Am I making Beer or Cottage Cheese?

Just finished primary on an Oktoberfest, and what's left in the bottom is very strange. I've only made one lager before, and it was nothing like this...





After draining the excess beer off, I had 1-1/2 quarts of this stuff left. There is very little apparent yeast in it, unless it is somehow integrated into this "stuff".

I used yeast I harvested from my first batch of lager, a White Labs German Lager yeast. I made a large starter (built up to approx 3-1/2 quarts) and it spent 3 weeks at 52-54.

Here is my recipe:
Steep 7 oz ea Belgian CaraVienne & Durst Caramunich until 170 deg.
Light LME - 2# 12oz @ 60 min
German Spalt Pellet Hop - 2 oz @ 45 min
Irish Moss - 1 T at 20 mins
Light LME - 5# 4oz @ 15 min

OG 1.059
FG 1.019 after primary

So what's going on here? Is this stuff worth harvesting or should I just chuck it?

that is proly just trub, Hops, and sedimented yeast. I've had a lot more "stuff" on the bottom of my primary's.

You can get the yeast out of the other stuff by yeast washing. Yeast Washing

Looks about right to me, but I've never made a lager. From what I've read 3/4 gallon starter would not be enough, but your results look very promising to me! Makes me salivate over the thought of Bell's Oktoberfest!

That looks exactly like what came out of my Oktoberfest. It's normal. Enjoy!

K. Thanks. I've just never seen so much trub, or in that format. Usually it's just paste-y. This was curds. I don't think I'll bother washing this batch - there is just so much stuff in there, and I still have two jars from my original harvest.

Re: starter size - the first batch I made I used one vial of WL and made about 1-1/2 quarts starter. But I also pitched at 70 deg and waited for it to start before I took it to 50-55. This time I wanted to pitch at 55 so I made the bigger starter. It took right off, nice activity in the blowoff tube within a few hours. I guess I didn't need a blowoff tube tho, it just chugged along. Maybe lagers don't need one? I just decided that since my last hefe had made a big mess I didn't want to take a chance of fouling up my fridge (my first lager I just did in the corner of my winter basement - 52 deg, so I wasn't so worried).

That was my first time getting anything looking like a reddish/brown cottage cheese too, but I've seen a lot of weird looking trub. I taste each hydrometer sample after the krausen calms down. If it tastes like beer, and doesn't have some kind of funky taste, I RAHAHB.

I haven't done a lot of lagers, but from my experience and understanding, they take longer to ferment, and have a slower process. I haven't had a problem using airlocks on them. I also left it in the primary for four weeks, and then racked to a secondary for another four weeks. The whole time at around 54ºF. It's now kegged, and in he kegerator at around 40ºF, waiting until the one tap is available. All samples suggested it was a good beer, but I'll have to wait to find out.

I believe the Irish Moss does that... I've encountered that twice, on the two batches I used IM on ...

Aha. That may well be it. This is the first time I've used Irish Moss.

Thanks!

Yep I have to agree it's solely due to the Irish moss. I just used it for the first time this week and I had the same puzzled look. Haha I've got a video where a big co2 "belch" happens in the primary throwing up a funnel of curds it that float right back down to the bottom instead of mixing up all of the macro yeast particles and sediment that has been in all my other brews.

To reinforce what others have suggested, what you're seeing is from the Irish Moss. Most of it will settle out in the primary, and any that makes it into the secondary will settle out in there. No need to worry over it, it's totally normal =]


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You guys realize this is a 5-year-old thread your are responding to, right?