Floaters in my bottles?

[teeWRX]

Hey all, new-ish brewer here i've done 2 mini mash brews and on my 3rd all grain BIAB 5gal batch. All previous batches have been great, really enjoying the hobby. The current batch is a Winter Ale and i've got a lot of floating material in the neck of pretty much all my bottles. See images below:

Batch was 5gal BIAB winter ale, mashed at 153F, temp held pretty rock solid with reflectix insulation and blanket around the kettle.
Ingredients:

Fermented in 7gal PET carboy with a blow-off tube for 2 wks, then Cocoa nibs and 2.5 Vanilla beans added (both had been soaked in separate sanitized mason jars just submerged in vodka for the 2 weeks of fermentation). Let sit another 10 days in same primary vessel, then racked and bottled using 3/4cup corn sugar.

When I racked to bottling bucket I was pretty careful not to take much if any yeast/sediment with the beer. Not sure why I ended up with so many floaters. Best I can tell this is a mixture of yeast and bits of the vanilla and cocoa beans?

I had planned on letting it carb the 3wks and then just giving the beer the old smell/taste test?

What can I do in the future to keep this crud out of the bottles? Would a secondary help much, as I don't this this stuff had dropped out of solution when I went to rack?

Any help from people experienced with these kind of additions would be great, cheers!

 

[teeWRX]

Won't let me edit the post but appears that BeerSmith image is pretty useless so here are the typed up ingredients:

- 9.3oz chocolate
- 1lb 2.4oz vienna
- 2lb 4.8oz caramel 80
- 2lb 4.8oz munich
- 5lb 9.6oz 2row
- 0.58oz willamette 5min
- 0.58oz willamette 60min
- 1.15oz saaz 60min
- 2oz cocoa nibs
- 2.5 vanilla beans scraped
- 1pk london esb yeast (wyeast #1968)

 

[Brunsky]

For this batch, I would RDWHAHB and let it condition as planned, then refrigerate it for a few days. This should give those floaters a chance to drop to the bottom. If you didn't notice anything strange in the bottling bucket, my guess would be that the floaters are yeast flocking out a bit strangely in the presence of bean/nib particles. I would cut down your contact time for the nibs and beans to prevent them from degrading so much. Give them a dip, not a 2-week soak, in some kind of sanitizer if you want, and then 2-3 days in the fermenter.

 

[Smellyglove]

That does look like trub. Seems like I can see a rootlet from grain in there. Let the wort sit for a while after cooling it in the BK, to get less trub over into the fermenter, and don't be too greedy trying to get everything which is liquid out of the fermenter.

It will settle out. but still, it doesn't look too great.

 

[teeWRX]

For this batch, I would RDWHAHB and let it condition as planned, then refrigerate it for a few days. This should give those floaters a chance to drop to the bottom. If you didn't notice anything strange in the bottling bucket, my guess would be that the floaters are yeast flocking out a bit strangely in the presence of bean/nib particles. I would cut down your contact time for the nibs and beans to prevent them from degrading so much. Give them a dip, not a 2-week soak, in some kind of sanitizer if you want, and then 2-3 days in the fermenter.

I'm pushing 2.5 weeks in the bottles now, and this stuff has almost completely settled out. Seems I pulled a noob move and got a little excited prematurely. Should have had a home brew like you said!

 

[teeWRX]

Update, definitely wasn't spoiled, tasted great with noticeable chocolate flavor, didn't get much vanilla though.

Everything completely settled out with time in the fridge if anyone has similar findings in their bottles. Mixture of yeast and vanilla bean flecks I think? Those vanilla flecks were easily roused for the life of the beer if transporting bottled. I may try a secondary or run the wort through cheese cloth prior to bottling if I ever make this one again.