Beer jelly = Contaminated?

Hello all,

After reading this site for the last few months, I finally registered. I'll post in the introductions section soon.

I brewed an amber ale from an extract kit on 01/31/09. I was planning to rack it tomorrow (Friday 02/20) However became somewhat startled upon inspection of my homebrew. I found White floating dots and a faint barely white film on top.

I searched and searched this site to find relief and it worked! I was referred to chapter 21 in John Palmers "How to Brew" which told me this most likely was normal, and only to worry if the beer grew fur.

However I noticed that near the top of the beer around the edge, particles(assuming hops) are suspended in a Jelly like substance. John Palmer noted bacteria may cause ropy strands of jelly. But nothing is ropy about this!

Has anyone ever heard or experienced this? My sanitizing was pretty obsessive with Iodophor. But sadly I defiantly followed the directions on the extract kit which after my findings here wish I hadn’t.

Previous to this batch I made a warm up batch of festa brew double oatmeal stout to get my feet wet, came out great!

My concerns throughout the brewing process following the directions:

I used tap water(not boiled)

It instructed me not to stir when introducing(dumping) the wort into the water, though I previously had excessively splashed to create bubbles in the festa brew.

Perhaps from not mixing the wort properly, the wort thickened at the top?

Any ideas, suggestions or help is greatly appreciated. I apologize if I missed an answer to this elsewhere.

Cheers
Aaron

could just be some trub that made it to the top. How does it smell?

It smells ok, I can’t really pick up a vinegar odor or anything.

So my curiosity got the best of me, and I went into the beer with a big spoon. It was not gelatin at all, more like the top had congealed and caved in around the edge to give a gelatin illusion. So while I had a spoon there I tried to scrape the white stuff off. I ended up with maybe 8oz of my beer in a pan, so I tasted it. Grossly bitter(my dad would probably enjoy it). But as I am writing this finding an absolute wonderful aftertaste in my mouth.

So I guess we will see? The kit was not supposed to be overly bitter, could that be a sign?

Thanks again!

Aaron

Sounds good to me. Pronounced bitter is not unusual when you are messing around with wort/beer. Most of that will stay behind and it will mellow out some during the first few weeks of fermentation and bottling.

Try a sample when you bottle/keg. Depending on the style it might still be a bit bitter even then. Of course, if you are not used to hoppy beers, this batch might be a bit outside of your usual palate too.

What kind of beer is it supposed to be? Maybe post a recipe with hops callout?