Possible infection, unsure

I just started my 3rd batch of my brief brewing career in the fermenter last night. It's a fat tire extract clone with wyeast 1272 liquid yeast. I also added 1 lb of wild flower honey to the fermenter around 80* temp right before I pitched the yeast.

My concern are these larger chunks suspended throughout the fermenter, never seen that before and just finished flipping through the "post your infection" thread so maybe I'm a little gun shy. One negative thing I saw while cooling the wort that I have to improve for next batch is I put the wort in my refrigerator in 6 gallon boil pot with no lid, it caused condensation on the bottom of the shelf above and a few drops of water fell into pot before I caught it and put a towel over.

The fermentation has started and bubbling along ok, hopefully it will turn out ok but maybe someone else here has experienced this and has some insight.

It's fine. Those are just hops bits and break material working their way down the beer. Looks like a nice amber!

BassmasterFlash said:

I just started my 3rd batch of my brief brewing career in the fermenter last night. It's a fat tire extract clone with wyeast 1272 liquid yeast. I also added 1 lb of wild flower honey to the fermenter around 80* temp right before I pitched the yeast.

My concern are these larger chunks suspended throughout the fermenter, never seen that before and just finished flipping through the "post your infection" thread so maybe I'm a little gun shy. One negative thing I saw while cooling the wort that I have to improve for next batch is I put the wort in my refrigerator in 6 gallon boil pot with no lid, it caused condensation on the bottom of the shelf above and a few drops of water fell into pot before I caught it and put a towel over.

The fermentation has started and bubbling along ok, hopefully it will turn out ok but maybe someone else here has experienced this and has some insight.

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I had something very similar when i brewed an English brown ale. All that stuff ended up on top eventually, and was pretty messy. Let us know how it turns out. hopefully it's tasty. good luck

Looks like break material to me. I think you'll be okay. You should definitely start cooling with a lid on your pot, though. It takes longer for sure but you're taking a risk with infection otherwise. If you can't use an immersion chiller, try at least an ice bath instead of throwing it in the fridge.

your ferm temps are a bit high. i would be concerned about that.

inkman15 said:

Looks like break material to me. I think you'll be okay. You should definitely start cooling with a lid on your pot, though. It takes longer for sure but you're taking a risk with infection otherwise. If you can't use an immersion chiller, try at least an ice bath instead of throwing it in the fridge.

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Was thinking about the immersion chiller too, I learned a bit on this brew that I will implement on the next go around. The directions had me boil 3 gallons and top off to 5 once its in the fermenter, going to keep the top off water just above freezing and bought the copper tubing and fittings at home depot today to make a simple immersion chiller and have an old fish tank pump to move cold water through it. The cooling of the wort in a reasonable time frame while trying to prevent contamination to it is the obvious weak link in my process right now.

j1n said:

your ferm temps are a bit high. i would be concerned about that.

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The directions in the kit said to pitch once the wort got to 80*, as of now I have moved it to an insulated room in my attic where the AC unit is, being in south florida without running the AC in my house constantly its hard to find a spot in the house that stays under 78* constantly. In that room it is hovering around 71*-72*.

A friend gave me an analog thermostat he used to control a refrigerator for his home brewing, once I come up with a spare refrigerator for cheap I'll get that going.

BassmasterFlash said:

The directions in the kit said to pitch once the wort got to 80*, as of now I have moved it to an insulated room in my attic where the AC unit is, being in south florida without running the AC in my house constantly its hard to find a spot in the house that stays under 78* constantly. In that room it is hovering around 71*-72*.

A friend gave me an analog thermostat he used to control a refrigerator for his home brewing, once I come up with a spare refrigerator for cheap I'll get that going.

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Kit directions are mostly garbage.

You need to research the yeast you are using and ferment it at the optimal temp for that given yeast strain. The yeast you used would be best at mid 60s.

Also keep in mind the fermentation temp is going to higher than the ambient temp in the room. so if its 71-71* your fermentation temps could be in the mid to upper 70s.

Id get that fridge asap cause that will improve your brewing by a lot. ferm temps imo is prob #2 after sanitation as far as importance for making good beer.

Fermenter looks familiar...

Understood, will start searching for a cheap or free old refrigerator someone in the neighborhood may be getting rid of.

Not to venture too far off topic, but once you are set up with a refrigerator and a temperature controller, where are you putting the probe to keep the temperature as close as ideal as possible? In a container of water inside the refrigerator or taped to the side of the fermenter? Or is having it inside the door using just the air temperature inside the fridge accurate enough?

j1n said:

Kit directions are mostly garbage.

You need to research the yeast you are using and ferment it at the optimal temp for that given yeast strain. The yeast you used would be best at mid 60s.

Also keep in mind the fermentation temp is going to higher than the ambient temp in the room. so if its 71-71* your fermentation temps could be in the mid to upper 70s.

Id get that fridge asap cause that will improve your brewing by a lot. ferm temps imo is prob #2 after sanitation as far as importance for making good beer.

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Even if you don't get a fridge soon, go buy a cheap big plastic bucket that you can sit the fermenter in. Place the fermenter in it an fill with water. The water will take heat out of the fermenter and keep the beer within a degree or 2 of the water.

While not perfect, it is a lot better than letting the internal temp rise 5 to 10 degrees above room temp.

Use a high temp yeast. PacMan is good to 72, some English strains are OK to 70, and will probably be fine at a stable 72. And of course there are Belgian strains - ever tried Stone's Calibelgie Pale Ale?

........ And here is a little secret for you, White Labs Brett-C will ferment clean up to at least 80 F. I have to push it to 85 to get some flavor from it. You could use it in place of an American yeast ina Pale Ale.

And it doesn't look like an infection. Most infections show evidence on the surface, not the bottom.