Particulants in Seconday Fermentation

[GPBurdell]

I need some help with a problem that has developed with my most recent brew, a Christmas Saison. The primary fermentation seemed to go very well. When I transferred to the carboy on day 11 for the seconday fermentation, I noticed a number of particulants were rising to the top of the carboy. These particulants are tan in color, about 1mm in diameter. They seem to be floating suspended through the top 1/3 of the liquid. Over the past two days, these particulants have begun to link together to form globuales. It would appear that the globales are sinking to the bottom of the carboy because the number of particulants at the top of the liquid is significantly less than yesterday.

I'm quite puzzled as to the source of these particulants. The only change that I made in my brew process is that I used a Whirfloc tablet instead of Irish Moss. I use very stringent sanitation procedures. I used hop pellets and did not see any indication of bugs in the hops. My brewing supply shop thought that it might be a by product of the Saison yeast. I used a White Lab's vial of liquid yeast.

Does anyone have an idea of what these partciulants might be? Should I be worried about this or will it work out by itself?

 

[AHammer16]

I would not worry.
Give it some more time, what would you do to it anyway?
When you worry about it take a shot of home brew and repot to me on how many shots you have taken. :cross:

 

[timdsmith72]

Same thing happened to my last batch. Worried the hell out of me. I let it sit until all that crap settled out then bottled. I opened the first few the other day...it's great!!

 

[Walker]

this ALWAYS happens to me. In fact, I had a batch that DIDN'T do this and I thought something was wrong.

I guess it all depends on your frame of reference.

Wow.. Einstein's theory of relativity applies to beer, too! That guy f**king rocks.

-walker

 

[Darth Konvel]

I had some of that show up on my last batch too. My guess at the time was this it was hop debris, hot/cold break material, or just yeast doing its thing. My thoughts are it was the latter. *shrug*

 

[AlaskaAl(e)]

It's my understanding that the CO2 bubbling out of the wort (process of fermentation) pushes the proteins and other particles in suspension to the top of the container. As the fermentation slows and less CO2 is pushed out the particles fall back down and become part of the trub. Be at ease, my friends, all is well. In fact, it's quite good that this happens, if the particles bind together you don't have to worry about so many of them just floating around in your brew.

laters

 

[PT Ray]

I keep my fermenters in a temp. controlled freezer. When I pull the fermenters out to transfer into a secondary, they start to warm up to the ambient temps. of the house and all that nice sediment that settled out slowly starts to become suspended again. I have to be quick to minimize this effect and not transfer this over to the secondary. Regardless, some of it always does. It turns out being more of a game than anything.

 

[GPBurdell]

Thanks for all the info. Takes a lot of worry off of my mind. Seems to be clearing up as time goes on. Should be able to taste in in 3 months or so. Wish I could send everyone a bottle... but I can't so I'll have to drink it myself.