brandonman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2014
- Messages
- 202
- Reaction score
- 35
On January 26th around 7PM or so, I brewed up my first beer, Brewer's Best's English Brown Ale kit. I had some hiccups involving my kettle and the size of my sink regarding cooling it, but everything eventually worked out. The next day around 2PM when I returned from class, the airlock was bubbling away (3 piece airlock), with a huge bubble plopping up every few seconds.
This morning when I checked it, however, I didn't notice any huge bubbles. Thanks to weird tricks of refraction, I also didn't notice another thing - the stopper piece thing in the airlock that rises and falls with the bubbles was essentially "stuck" up, so in retrospect, I guess I was still fermenting. I figured that part out this afternoon.
This evening, I wasn't seeing this thing as stuck up, and wasn't seeing bubble activity. I'm getting a little worried, so I did some googling on the "safety" of opening up my plastic fermenter, and read that a quick peak won't hurt anything, so I wiped my hands down real good with sanitizer (I've had to become Obsessive compulsive with this stuff for a while on Doctor's orders, but that's a whole NOTHER story), and I opened it up to see that it had already risen to a high point, had Krausen, but also noticed something else - this greenish-brownish sludgy sort of deposit at the high krausen point. Obviously I didn't poke it or anything for sanitation concerns, so I can't comment on its physical texture beyond how it appears in this image.
This stuff definitely SMELLS like beer, and minus the sludge, it looks like what I've seen for beer. I'm THINKING this is leftovers from the hops - I noticed after I had chilled my wort that there was a fairly similar looking ring of hops type stuff in the kettle. Is it possible that's what this is a result of? Or is this standard beer behavior and I just haven't seen it in the forums yet? Also, with this airlock activity - is this normal? Should I be concerned by it having bubbled well for a day then just slowed completely? The fact that this Krausen is here and that I noticed some slight bubbling still when I actually opened seems to indicate it's at least still going to some extent. When I poured out of the kettle, I did try to leave some in the bottom as it looked sludgier. Might I just have collected some of that in the pour by accident?
Thanks for taking the time to read. I'm going to bed now, I'll be checking back in the morning! Can't wait to HOPEFULLY have my own Brown Ale I can crack open with my buddy
Also, if a larger image might help identify it, here's a link - I don't want to post a giant picture here and throw off the forums.
http://imageshack.com/a/img849/5429/hj20.jpg
This morning when I checked it, however, I didn't notice any huge bubbles. Thanks to weird tricks of refraction, I also didn't notice another thing - the stopper piece thing in the airlock that rises and falls with the bubbles was essentially "stuck" up, so in retrospect, I guess I was still fermenting. I figured that part out this afternoon.
This evening, I wasn't seeing this thing as stuck up, and wasn't seeing bubble activity. I'm getting a little worried, so I did some googling on the "safety" of opening up my plastic fermenter, and read that a quick peak won't hurt anything, so I wiped my hands down real good with sanitizer (I've had to become Obsessive compulsive with this stuff for a while on Doctor's orders, but that's a whole NOTHER story), and I opened it up to see that it had already risen to a high point, had Krausen, but also noticed something else - this greenish-brownish sludgy sort of deposit at the high krausen point. Obviously I didn't poke it or anything for sanitation concerns, so I can't comment on its physical texture beyond how it appears in this image.
This stuff definitely SMELLS like beer, and minus the sludge, it looks like what I've seen for beer. I'm THINKING this is leftovers from the hops - I noticed after I had chilled my wort that there was a fairly similar looking ring of hops type stuff in the kettle. Is it possible that's what this is a result of? Or is this standard beer behavior and I just haven't seen it in the forums yet? Also, with this airlock activity - is this normal? Should I be concerned by it having bubbled well for a day then just slowed completely? The fact that this Krausen is here and that I noticed some slight bubbling still when I actually opened seems to indicate it's at least still going to some extent. When I poured out of the kettle, I did try to leave some in the bottom as it looked sludgier. Might I just have collected some of that in the pour by accident?
Thanks for taking the time to read. I'm going to bed now, I'll be checking back in the morning! Can't wait to HOPEFULLY have my own Brown Ale I can crack open with my buddy
Also, if a larger image might help identify it, here's a link - I don't want to post a giant picture here and throw off the forums.
http://imageshack.com/a/img849/5429/hj20.jpg