Tarheel4985
Well-Known Member
This morning I woke up to use my new refractometer to test a beer I brewed on Saturday, and this is what I found:
I had taken this sample from the boil kettle after chilling but before transferring to the fermenters, which means this sample had absolutely no contact with the yeast used to ferment the beer. In fact, the sample was inside while I pitched the yeast. I left the sample in my kitchen since Saturday (OG of 1.080) because I didn't get a chance to test my new refractometer against my hydrometer reading until this morning. Then this morning I found the sample with a decent bit of krausen and the hydrometer reads somewhere in the 1.020 to 1.030 range (hard to read with the krausen). So it is definitely fermenting but the question is with what? I'm assuming it's a wild yeast strain, but what wild yeasts are floating around my house? Is there something else it could be that I'm missing? Or is it a Christmas miracle?
If nothing else, I've learned just how important sanitation and rapid cooling are to avoiding infections. Luckily, we haven't had one yet.
I had taken this sample from the boil kettle after chilling but before transferring to the fermenters, which means this sample had absolutely no contact with the yeast used to ferment the beer. In fact, the sample was inside while I pitched the yeast. I left the sample in my kitchen since Saturday (OG of 1.080) because I didn't get a chance to test my new refractometer against my hydrometer reading until this morning. Then this morning I found the sample with a decent bit of krausen and the hydrometer reads somewhere in the 1.020 to 1.030 range (hard to read with the krausen). So it is definitely fermenting but the question is with what? I'm assuming it's a wild yeast strain, but what wild yeasts are floating around my house? Is there something else it could be that I'm missing? Or is it a Christmas miracle?
If nothing else, I've learned just how important sanitation and rapid cooling are to avoiding infections. Luckily, we haven't had one yet.