Check my pic, please...what should I do?

[CanadianQuaffer]

Hey all,

Opened up my primary today, one week after fermentation began and saw what looked like stringy bubbly snot on the surface of the beer. Beer smelled good but since I'd never seen anything floating on top of ther beer after one week of fermenting I got a little concerned.

Took a gravity reading and got 1.018. Closed it up, put my daughter to bed, grabbed my camera for photo evidence and when I opened the lid again, this is what I saw.




Now that looks pretty normal, so I don't think the beer is infected as I once suspected. However if any of you agree that it's not infected and that's just some residual krauzening, what should I do? Let it sit some more? I'm pretty sure it's done fermenting as the airlock hasn't had any activity for 4 days and there's very little pressure being put on the water in the airlock, so I'm tempted to rack to secondary anyway, but just thought I'd see what you guys think.

Cheers,

Nick

 

[MalFet]

Your beer called, and it wants you to leave it alone. Stop bugging it!

Skip the secondary and wait another week, then take a gravity reading.

 

[pabloj13]

Oh no! It's the dreaded yeast infection!! Just leave it in primary. Do not rely on the airlock for measuring fermentation. Take gravity readings. 3 consecutive days of stable readings!!

 

[DakotaRules]

Totally fine, leave it alone for another 2-3 weeks. Skip the secondary.

 

[CanadianQuaffer]

OK. The only bit of concern I still have is that our power went out one night and the temperature in the basement dipped to 57F and the yeast I used was Safale-05 which has a temp threshhold of 59F-75F. Any chance the cold caused the yeast to go dormant prematurely, hence the high gravity reading? Or is it just doin' its thing?

 

[DakotaRules]

Oh no! It's the dreaded yeast infection!! Just leave it in primary. Do not rely on the airlock for measuring fermentation. Take gravity readings. 3 consecutive days of stable readings!!

Stop opening it! Stop sticking things in your beer for readings. It's just fine. Yeast is a very resilient animal. 2 degrees is nothing.

 

[DakotaRules]

OK. The only bit of concern I still have is that our power went out one night and the temperature in the basement dipped to 57F and the yeast I used was Safale-05 which has a temp threshhold of 59F-75F. Any chance the cold caused the yeast to go dormant prematurely, hence the high gravity reading? Or is it just doin' its thing?

It's just doing its thing. Really it's fine.

 

[CanadianQuaffer]

It's just doing its thing. Really it's fine.

OK, that's what I was thinking, but like I said, it looked pretty damned gross when I first saw it...the stringy snotty bubbles must have all popped in the 15-20 minutes between the first viewing and the photo, plus I've never seen anything floating on top of my beer after a week of fermenting, so I just thought I'd ask.

 

[Stevo2569]

+1 to what everyone said. And use starsan or vodka for airlock. Water can carry bacteria. What? OH NOOO.

 

[CanadianQuaffer]

+1 to what everyone said. And use starsan or vodka for airlock. Water can carry bacteria. What? OH NOOO.

Yeah, I use left over Starsan solution in the airlock.

 

[Stevo2569]

Yeah, I use left over Starsan solution in the airlock.

Oh well you said water.

 

[MichaelsBrewing]

Your beer called, and it wants you to leave it alone. Stop bugging it!

Skip the secondary and wait another week, then take a gravity reading.

+1

What I would do is check the gravity periodically. When you get the same reading three days in a row then you are ready to bottle/keg.

Cheers!

 

[phenry]

I've had yeast rafts still sitting on top of my beer after a month long primary. You'll be fine, just give it some more time. There's absolutely no reason to rush beer IMHO. I probably give mine more time than it needs, but that's just because I'm a lazy brewer.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

OK, that's what I was thinking, but like I said, it looked pretty damned gross when I first saw it...the stringy snotty bubbles must have all popped in the 15-20 minutes between the first viewing and the photo, plus I've never seen anything floating on top of my beer after a week of fermenting, so I just thought I'd ask.

yeast rafts will often stay on top of a brew for some time. it happens a lot, so get used to it, you're gonna keep seeing it. fretting over it is just gonna cause you unnecessary stress. RDWHAHB, and move the beer when FG is reached and stable for 3 or more days.

I've had yeast rafts still sitting on top of my beer after a month long primary. You'll be fine, just give it some more time. There's absolutely no reason to rush beer IMHO. I probably give mine more time than it needs, but that's just because I'm a lazy brewer.

this is very true, the yeast are in charge of when your beer is finished at this point. since they don't have brains, they don't know (or care) what you want them to do. they'll ferment the beer in the time it takes them to ferment the beer, and they may decide to float on top for some time after they finish fermenting the beer. nothin' you can do but take gravity readings to know when the yeast are saying 'i'm done now, you can play with the beer again.'

RDWHAHB and quit messin' with the fermenter (outside of taking grav readings)

 

[akillys]

OK. The only bit of concern I still have is that our power went out one night and the temperature in the basement dipped to 57F and the yeast I used was Safale-05 which has a temp threshhold of 59F-75F. Any chance the cold caused the yeast to go dormant prematurely, hence the high gravity reading? Or is it just doin' its thing?

The chemical reaction that is taking place to convert sugar to yeast will raise the temp about 5 degrees. So to you it was 57, the liquid was actually somewhere around 63 degrees. So you're all good.

And just to be like everyone else "STOP MESSING WITH IT"

 

[Zuljin]

It's just doing its thing. Really it's fine.

This.