help, what is this ??

I did my first full boil back before st patties day in march. Its been sitting in the primary since then in the basement. I just pulled the top off today and this is what I saw...

it doesn't smell bad at all...

I scooped some of the white stuff up, and its a slimy sugary like coating. what is this stuff ??


I tasted some of it, and its very bitter. But it is an IPA it had no off tastes or smells... it tasted like flat bitter beer. should I toss it ? or what ?

Should I keg and carb it so I can get the final taste of it onces its cold and carbonated??

i know its not possible to get sick from drinking something like this, but what the hell is this stuff?, the slime just looks/feels like congealed sugar.

 

Looks like mold to me, you'll want to rack from underneath it when you transfer, most likely harmless. Don't toss it, just keg and carb and see what you get.

 

2-3 months in the primary? That's quite a long time! In the future, try not to wait that long to either bottle or transfer to the secondary. Not only are you risking mold like you see here, but the yeast will eventually die off as well, leaving bad tastes. Doubt the yeast have croaked yet, but it's always good to get off of the yeast cake in a timely manner.

That being said, I would also rack this beer from under the thin layer of mold and possibly go to a secondary for a few days. That will just help ensure that any particles that may have been siphoned are not put into your finished product. After about 3-5 days in a secondary, I would then transfer to the keg to carb and drink.

 

Here' we go again with this chestnut...

Although three months is a bit much past my comfort zone, the autolysis myth has been pretty much shot down as a boogeyman, at least the need to rush the beer off the "yeast quickly" has been put down...many have left their beers on yeast up to six months and posted on here that there was no issue...IN FACT, as illnastyimpreza, who has been around here awhile, knows, even John Palmer has said in How to Brew;

AND if it was autolysis, he would be hurling in his bucket for the sheer nastiness of it (think gorilla poo in a diaper on the side of the road for a week.)

We have gotten away from the "fear of leaving the beer too long on the yeast" over the last few years....



Now back to the original question, buddy "Ill"....I have had a skin like that on occasion, broken up, not solid like an infection skin (I'm having a moment and not remembering what it is called.)

Oh yeah, Pellicule...it doesn't look like a pellicule, so I doubt it is an infection.

I always have assumed that that skin was just the remainder of krausen from certain types of yeast, the majority had fallen, but since the krausen was so thick, that kind of "boiling milk" just gets left behind.

B=Maybe even the same proteins that are in break material, just not fallen in.

In fact I checked the bucket where I was fermenting a saison quite hot over the weekend and though the krausen had fallen there was a great amount of stuff that looked like that. It's only been 6 days in the fermenter and so I know it's not an infection, but I used a LOT of saison yeast, so I'm not surprised to see that in my fermenter...

And if your fermenter hadn't even been nudged in the three months, and you had a huge kruzen, with a lot of activity, yours could easily be the same as well...

Like I think you even said, it doesn't smell/taste bad (have you tasted it yet?) Just rack under it and go ahead and keg it...you won't die or get sick from your beer (no pathogens as you know can live in it)

You beer might be perfectly normal, or slightly funky in a good way.

But if it taste like crap now, don't bother. But more than likely it is fine.

Keep us posted.

 

I agree that beers can be left in primary for months, but I wouldn't do that in a bucket. Too much oxygen exposure which might account for the mold. Rack from under it and carb it.

 

cool beans guys. yeah thats what I thought. I'm gonna toss her in the kegerator for a while to cool her down, then carb it up. I'll let you guys know how it tastes from the tap

 

Definitely rack from under and carb. If you go into a secondary, and it is mold, there is the possibility of the mold growing again.

 

I stuck her in the kegerator. Its nice and cold now, but I had only thrown the co2 pressure @ 10psi....so its still flat. Hopefully by the time I take another sample this afternoon it will be a nicely carbed, cold IPA

 

I had that same broken white stuff I found in secondary which I had left too long (4.21 to 6.14). I racked under it, after skimming it off, and it reformed in the bottles on the 4th day.

So it wasn't barf inducing?
How did your beer taste compared to other batches of same?
Did it go away or was all your stuff infected?
Thanks