I hate to be *that* guy, but what is going on here?

So, I've been brewing for about 6 months and have done a pretty good job of not panicking when I see something new during the fermentation process. This one however, has me worried.

http://i.imgur.com/LWDZC.jpg

This is an IPA which has been racked to secondary and is being dry hopped (you can see the bag in the background there). It was in primary for about 3 weeks, then in secondary about 1 week before I added the hops. The hops have been in there for about 5 days. I only noticed this strange substance today. I had checked it yesterday and didn't notice. When I look closely there is a bit of the same substance on the yeast cake itself. None of it is floating above the the beer, just inside of it. What could this be? I have been incredibly tight with my sanitation methods and my only change here was that I was using washed yeast. I used washed yeast from the same batch in another beer and that one doesn't show anything like this.

It smells fine, it tastes fine. I was planning on bottling tomorrow. Please tell me to RDWHAHB.

Uh, is that white leaf thing not part of the bag? If not, it looks like some film that might have released from your better bottle. I'd let it go for a while more and see if it grows.

Might be nothing. I'm not a panicker, and that does not look like an infection, but it's not a normal product of fermentation (in my experience).

Pic is not great, have another?

Correct, that white leaf thing is not part of the bag. Like I said, it's on the bottom as well. It's a new better bottle and I washed it as thoroughly as I could and sanitized it as well. I'll see if I can get a better picture, but it's only visible from the side since it's not floating on top.

I think you have been invaded by an Alien!
Sorry, I've been drinking!
Bull

well I'll tell ya drink some of your good stuff. I have never saw anything like that before but if it smells an tastes ok all you can do is just wait it out. you probably will be alright.

I had this exact thing myself once. Turned out a big albino rat took a dump in my beer. Tasted fine though, so I wouldn't worry too much.

It does look strange. Give the carboy a knock or two and it may just drop out.

You should take a chunk out and eat it. If you get sick, don't drink any.

Weird it almost looks like a deformed cork

If I had to guess I would say it was some coagulated cold/hot break. I have had and seen some weird stuff floating in beer before - there doesn't seem to be any sign of infection. - you could always rack out away from it leave it to sit a while longer - see if it forms any more dorsal fins.

I would keep the beer though.

Heck, I thought it was a hunk of bread in there...

Did the yeast cake break loose and float up? or is this a trick pic. Give it a jiggle and see if it sinks. weird....RDWHAHB and one for me too.

HbgBill said:

Heck, I thought it was a hunk of bread in there...

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Exactly what I was thinking? Maybe some wild yeast made it in there....I would rack off it just to be safe

Did you dry hop it with cascade or a cheese?

Finally, the answer to one of life's most important questions:

how is babby formed?

All the more reason to ferment in opaque buckets. Fermentation is not pretty.

If it were a contaminating fungus, it would be floating on the surface. I agree with the votes for a piece of yeast cake

bullinachinashop said:

I think you have been invaded by an Alien!
Sorry, I've been drinking!
Bull

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I enjoyed this response.

bullinachinashop said:

I think you have been invaded by an Alien!
Bull

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.

You know I did move the carboy a few days ago when I was digging through my 'brew closet' for a few bottles I wanted to serve for New Year's Eve. But I did check on it after that and don't remember seeing anything like this floating around in there.

My other thought is that the temperature did drop quite a bit outside one night and this room is on the corner of the house. It keeps a pretty steady temp at 65 degrees, but I guess it's possible that with how windy it was and how cold it was, the temperature in the room dropped a bit and caused some sort of coagulation of proteins (this is SWMBO's theory).

I guess I will give it a few days and see if it still tastes / smells good and make sure it doesn't grow any, then bottle it. I don't normally pay any attention to how things look when it's fermenting, but considering this was in secondary for 2 weeks after being in primary for 3 weeks and I was about to bottle it, it had me very concerned.

Were you blowing your nose while adding the hops?

My wife has one of those she scrapes her feet with in the bath.

yoUR kid put a crouton and a leaf in there.

My wife has one of those too. She doesn't scrub her feet with it though

Hmmmm ..I been wonderen..... how you gonna git that thang outa the jug there? An ifits a cake ,,you gonna eat it?