Trub "bubbling" -- is this normal?

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jsweet

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My second batch has been in the fermenter for 9 days. The trub is sort of "bubbling" -- I see little peaks slowly forming, and every once in a while one of the peaks will detach, float up for a couple inches, then fall back down onto the yeast cake. I have no idea if this is normal, because my first batch was a very dark-colored porter so I couldn't really have seen this is I tried.

Possibly relevant background info: This is a pale ale (which is not very pale at all since I scorched the LME, d'oh...) and I had a very rapid initial fermentation probably due to using Safale S-05. I was doing a 5-gal batch in a 6.5-gal carboy, and it overflowed the fermentation lock within 12 hours of pitching! (I replaced the lock with a freshly sanitized one and have had no problems since and no visible signs of contamination) Primary activity subsided within a couple of days.

I am planning on keeping it in the primary for 3 weeks, then bottling. So this trub thing... totally normal? No problem?
 
I haven't really seen that in my beers but I can say that my wines have all had the same type of thing happen.

My mango wine was almost like a lava lamp for about a week straight. Same with my banana wine just not as strong.

I believe what you are seeing is just either the thermal activity from it still fermenting or trapped gases in the trub being released. Either way, let it sit until it stop and starts to clear up.
 
Cool, figured it was perfectly normal, but I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere. Thanks! :mug:
 
The trub bubbling is normal, the yeast are not exactly done eating. I have had some batches that have shown these little peaks forming and floating up to the top as well, some fell with time other stayed up top. Every fermentation is different, no worries. I know it hard to do but just leave it be!

The Pale ale is most likely pale in color, you are just looking at a five gallon carboy, that much liquid together will have a very different color than a little bit of it in a pint. Think of the ocean, it looks blue, but if you get a glass and hold it up it is now clear. Same thing is happening with your beer in a five gallon carboy.

In all actually you are probably looking at an awesome 5 gallons of beer doing what it does naturally, fermentation is nasty business, there is a reason flowers need manure to grow in! Some of the best things in life sprout from rotten crap! Hahaha.:mug:
 
The Pale ale is most likely pale in color, you are just looking at a five gallon carboy, that much liquid together will have a very different color than a little bit of it in a pint.

Oh yeah, I know it won't be nearly as dark as it looks in the carboy (funny, I just explained the same exact thing to my wife last night, after she expressed surprise and concern at how dark it appears right now) -- but I have a vague idea what it will look like based on how it appeared in the hydrometer flask on brewday. It's not absurdly dark, but I probably wouldn't call it a "pale" ale either. No worries though!

Actually, the more concerning thing about scorching the extract is not so much the color (which I don't really care that much about) or even the flavor per se (I was shooting for something vaguely Sierra Nevada-like, so if I get caramel notes from the scorched LME that would be a miss, but who cares, it'll still be tasty beer)... but rather, I think that straining out the scorched extract was probably the cause of the relatively low OG on this batch: 1.040. Not that that's terrible or anything, but I tend to like somewhat stronger beers with a somewhat thicker mouthfeel. So this guy will probably come in around 4%, I'm guessing. What a tragedy! :cross: hehe

My first batch I only left in the primary for about 10 days and I am somewhat regretting it... it's fine, tastes like beer, totally drinkable, very enjoyable -- but it's got a sort of "unrefined" taste to it, and it has strong smoky and bitter notes that could really use some extra conditioning time to mellow out. I'm sure enough time in the bottle will cure most of that, but from what I've read since then I'm betting I would have been happier with another week at least in the primary. That's why this time I am promising myself I will give it a full 3 weeks in the primary. I had initially considered racking it, but after reading all the pros and cons on this forum, I've decided not to.

Even if the response to this thread had been, "Holy crap, I've never heard of a bubbling trub!", probably the most drastic action I would even think of taking would have been to reconsider my decision not to rack it. And probably I would have just left it alone anyway. I was just curious... Good to hear it's pretty normal.
 
fermentation is nasty business

Oh, and I take exception to this! :p Fermentation is beautiful. The bubbling trub is actually quite impressive to look at -- as is pretty much everything else I've seen going on in the carboy. The only thing I guess is sorta nasty is the fusel oils and hop resins left by the retreating krausen, but meh... Even that, I look at it, and I feel happy because it's not in my beer :D
 
Oh, and I take exception to this! :p Fermentation is beautiful. The bubbling trub is actually quite impressive to look at -- as is pretty much everything else I've seen going on in the carboy. The only thing I guess is sorta nasty is the fusel oils and hop resins left by the retreating krausen, but meh... Even that, I look at it, and I feel happy because it's not in my beer :D

Every mother loves her children jsweet! I love how fermentation looks too, the more blow off the better in my book, the crazier looking the krausen the happier I am hahahaha.

But When I show this to friends and family, they think the beer has spoiled and rotten. Keep us updated on how this brew turned out!
 

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