What is this? Infection?

Hey all. I'm still somewhat new to this and am wondering what this is, if anything. The first pic is after a week when I opened to take a reading. The second was a couple days later when I was adding dry hop additions. And the last pic is a couple days after that. I haven't seen this before and would be grateful for any help. Thanks!

Looks like a nice healthy krausen to me!

I have had krausens look like that. I would say that it is more than likely just fine.

The only way I would be concerned is if the krausen had fallen completely and then that showed up. However, if that was there the entire time, its just a nice healthy krausen.

I had something just like that show up once a few days after the krausen was gone, it almost fooled me into thinking the beer had stalled... but gravity readings and off flavors in the final product proved it to be an infection.

unionrdr said:

Def krausen. Never saw an infection that looked healthy like that. And you dry hopped after a few days of fermentation? That's too soon.

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I dry hopped after 10 days. The first pic is after a week, the second is a few days later when I dry hopped.

Brewmaster_CPA said:

I dry hopped after 10 days. The first pic is after a week, the second is a few days later when I dry hopped.

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Gotta wait for fermentation to be complete or you will lose some of the dry hop goodness

10 days is plenty of time for most of ale fermentation to be over and to dry hop. If you wait until fermentation is completely done then you risk oxidation when you transfer the wort to a secondary (or release CO2 blanket from primary if you don't do a secondary).

dbsmith said:

10 days is plenty of time for most of ale fermentation to be over and to dry hop. If you wait until fermentation is completely done then you risk oxidation when you transfer the wort to a secondary (or release CO2 blanket from primary if you don't do a secondary).

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I mean look at that thing. It clearly was not ready to be dry hopped regardless of the 10 day mark.

Op it's not like the beer is ruined at all. Just for future reference dry hopping should be done after fermentation

mewithstewpid said:

I mean look at that thing. It clearly was not ready to be dry hopped regardless of the 10 day mark.

Op it's not like the beer is ruined at all. Just for future reference dry hopping should be done after fermentation

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Yeah I'll remember that. I'm used to just waiting two weeks, popping the top and see it all finished. But I was trying to have this finished up for Christmas Eve so it through my schedule off. I never really knew what it looked like through all the stages because of using buckets. Haha now I know what a healthy krausen looks like! Thanks to all for the input!

mewithstewpid said:

I mean look at that thing. It clearly was not ready to be dry hopped regardless of the 10 day mark.

Op it's not like the beer is ruined at all. Just for future reference dry hopping should be done after fermentation

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It doesn't matter if the krausen has not dropped. You can't just look at the krausen and say 'oh, it's still fermenting!'. I guarantee you that a normal strength beer undergoing normal fermentation is either done or almost done after 10 days. IMO, the risk of oxidation is much worse than the risk of losing a small amount of hop aroma, especially if you keg. Hop aroma can be fixed, oxidation cannot.

Definitely had krausens like that....one of my best batches looked like that.

Put the lid on and wait another week or two. Opening it like that can allow the CO2 layer to be "breezed" out and allow oxygen to take its place.

OMO

bosco

boscobeans said:

Put the lid on and wait another week or two. Opening it like that can allow the CO2 layer to be "breezed" out and allow oxygen to take its place.

OMO

bosco

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Agreed, however this problem can be averted if you have a CO2 tank and a regulator (although this may be an issue of u bottle rather than keg). Since CO2 is heavier than air, if you "pour" a little co2 into the fermentor after you open it and take a reading, it will displace the air/oxygen and fill it with a layer of pure CO2 which will hover over the krausen. Just make sure the pressure is low enough otherwise the jet of co2 will blow the krausen everywhere (think blowing the foam off the top of a poured beer).

I use this technique when kegging, i just fill the keg w co2 prior to kegging, that way when i pour the brew into the keg i dont have to worry about absorbing o2 and oxydizing the beer. The beer lasts longer in the keg and tastes better as a result!