Fermentation Question/Problem

[pdfmorais]

Hi,

For the first time I've brewed a beer (lager), 2 days ago. All went reasonably well and the beer has been fermenting for the last two days. The airlock has been bubbling slowly but steadily and the temperature has been varying from 5º to 10º Celsius. The problem is that there are some white things on the top of the beer witch I don’t know if it is normal. There's a picture of it attached.

Can anyone explain what's happening to my beer?

Thanks in advance...

Pedro

 

[christyle]

I havent done a lager yet, but oftentimes I get that look after pitching and before the yeast start really working. A big floating fuzzball.

 

[pdfmorais]

And is it normal or is it some kind of infection?

 

[christyle]

Nothing abnormal for me, but I can't guarantee yours, especially if using lager yeast, as I'm unfamiliar.

 

[pdfmorais]

Ok... thanks for the answers. Anyone has anything more to say about this?

 

[JimRausch]

Looks normal to me- yeast rafts.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

Yeast.

2 days is way too early to tell for sure on an infection but 2 days looking like that is a good indicator that you have yeast activity.

RDWHAHB

 

[d3track]

What temp and strain is it? 5-10*C swings are pretty big, especially for lager strains.

 

[pdfmorais]

The yeast is BROULAND Brewferm Lager and the target temperatures are between 12º and 15º Celsius. But given that fermentation is an exothermic process, I've figured that I should lower the temps a bit to get them around that target inside the fermentation vessel. The variations are due to the fact that this is fermenting inside the kitchen's refrigerator and the temperature controller is not very accurate.