Brown stuff floating in beer

First Ill spare you the long story.I brewed BMs wheat it been in the primary for around a week or so. I have some brown things floating on the top. Anyone know what they might be? My plan is to just try and avoid them when racking.

And heres the story that may or may not have something to do with it.

Well I missed my strike temp i was under a few degrees so I heated some water and added it to bring it up and over shot it. Left the lid off a little to lose some heat and I dropped too low again. Not a big deal too me my system is pretty temporary so Im not really bothering to fine tune it. And yes I did stir to avoid hot and cold spots. But that not the fun part of this brew.

My sparge took WAY longer than I expected and ran out of time before work. So I put my tun and my kettle outside while I was at work and let the last bit of the runnings drain while I was gone. I put it outside because it was WAY too cold for any bacteria to get started in my wort. I know some people have had this problem when they left their stuff in the house so I figured it was my best bet. Now one thing about my current set up is my kettle is too small. So when I start my boil I split it untill enough boils off to fit in the kettle.

So I have two pots sitting out in the back yard. One with a lid one without. I set them up so any animals would have to work to get at them. I went to work feeling pretty good about my plan. Untill we get hit by a huge ice storm!

When I get home my kettles are covered in ice! The larger kettle with a lid is frozen on. The smaller one without a lid has a layer of ice on it!. So I scoop the ice off and bring both the pots in the barn and cover the small on with a plate and call it a night.

The next day I brewed as usual with no real problems other than it took longer to get to a boil. I dont know of this had anything to do with what floating but it was a very interesting couple of days.

Chances are it's just yeast, it will most likely sink on its own if you give it more time.

Sounds like rising yeast. No worries, finish it out like normal.

You don't have to worry about bacteria and stuff before the boil, btw.

Unless they are floating rats... (in which case we want pics).

Speaking of.. damn rat like creature ran right in front of me when I was watching the boil. body of a rat and the head somewhat like a short haired hamster (fur was all rat like). I was like, WTF was that? Some alien rat hamster crossbreed experiment?!

I get those from time to time- floating things that never sink. I think its thick krausen that gets dried out at the surface and has the mold (As in a cast mold, not an evil living unwanted thing) of tiny CO2 bubbles in it- which sorta makes it Buoyant. After I have racked, I have gotten my hands on some of them- they were soft and spongy and squished down to a residue that is obviously Krausen. Most of the time they are easy to avoid- and when not, I put a nylon steeping pack over the racking cane. I have no idea what- if anything- I'm doing that helps of hinders there little f*@ckers developing.

[QUOTE
Speaking of.. damn rat like creature ran right in front of me when I was watching the boil. body of a rat and the head somewhat like a short haired hamster (fur was all rat like). I was like, WTF was that? Some alien rat hamster crossbreed experiment?![/QUOTE]
Said the man with an evil scientist for an avatar. We're on to you.
LOL.

PseudoChef said:

You don't have to worry about bacteria and stuff before the boil, btw.

Click to expand...

Well if you leave a sweet wort sitting and allow bacteria to begin feasting they are going to cause some off flavors. Even if you do kill them in the boil they ahve akready done their deed.

Sources:
Someone else had this problem on HBT

I laid out a ring of sticky traps, surrounding a small pile of spent mash. Lets see if that little bugger will pass thay by.

Did I mention I went out there today and a pair of expensive chemical handling golves that had some spent grains stuck to them were all chewed up.

This is WAR. I declare a WAR on RATS.

Can I get my billions in government funding now please.

I'm actually in the middle of brewing my second batch of BM's Wit. What you're describing sounds like what I had in mine, and it turned out great! I'm pretty sure it's just yeast clumping up and getting pushed up with the vigorous fermentation.