Little solid things floating in the bottles?

Hey all,

It's been about 2 weeks since I put my Irish Red into the bottles. A few days ago I noticed something that hadn't been there before. It's like these dark, solid particles about the size of a grain of sand floating on the top of all of the bottles.

Also if I tilt the bottle, I can see that whatever it is left a ring around the inside of the neck, right where the surface of the beer is.

Any ideas what this is? It definitely was not there one week ago. There are also some dark clouds that I can see swirling around when I move the bottle a little, no idea if it's related.

Put down the beer... don't look at it. Come back in two weeks and check again. Most bottles will have a little ring on the neck. It's because when you bottle, you're adding more sugar. The sugar ferments to create carbonation and builds a mini krausen on top of the beer. This is what you're seeing in your bottles. The cloud is probably yeast.

Leave them alone and let the stuff settle.

corn sugar will not create a mini krausen.
What are you using to carbonate with?

chemman14 said:

corn sugar will not create a mini krausen.
What are you using to carbonate with?

Click to expand...

I just used the sugar the brew shop gave me. It was like powdered sugar...I want to say it was sucrose but I'm not sure. Tasted like regular powdered sugar to me.

i'm sure it was dextrose (corn sugar) if you got it from the brew shop. i don't know that corn sugar won't create a mini-krausen. ultimately, you're fine, just let it sit another week or so, put it in the fridge for a few days, and drink it.

chemman14 said:

corn sugar will not create a mini krausen.
What are you using to carbonate with?

Click to expand...

Anytime you put extra sugar in a beer, it will create krausen. It may not be noticeable on most beers, but when you're new to the game, you can notice little things because you're not expecting them.

Hi dawei21,

I have something similar going on. How did it turn out for you?