Little help on 1st brew

[BantyRoosterAle]

After months of waiting, I finally took the dive and began brewing my own beer. I learned of this website after the fact, and learned that my sanitation was probably not the best. I started with a Fat Tire Brown Ale clone, with steeped grains and extract. My beer was never very clear from the beginning, but I figured it would clear up. Now it has been 2 weeks since pouring into the glass carboy. There are a whole bunch of weird little white bubbles or balls of stuff stuck to the side of the carboy and some little clumps on the surface. The beer is still not clear at all. I am growing concerned that my first batch may not be good, either from bad sanitation or an infection of some kind. Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Draken]

It would be helpful to post the recipe, OG, and the current gravity.

 

[BantyRoosterAle]

Honestly I am a complete noob at this and did not take an OG reading. Completely forgot about it.

 

[duboman]

Recipe and process will help us out but from what you describe it sounds like infected beer with the little white things.............
Remove the air lock and give it a smell, it should smell like beer, if it smells bad, off, rancid, musty, just plain bad it's probably not going to turn out well. Before undertaking another batch review your process and your cleaning AND sanitizing, these steps by far are the most important first steps to brewing good beer

 

[BantyRoosterAle]

Some pics to maybe help

 

[BantyRoosterAle]

FYI, I took the airlock off briefly and it smells like beer. No foul smell or anything like that. I was actually kinda surprised at home much it smelled like regular beer lol. So maybe I'm overreacting?

 

[HotHandsHanon]

I had some similar white dots on an Imperial IPA that I bottled yesterday, and I read that the white clusters may actually be groups of tiny bubbles. They eventually disappeared after a few days, and when I bottled they were nowhere to be found. However, I didn't have nearly as many as shown in your above picture and there were only a few on the surface of the beer, not the side.

Hope this helps.

 

[BOBrob]

Looks good. Standard krausen/hops ring and little bubbles as the yeast clean up after themselves. Give it another week or more to clear and clean up before bottling; enjoy it a month later. Cheers and welcome to HBT

 

[Just1pepsi]

As stated, looks fine.
It really takes a lot to nuke a beer with germs, much easier to nuke it otherwise.

 

[nicmert]

Don't fret too much, just follow the steps and let it fully carbonate. No doubt you will open bottles before they are ready, we have all done that. Also, if it doesn't clear up, don't sweat it, just try to figure out what to do in your process to work on that. It is normal to stress about your first few batches, but try to relax!

 

[car421]

So after seeing these pics I had to go and check my Carboy that has my first batch in it that I brewed on Saturday. I have the same thing but just not as severe. I plan on waiting 3 weeks before bottling and then another 3 weeks.

 

[BantyRoosterAle]

So after seeing these pics I had to go and check my Carboy that has my first batch in it that I brewed on Saturday. I have the same thing but just not as severe. I plan on waiting 3 weeks before bottling and then another 3 weeks.

This is actually day 12 of my batch. The little bubbles started on about the 3rd kind if like yours is described. It got worse so that's why I am waiting. I was going to give it another week in the carboy and then bottle. If nothing else if it comes out bad at least I will have learned the process. Good to know im not the only one though. Ill keep you updated on how it turns out.

 

[car421]

This is actually day 12 of my batch. The little bubbles started on about the 3rd kind if like yours is described. It got worse so that's why I am waiting. I was going to give it another week in the carboy and then bottle. If nothing else if it comes out bad at least I will have learned the process. Good to know im not the only one though. Ill keep you updated on how it turns out.

Thanks. I'm really interested. I'll be keeping a close eye on mine and see if it progresses like yours did.