HELP!! WTF is that?

Went into the basement to check things out and saw this:





I've never seen this before. I looked up close and I didn't see any solids in the "clumps". They're just bubbles in clusters.

FYI. The two carboys are not the same batch. They're both stouts but a week apart. The one in question is 1 week in the secondary and the closer one is 2 weeks in the secondary.

My first thoughts were "Aw crap, it's gotten contaminated" but I wanted some of your thoughts.

The brew is the Guinness Clone recipe in the BYO 150 clone magazine.

Thanks Guys
DM

Bubbles in clusters, you're probably ok... fuzzy floaters, could be bad.

It could be your sanitizer. I get that sometimes with no rinse sanitizers like Star San. Looks like no big deal.

IT'S RUINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...NOT. *shrug* who knows. It looks to me like some remnants of fermentation going on. My Chaos Love Magnet had some wierd tiny little bubbles come to the surface recently. It was dark in the room where I keep it so I couldn't tell what they were. I was a little freaked at first, but was like eh no worries. They soon subsided back into the 5 gallon abyss.

I can't tell by looking at the picture (it is kind of blurry where I am trying to see) but the one cluster of foamy stuff looks like a mold but I can't tell. Keep an eye on it and if it starts to look fuzzy (like hair) as seefresh says you'd have a mold.

Nothing for you to do but wait.
You can taste it when you rack next.

That'll be the best way to tell if it's OK.

I'd pitch it.


My way!!!!

probly nothing. don't sweat it too much. It takes a pretty serious bug to live in beer. and in my experience it's ussually obvious. If you are question ti it is most likely fine. Pop the top off your airlock and give it a whiff. you'll get a moldy wet dog like smell if it's mold.

that's the way my stuff looks as it begins it's primary fermentation, usually they would densify and come together to form a preliminary krausen bed. The fact that your's is in clarification probably means some residual fermenting. Have you rausted the carboy recently? Have temps gone up recently? That's what I think it is...

you are fine. I gues this is the first time you are using a secondary

Search for "Is that mold?" and you sould find more accounts of this. It's basically just bubbles from remnant yeast activity.

Kai

you guys are not helping me get 5 gallons of perfectly good, er i mean contaminated, guiness clone!

grats your still fermenting

Not only do you need to take out the trash and recycling, you also appear to have something fermenting in your glass carboy.

I had that on one of my recent brews due to some floating yeasties. I'm coming to Harrisburg later this evening so if you need a second opinion on a taste test, I would be more than happy to oblige.

Yup I fully concur. I had that same phenomenon on the top of my Caramel Cream Ale and it's fine.

I'm afraid its beyond help - let me take it away and 'dispose' of it for you

Thanks guys. I've always used secondary and never had this happen before so I got a little worried. If it's still fermenting then I've leave it in the secondary an extra week.

"Not only do you need to take out the trash and recycling, you also appear to have something fermenting in your glass carboy."

Tell me about it. It's our storage closet in the basement. I want to trash every thing in there (minus the brew stuff of course) mostly so I can put more brew stuff in there but the SWMBO won't let me.

Thanks again
DM

I was looking at my No.2 Batch of Apfelwein yesterday, it looks as if somebody dropped a big lougie in the center of the carboy. Smack dab in the middle 2" below the top.

It really looked strange. Kind of like the one you hack up in the morning when your sick with a chest cold.

I pitched Cote Des Blancs w/ Yeast energizer. I believe the energizer is help with the weird off color!!

Uhmm Yummy!!! Cough, Cough...

Just bubble cluster IMHO. I get them also.

Other than that...the first photo showed a big mess with your storage situation...

Der Meister said:

Thanks guys. I've always used secondary and never had this happen before so I got a little worried. If it's still fermenting then I've leave it in the secondary an extra week.

"Not only do you need to take out the trash and recycling, you also appear to have something fermenting in your glass carboy."

Tell me about it. It's our storage closet in the basement. I want to trash every thing in there (minus the brew stuff of course) mostly so I can put more brew stuff in there but the SWMBO won't let me.

Thanks again
DM

Click to expand...

Your stuff looks about as organized as mine, only mine is spread out in about four different places.