Bubbles 3 weeks later? Uh-oh...

I went to check on my pumpkin ale today (See thread) and it has little tiny bubbles rising up through it, a uniform layer of foam on top, and airlock activity (bubble every 6 or 7 seconds). As a short history, I brewed it 3 weeks ago, pitched windsor yeast, was only down to 1.028 after about 10 days, so I pitched some s-04 to help it along. At 14 days it was 1.021.

Today is day 21 in the primary and it has sprung to life

The foam on top is tough to see because of the crud left by the krausen. The smell coming from the airlock smells just like the off flavor that my dad had in a few beers a while back. It is a plasticy/rubbery aroma that isn't pleasant but isn't death and decay (autolysis). The foam on top is pretty uniform as far as I can tell, and the bubbles seem to be originating in the pumpkin trub/yeast cake layer that is very thick. This beer has refused to clear and I just blamed that on the pumpkin. I guess I'll just let this run its course and see what happens. Anyone have any guesses as to what is going on here?

The dark tan stuff is dried on krausen krud that goes all the way up the neck of the carboy. The lighter colored white foam below it is the stuff that is going on right now.

After a little more investigation (tipping the carboy) the foam layer is pretty thin and really only builds up around the edges.

Has the temperature fluctuated?

Just a bit. Fermometer read 70 all through the active fermentation, then after about 14 days I took off the wet t-shirt and it slowly rose to the ambient air temp of 77 and it's been at that ever since.

It's most likely just CO2 offgassing. Nothing to worry about - completely normal.

Really? I've seen slow little bubbles before because of carboy agitation/barometric pressure change but nothing near this vigorous and with a bad smell. Once I give it some time to finish this I'll take a gravity reading and give it a taste.

edit: the barometer has been rising today till about 1pm, on its way down now but not fast or anything.

No one wants to say the I word eh? For the amount of bubbles and foam and the weird smell I have my suspicions. There's nothing unusual looking on the surface though. I dunno.

You went from low 70's to high 70's...it just spaked up some more fermentation more likely....From 70-77 would wake up any dormant yeast.

If it was windsor yeast, you may have even had some stuck fermentation...and now you don't!

It's highly doubtful what you are smelling is autolysis after only 3 weeks of fermentation...besides have you SMELLED raw canned, or whole pumpkin *before you add spices) it's not a pleasant aroma (to me at least) THAT's probably what you are smelling...Kind of reminds me of a baby's diaper, only "frutier."

Revvy said:

You went from low 70's to high 70's...it just spaked up some more fermentation more likely....From 70-77 would wake up any dormant yeast.

If it was windsor yeast, you may have even had some stuck fermentation...and now you don't!

It's highly doubtful what you are smelling is autolysis after only 3 weeks of fermentation...besides have you SMELLED raw canned, or whole pumpkin *before you add spices) it's not a pleasant aroma (to me at least) THAT's probably what you are smelling...Kind of reminds me of a baby's diaper, only "frutier."

Click to expand...

What I was saying is that it did NOT smell like autolysis. I can tell you this much, it does not smell anything like the way it smelled when it was fermenting from 1.061 to 1.025. Again, this smell is very familiar to me as my dad had 3 batches which tasted totally normal but the CO2 carried this smell. We both describe it as rubbery. What is coming out of my airlock right now is that smell but way stronger. I spent plenty of time caramelizing/boiling 45oz of raw canned pumpkin, and I like that smell. I'm pretty confused by this. I guess I'll take a gravity.

My Nut Brown Ale did this after a 4* rise in temperature. I couldn't figure out what the deal was until the temp was mentioned by somebody and I checked to see it went up. I just kegged it and the sample tastes fine, as I am sure yours is too.

RDWHAHB Rack it to secondary and keg/bottle next week....

Poobah58 said:

RDWHAHB...

Click to expand...

That's the conclusion I came to last night. You guys have convinced me. I've never used this yeast before so I guess I'm just not used to this. I've never had a stuck fermentation before.

I don't think I'll be racking it though. Gonna let it finish out and clean up, and I'll bottle next weekend.

Coastarine said:

That's the conclusion I came to last night. You guys have convinced me. I've never used this yeast before so I guess I'm just not used to this. I've never had a stuck fermentation before.

I don't think I'll be racking it though. Gonna let it finish out and clean up, and I'll bottle next weekend.

Click to expand...

It may take more than a week to clean up. Most people with pumpkin ales rack to secondary, especially if they added pumpkin to the boil...your going to have a wicked/viscious trub with all the pumpkin in it.

On my partigyle pumpkin I decided that I was going to do the usual leave in primary for a month, and see if it clears enough, then bottle for a month....or at least til Halloween.

