Yeast Rafts Forming After 2 Months in Secondary?

Is that... normal? The surface of the beer was absolutely clear of any flotsam for practically last 2 months. They look like yeast rafts and there is also a small, filamentous something or other about a centimeter long running across the surface. They popped up a few days ago and haven't gone away. I jostled the beer a bit trying to get a better look, so I can't tell if I spread them out or they are growing.

I was thinking of bottling this beer this evening, but if there's a chance that this is the early stages of an infection I don't want to deal with bottle bombs later. It tastes "normal" for flat, warm beer, though.

Any experiences with this? Anyone who has had a batch infected in the secondary remember what it looked like when the infection started? Or anyone had yeast rafts pop up later in the secondary?

How about some more information. Yeast strain, temperature, beer style, hydrometer readings, a picture?

A picture would be handy before you label it an infection.

Style: Irish Red (
Yeast: Wyeast Irish Ale
OG: 1.059
FG: 1.013 - this value hasn't changed since it's been in the secondary, so nothing [buggy I]seems[/I] to be consuming sugars in the beer. I'll continue to check it, though.

Fermented at 65, but lately it's been getting into the 80's in my garage where the beer is kept. Pic is going to be hard b/c I'll have to move the carboy to get it in light good enough to take it and that might disturb the whatever-it-is on top. I'll give it a whirl once I get home.

I don't think it's an infection, but I'm trying to decide whether it would be worthwhile to wait a couple of weeks and see if anything is actually growing or just go ahead and bottle.

I kinda need the space that the carboy is taking up, but dodging glass shards from a bottle bomb is not high on my list of priorities this summer.

I've had this happen before. You can never have ONLY yeast in there. It's probably a very small amount of another harmless organism. If you've been in the 80's, it going to be hard to keep other stuff from growing; it's just too nice in there.

I bet your beer is still tasty. I'd hurry up and get to drinkin'....

ScubaSteve said:

I've had this happen before. You can never have ONLY yeast in there. It's probably a very small amount of another harmless organism. If you've been in the 80's, it going to be hard to keep other stuff from growing; it's just too nice in there.

I bet your beer is still tasty. I'd hurry up and get to drinkin'....

Click to expand...

+1 Although it could be an infection, I certainly hope not. This is the reason why we try to chill our beer to below 80*F as fast as we possibly can. It's not good to store fermenting beer in temperatures > 80*F.

It's not fermenting anymore ... this is secondary. But yeah, I store in my garage and it's getting too damn hot out there. I keep my fermenter in the garage sink to keep it in the '60's during attenuation, but after I rack I don't have temp control. And there's nowhere to keep carboys inside. If one of those things breaks, I'd be hosed.

So I didn't bottle it. Yet. What I thought were yeast rafts are looking more like a white sheen with streeks. Not very pronounced, but it's certainly growing. Still working on getting pics onto the computer. Gravity hasn't changed more than maybe half a point, but there has been some bubbles in the airlock. Still smells/tastes fine.

If this is the early stage of an infection, what are my risks of bottle bombs? Would I be able to bottle all of this beer, let it sit for 3 weeks, and still be safe?