What happened?

[WABOBO]

Recently started brewing all grain with a few friends. This is the second time we were making this particular recipe (a blond). Although we forgot to add a clearing agent the first time round.

We liked it enough, that we decided to do a double batch this time. We brewed two 5 gal batches (10 total). The recipe called for Irish Moss, and we remembered to buy it this time. Having no experience with Irish Moss (IM), and no instructions, mixed with the general excitement of "quick add it in, there's 15 mins left", we threw the whole 1 oz package in the 10 gal boil (1/2 oz per 5 gal).

I have since learned that IM needs to be prepared, and added a teaspoon at a time.

So, last night, we opened up our two 5 gal primary buckets, and were greeted with a heavy yeast toupee floating on top. I don't think this is an infection, but I have no idea what it is. It is definitely the settlement of yeast, break, and hops that we normally get on the bottom, but its floating. There was hardly anything on the bottom of the pail. The beer tastes like beer, but is a little bitter - think we can chalk that up to being green. We also measured the gravity, and we are in the ballpark of 4%. Is this because of the excess of Irish Moss, is it an infection, or something different altogether?

Any idea of what I'm looking at?

 

[IslandLizard]

This looks fine, not an infection. That floating cake sometimes happens. They tend to sink eventually, but yours surely looks super dense and compact. Just rack from underneath.

Irish Moss is dried seaweed, kelp. The (slight) overdose won't harm your beer, I seriously doubt you could ever taste it. It may have contributed to your floating yeast and trub cake, who knows. I'll leave that conclusive experiment up to you...

 

[WABOBO]

Thanks for the info! Was pretty sure it wasn't an infection, but I couldn't find anything else that looked like this. Thought it was weird. It happened to both buckets.

It was very dense. on the second one I tried pushing it to one side, it folded like an accordion, then I let it go and it quickly sprung back into shape. We used a packet of dried yeast for these, maybe that had something to do with it?

We left this batch longer than the last one, too. The first time round, we moved out of the primary after 10 days. This time we were closer to 20 days. We took a strainer and scooped everything off the top. Put one in a keg, and one in a secondary (experimenting).

 

[balrog]

Some yeast does that (my WY1469 just did exactly that). Nothing to worry about. I've scraped and waited and I've also just racked from underneath, poking the siphon through the cheesy muck and go. It works out fine.

 

[WABOBO]

Good to know. Thank you!

 

[IslandLizard]

As long as you prevent air (O2) being incorporated into your beer when transferring, packaging, etc., which will cause oxidation over time, it should be all good.

Why a secondary after all this time already in the "primary?"
Did you add anything to it? If not, you may as well keg it right away, it likely won't get better in a "secondary."

Beer is carbonated from the fermentation, up to about 1 volume worth, depending on the highest temperature it's been at. That increases buoyancy, part of the equation that floats your cake.

 

[WABOBO]

Why a secondary after all this time already in the "primary?"
Did you add anything to it? If not, you may as well keg it right away, it likely won't get better in a "secondary."

Just experimenting. As a group we've read quite a bit about using a secondary vs kegging after primary. We had 2 batches and figured we would experiment: try one secondary and one keg and see. Our thinking was it would help with sediment. But, I think it makes the most sense to keg after the primary, which we will likely do going forward.

Beer is carbonated from the fermentation, up to about 1 volume worth, depending on the highest temperature it's been at. That increases buoyancy, part of the equation that floats your cake.

This makes a lot of sense! The room the beer has been in has been fairly warm.

 

[IslandLizard]

Just experimenting. As a group we've read quite a bit about using a secondary vs kegging after primary. We had 2 batches and figured we would experiment: try one secondary and one keg and see. Our thinking was it would help with sediment. But, I think it makes the most sense to keg after the primary, which we will likely do going forward.

This makes a lot of sense! The room the beer has been in has been fairly warm.

Secondaries in general are not needed, they can cause oxidation and infections if not skillfully done. Leaving the beer in the "primary" vessel is fine, even up to 3 months, or even longer.

To clear a beer, cold crashing at near freezing temps for a few days is by far the best method, with or without the help of some added gelatin. You could cold crash in a keg too, then either blow out the sediment around the dip tube, and don't move the keg after that. Or better, transfer to a clean 100% (StarSan) pre-purged keg using a jumper hose, from liquid to liquid.

The outgassing from the "climate change" may have helped lifting the cake too.

 

[WABOBO]

Understood. This is super helpful! I have yet to learn about cold crashing - will do some reading on this. Thank you!