Picture Worth 1000 Words

I put 3 pics of my current batch on my gallery.

I'm starting to get small white globs appearing at or just below the surface of the wort while it sits in the secondary.

Should I be worried, or is this normal?

Thanks.

Looks like an infection to me. You can rack below it to bottle or keg. How did the beer look prior to you racking it over and how did it taste?

Hi Sour,

It was clear, nice reddish color with a beer-like smell.

The gravity numbers looked okay 1.055 to start, 1.013 to finish

But the flavor was awful. I thought it was because it was green and just coming out of the fermenter.

I racked it, then took a sample from the primary to taste. I thought I had grabbed some of the trub.

I won't be doing anything with this for 2 weeks. I assume that means the stuff at the top will only get worse.

The pic is hard to make out--if they are all under the surface then it's likely not mold. And if it's in secondary and you really truly didn't transfer any trub over then it could be an infection. Does it look rocky like a krausen, shiny like plaque/crisco, or matte and fuzzy?

What specifically doesn't it smell like? Vinegar? Hops? (just an fyi, the CO2 will burn your nose, so it's important to know the difference between getting blasted in the face with *normal* CO2 and actual sour/vinegar smells.)

There appears to be 2 different things at or on the surface.

Some are small islands of foam, much like the start of a krausen. The closer I look at them, the less I worry about them.

The other things look like small smooth balls about the size of a BB or smaller. They hang out just under the surface to about 1/2 inch below the surface.

I've added to more pics to show them. I have no explanation for what they are.

The beer smells like beer. If you drink a beer then leave the glass sitting out for a bit, there's as sweetish aroma. I can't detect anything "off" as far as smell goes, or at least nothing that would immediately make me think this has gone bad.

But maybe it's too early in the process.

then it hasn't gone bad!! Seriously though, yeast can do that, coagulated protein can do that, and hops can do that. the two smells that make me worried are vinegar (acetic acid) and mold. and they are obvious. well, even with that, mold smells might sometimes be a form of brett....

anyway, i'm rambling. what you've said convinces me you are fine. fermentation is an ugly, disgusting looking process, but you'll love the results

Is the photo I found yours? I cannot find any of the others you listed. Maybe you added some O2 during the transfer and some yeast started up again. I have a sour going and it looks to me the same as the photo I found. Just give it time and check on it once in a while.

OK, I couldn't find any photos in your gallery, but wanted to say Welcome from Shirley.

Sour H. H.
Sorry, not sure what's up. If I click on my gallery then look at the one with my name on it, I see 5 photos. I think Japhroaig had it. The balls must be coagulated trub or something like that. The batch seems fine and I'll let it sit for a few weeks. Thanks again.

Hello Greyhound! Nice to know there's more people from out our way on the site.

Greyhound said:

OK, I couldn't find any photos in your gallery, but wanted to say Welcome from Shirley.

Click to expand...

I couldn't find them either.

Sorry Guys,

I didn't realize that at my current account level, I seem to have a profile gallery, but cannot make it public, or create a member's gallery in that section.

Update:

The globs are still there, but don't appear to be doing anything.

I have a many more islands of small bubble foam, so I assume the yeasties are doing their thing.

It's one week into a projected two week conditioning and it doesn't appear that any "clearing" has happened.

Does it occur more rapidly at the end of two weeks, or is two weeks to short a period to expect the beer to clear?

If you still have bubbles, the yeast isn't done with its active phase and is still churning up the brew so it can't even start to clear. Wait it out some more.

Update #2
It's now been 2 weeks in the secondary. The "globs" seem to have disappeared. The small foam islands are subsiding. A quick sample reveals a fine smell, but a God-awful aftertaste that doesn't burn, but has the nasal aroma of some kind of solvent. The beer is still a little cloudy and is about 18-19 on the SRM chart. I'll let it go another week and check again. I hope it cleans itself up.