rokfizix
Member
Hi Guys,
So here's my situation. I am brewing a 5 gallon batch of Northern Brewer Extra Special Bitter (using White Labs English Dry Ale Yeast - think that's what it was). I put it into primary about a month ago. It fermented away vigorously for about a week and or more and then settled down. I had been reading that a lot of people don't bother to rack to secondary so I left it for a while. Well last week I noticed that the sanitizer in the air lock was low - the little floating part was resting on the top of the post. There was still a good bit of sanitizer in there but i am not sure if there was a perfect seal formed by the fluid. It may have been this way ~ 1 week. Anyway I added a little extra sanitizer and left it alone.
Now it seems to be bubbling again. The reason I am worried is that there are small clusters of white stuff floating on the surface of the beer. They are not fuzzy like mold - more of a goo -- and they appear to be made up of clusters of distinct spheres (about 0.5 mm diameter). Additionally there appear to be more of the spheres stuck to the walls of the carboy below the surface of the beer. I pulled the stopper and everything smells wonderful - like beer. I did not pull a hydrometer sample yet - I did not have time to sanitize the thief. Should I be worried or should I just let it continue to bubble away? Should I transfer to a secondary at this point? Any theories and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
So here's my situation. I am brewing a 5 gallon batch of Northern Brewer Extra Special Bitter (using White Labs English Dry Ale Yeast - think that's what it was). I put it into primary about a month ago. It fermented away vigorously for about a week and or more and then settled down. I had been reading that a lot of people don't bother to rack to secondary so I left it for a while. Well last week I noticed that the sanitizer in the air lock was low - the little floating part was resting on the top of the post. There was still a good bit of sanitizer in there but i am not sure if there was a perfect seal formed by the fluid. It may have been this way ~ 1 week. Anyway I added a little extra sanitizer and left it alone.
Now it seems to be bubbling again. The reason I am worried is that there are small clusters of white stuff floating on the surface of the beer. They are not fuzzy like mold - more of a goo -- and they appear to be made up of clusters of distinct spheres (about 0.5 mm diameter). Additionally there appear to be more of the spheres stuck to the walls of the carboy below the surface of the beer. I pulled the stopper and everything smells wonderful - like beer. I did not pull a hydrometer sample yet - I did not have time to sanitize the thief. Should I be worried or should I just let it continue to bubble away? Should I transfer to a secondary at this point? Any theories and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
