Wish this was interesting but...is it mold or yeasties?

[natebomb]

To keep this post relatively short, I'm going give a summary of what I've encountered.

Using a Festa Brew Pilsener kit, I left my brew in the primary with a tight lid for 6 weeks for a variety of reasons, mainly just from being busy/lazy with life, school, work, etc. So, I lift the lid to transfer directly to my keg and I see that there is a film over top of the beer with some white things sprinkled in. It didn't smell or taste bad but the film and floaters have me worried.

The film broke up very easily but as I was racking I noticed there were a lot of things floating around that were like small bits of the white things that were floating.

I attached a pic, hopefully it's clear enough. Any help is appreciated. I'd hate to dump this/feed it to friends.

 

[Kaz]

If it tastes and smells okay, I wouldn't worry too much. I honestly can't give you much advice on the film and floaties, because I very rarely ever look at the surface of my beer. I taste it, smell it, and then rack it to a keg or secondary. I say keg it, carb it and then have a taste in a few weeks and see what you have.

 

[windbreaker123]

Drink it and feed it to friends. If you intend to use that as a primary again. Bleach bomb the heck out of it.

 

[djfriesen]

Looks like an infection to my newbie eyes. Common advice for this situation is to drink it soon. Unless you are willing to wait extended periods of time for a lambic style, you will want to drink it quickly. AFAIK, the sour taste will come on around 3 weeks, and will get worse before it gets better.

 

[TopherM]

The floaters are definitely yeast rafts. No worries there. White film is a symptom of a lacto infection. If that's the case, it is slowly going to sour on you, and the faster you can get it bottled and cooled to fridge temps, the better chance you have of a drinkable beer. A lacto infection itself isn't harmful, like it isn't going to make you sick if you drink it, but it will ruin the taste of the beer over time.

Do you use StarSan? Some of the rinse cleaners won't kill lacto, but the acid in StarSan in particular will pretty much eliminate the possibility of this type of infection in the future, when used properly, of course.

 

[Brew_4iT]

Doesn't look like yeast rafts to me. Try a sip I'm guessing it will be sour, may be wrong but I had some beer in a growler once I drank from and thought to let condition longer. It had that on the surface and some whitish hazy bubbles (not like carbonation bubbles). You can try to siphon below it or remove the top layer but my guess it is throughout the beer.

 

[wyzazz]

That whitish film is Lactobacillus, it's going to get sour.

 

[natebomb]

Thanks for the replies, you've confirmed my worst nightmare....Force carbing it now and will feed to buddies this weekend haha. As for the primary, a bucket, can I just fill it with water and a cup or two of bleach and let it sit for a day or two then give it a good cleaning or is it garbage?

 

[sanch]

Thanks for the replies, you've confirmed my worst nightmare....Force carbing it now and will feed to buddies this weekend haha. As for the primary, a bucket, can I just fill it with water and a cup or two of bleach and let it sit for a day or two then give it a good cleaning or is it garbage?

bleach or pbw work well just not at the same time.

 

[paraordnance]

yeah, I never seen a film like that, I ferment in carboys so observe closely every batch (>30) and never had a white film covering entire surface. Drink it quick!

 

[unionrdr]

PBW will work fine,I soak mine for 5 days or so as part of the process. I put 3 or 4 TBSP of PBW in the FV,then Fill the fermenter up very near the top with warm to not quite hot water. Stir thoroughly to mix,cover,& let the cleaner do it's thing. It works really well for me.

 

[beerman0001]

Are you sure that is not just oils from the hops does not look that weird to me..

 

[unionrdr]

No,I don't think so. I've seen hop oils on the surface of my IPA. They look more like oil on a wet driveway to me.

 

[beerman0001]

No,I don't think so. I've seen hop oils on the surface of my IPA. They look more like oil on a wet driveway to me.

After looking at the pic more I see what you are saying. The hop oil is alot more clear looking. Please let us know how this turns out always trying to learn.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,hop oils are def a lot clearer. Not much of a milky cast at all. More like being able to easily see that it's a very thin film. This looks a bit heavier to me.