Wort is OILY... Syrupy After Primary

Hello! Scott in Atlanta. My IPA OG 1060.... is about 7 days into a primary fermentation. I went today to check it...and ready to rack it over to secondary. I took a reading... it was at 1008. It was a very active fermentation... and i used almost a full cup of White Labs Calif. Ale Yeast that was used in my pale ale that i did two weeks ago... i'm happy with the gravity... and color... BUT.

The sample i took ... off the top of the carboy was very OILY... oil like consistency... syrupy. It smells and tastes alright i guess... i mean it's only a week old... but... has anyone seen this?

I've seen this on too many batches of beer to count. I don't know if some kinds of yeast are more prone to it or some hops have more oil but it has never hurt anything and the beers always came out mighty tasty.

yeh... i'm looking at it now... maybe there's still a ton of yeast still suspended in the fluid. i'm not going to reuse this yeast cake though... i'm afraid it's tainted... but... it might not be... i should just move it to secondary... and see what happens.. huh?

My guess it is you are just seeing the hop oils on top of the wort. If everything smells and tastes ok I would say let it ride for a while.

Hedeen, just leave it be, it'll be fine. I've seen the rainbow slick on top of my wort plenty of times and it's turned out great. Racking it now will only be unnecessary work and kill the fermentation cycle.

do you think this is a diacetyl problem? the ferm temp is was around 70-72 degrees. hot georgia summers make it a pain to keep it even straight thru. i'm gonna keep an eye on this. I do have a feeling it could be a combo of hop oils.. and alot of yeast.

Hedeen said:

do you think this is a diacetyl problem? the ferm temp is was around 70-72 degrees. hot georgia summers make it a pain to keep it even straight thru. i'm gonna keep an eye on this. I do have a feeling it could be a combo of hop oils.. and alot of yeast.

Click to expand...

Nope. I agree with the above replies; you're worrying too much (we all do). That oil sheen happens, I think to all of our beers. I see this on just about every beer I've made. No effects on flavor, body, or head retention. It's just part of making beer. RDWHAHB.

70-72 really isn't hot enough to worry about, especially in terms of impacting the appearance of your beer. Not quite optimum, but still a good fermentation temp, and will make fine beer.

Do you have a picture? It sounds like it is just the hop oils sitting on top of the wort.

Does it taste buttery? Diacetyl is generally, from what understand, an issue with beer that had a long lag time. It doesn't seem like yours would have due to having a healthy pitch of yeast.

at those temps, i doubt its diacetyl. I think you're needlessly worrying...it does smell and taste fine after all, and its hella young.

It doesn't sound like anything too awful, but your FG is pretty low for a 1.060 OG. That's almost 90% apparent attenuation. What was your grain bill?

By the way, it's beer now, not wort.

ha... looked at my old posts! i’ve come along way in 5 years! ... it was “ropey”. an infection. worst tasting beer ever.