me.
2drunk2
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The pictures don't bother me, but I do wonder what you're brewing that ferments actively for a month.
thanks for the answers. the wife reports that there are no signs of what is floating in the bucket being in the fermenter.
this is a sculpin clone, and my first all grain brew... actually my first brew since 2006ish. my mash temp ended up at 147F with an OG of 1.063. i pitched a 1.5l starter of wlp001 and it went nuts for the first week, which is when i left. for the past three weeks the burping rate has been slowly slowing down. fermenter temp is set to 68.
luckily i get home tomorrow, i'll swap to an air lock. i'm hesitant to cold crash this if it's not done yet... i was actually thinking about bumping the temperature a couple degrees to see if it will finish more quickly.
this is a sculpin clone, and my first all grain brew... actually my first brew since 2006ish. my mash temp ended up at 147F with an OG of 1.063. i pitched a 1.5l starter of wlp001 and it went nuts for the first week, which is when i left. for the past three weeks the burping rate has been slowly slowing down. fermenter temp is set to 68.
luckily i get home tomorrow, i'll swap to an air lock. i'm hesitant to cold crash this if it's not done yet... i was actually thinking about bumping the temperature a couple degrees to see if it will finish more quickly.
In my experience, a 1.063 ale fermenting with WLP001 at 68 would typically finish fermentation in 5-6 days with another day or two for cleanup (if not even faster). After a month, I highly doubt it's actually still fermenting.
Take a gravity reading. It's probably done, and the bubbling simply off-gassing.
Take a gravity reading. It's probably done, and the bubbling simply off-gassing.
got home friday, and after taking off the blow-off tube a couple times to check the beer for signs of infection and to take some samples, the bubbling stopped entirely. samples came clear with very little sediment and no funky flavors that i could detect. when looking at SG i was initially confused as i've started using a refractometer, and neglected to calibrate it using wort of a known SG. i was getting readings of about 1.026, then decided to measure some sculpin that was in the fridge, and sure enough - 1.026. So in to bottles it went.
2drunk2
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Congrats!
Looks fine. the beer is gassing off the co2.
lebucheron
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Just dryhopped this session ipa.
I opened the lid to bottle but found this.
I've brewed many batches, but I don't remember seeing anything quite like this.
Thoughts?
I opened the lid to bottle but found this.
I've brewed many batches, but I don't remember seeing anything quite like this.
Thoughts?
Just dryhopped this session ipa.
I opened the lid to bottle but found this.
I've brewed many batches, but I don't remember seeing anything quite like this.
Thoughts?
Hop powder congegration. Maybe somebody should start preaching or something.
inkman15
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I cant tell if your serious about the hop powder thing or just trying to be funny.
That's definitely an infection. look at the white bubbles.
lebucheron
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A crap. I wonder how this puppy got infected. Maybe something on my hop bag? I'm usually pretty good on sanitization.
Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk!
- Homsar from homestarrunner.com
Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk!
- Homsar from homestarrunner.com
I soaked my hop sack in Starsan & it still got the lacto bomb. Found out I hadn't cleaned & sanitized the spigot & parts. Oopsie!
guitarmikeb
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Pale ale. Fermented 4 weeks. Put in a pound of fresh wet hops. Removed fresh hops and allowed beer to sit in fermenter for another 2 weeks. Kegged beer tonight and found this. Hop bag was sanitized. 
Thoughts? Beer tastes ok. Smelled ok.
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Thoughts? Beer tastes ok. Smelled ok.
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Definitely looks like an infection to me. The white slimy bubbles give it away.
Infection, looks like the 3 I had recently, maybe Brett. Let it work out for another month or 3, sample and bottle/keg. So far 2 of my 3 turned out just fine.
No. Just hop gunk & yeast krausen.
IJesusChrist
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that is just hops buddy!
Thanks, just bottled it today. All the bubbles settled off a few days ago. Tasted it and it was the spicy pumpkin ale I was hoping for. There was a bit of alcohol burn, probably due to my fermentation temps being too high (about 76/78 air temp, primary in a swamp cooler). It's the next thing on my list of "ways to improve my beer". I hope the yeasts will take care of that alcohol burn the next 3 weeks or so.
i may be contributing to this thread soon. It looks like very very early stages of an infection but time will tell. prob when i get back this weekend it will be more noticeable. I'm already anticipating dumping it.
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