Revvy said:

It may take more than a week to clean up. Most people with pumpkin ales rack to secondary, especially if they added pumpkin to the boil...your going to have a wicked/viscious trub with all the pumpkin in it.

On my partigyle pumpkin I decided that I was going to do the usual leave in primary for a month, and see if it clears enough, then bottle for a month....or at least til Halloween.

Click to expand...

I do have a major layer of trub at the bottom. Next weekend will be a month in the primary. I don't secondary anything anymore. If I think it needs more time I can bottle my Irish Draught Ale next weekend instead. Unless you're suggesting I restart the clock since fermentation kicked up again.

Coastarine said:

I do have a major layer of trub at the bottom. Next weekend will be a month in the primary. I don't secondary anything anymore. If I think it needs more time I can bottle my Irish Draught Ale next weekend instead. Unless you're suggesting I restart the clock since fermentation kicked up again.

Click to expand...

I would restart the clock, since you want that krauzen to fall, and clear, at least give it 10 days or so..then see...

Most people would be turned off by a bunch of gunky looking pumpkin in their bottles...I dunno if you drank your hydro samples, but when I did my pumpkin, I had a hard time "choking" them down, the just were kind thick with all the suspended goop...

Revvy said:

I would restart the clock, since you want that krauzen to fall, and clear, at least give it 10 days or so..then see...

Most people would be turned off by a bunch of gunky looking pumpkin in their bottles...I dunno if you drank your hydro samples, but when I did my pumpkin, I had a hard time "choking" them down, the just were kind thick with all the suspended goop...

Click to expand...

Well this restarted fermentation didn't have what I would call krauzen. It was just a little foam that dissipated very easily. Tipping the carboy a bit would make it go away. It didn't seem like any yeast was on the surface. The foam was just from bubbles making it to the surface. There isn't anything to fall.

Also, I don't think I mentioned this but I added gelatin two weeks ago. The beer never got clear though.

edit: standby, I'm gonna take a gravity and a taste...

...1.020 which puts it at 66% Apparent Att. and it tastes alright, but it has the same "off aroma" that I described in a previous beer here. Plasticy/rubbery smell but no effect on the taste.

Sounds like degassing to me.

Coastarine said:

I do have a major layer of trub at the bottom. Next weekend will be a month in the primary. I don't secondary anything anymore. If I think it needs more time I can bottle my Irish Draught Ale next weekend instead. Unless you're suggesting I restart the clock since fermentation kicked up again.

Click to expand...

I think a pumpkin ale is one of those beers that sort of demand a secondary. Pumpkin is thick and goopy, and will take a while to settle out. I'd go ahead and rack to secondary, since it'll be a month in the primary. And then let it clear a bit before bottling.

YooperBrew said:

I think a pumpkin ale is one of those beers that sort of demand a secondary. Pumpkin is thick and goopy, and will take a while to settle out. I'd go ahead and rack to secondary, since it'll be a month in the primary. And then let it clear a bit before bottling.

Click to expand...

I'll rack it to secondary this weekend then.

Sounds like degassing to me.

Click to expand...

That's usually a slow steady thing right? I've never seen sudden degassing for a few days that tapered off. Considering the 5 point gravity drop I think the temp increase did wake some yeast up.

YooperBrew said:

I think a pumpkin ale is one of those beers that sort of demand a secondary. Pumpkin is thick and goopy, and will take a while to settle out. I'd go ahead and rack to secondary, since it'll be a month in the primary. And then let it clear a bit before bottling.

Click to expand...

Yeah I was just about to suggest the same thing, even if it were just for a few days, to get it off the huge trub, and to let it further settle.

One of my brew buddies actually racks further to a tertiary, but I think that might be over kill (of course he also starts his pumpkin beers in June, and pimped me for waiting so long to do mine.)

Do you have facilities for cold crashing? THat would be a good option as well.

Revvy said:

Yeah I was just about to suggest the same thing, even if it were just for a few days, to get it off the huge trub, and to let it further settle.

One of my brew buddies actually racks further to a tertiary, but I think that might be over kill (of course he also starts his pumpkin beers in June, and pimped me for waiting so long to do mine.)

Do you have facilities for cold crashing? THat would be a good option as well.

Click to expand...

That would be nice but no, not yet. I'm working on getting a chest freezer after I move in a few weeks.

Coastarine said:

That's usually a slow steady thing right? I've never seen sudden degassing for a few days that tapered off. Considering the 5 point gravity drop I think the temp increase did wake some yeast up.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't catch the gravity drop earlier.

This beer is good! The smell is faintly present, and I think it might have been bad if I had bottle conditioned it, but it's force carb'd and very tasty.