Clear band of liquid during cold crash

[jwbeard]

So yes, I know what most of you are thinking from the title - cold crashing will clear the beer from the top down, nothing to worry about. Issue is a bit stranger than that though.

Brewed a hefeweizen with a friend about two weeks ago. Was done fermenting, and the sample for our final FG test was crystal clear. Very strange for a hefe, but what are you going to do other than call it a krystalweizen and drink it anyways. Still tasted good.

After throwing it in the refrigerator to cold crash for a brief period (since it was already clearer than we wanted), a one-inch band appeared at the top of the carboy of almost completely clear and colorless liquid:

It's the tannish band right below the dried krausen and above the (oddly clear) hefeweizen.

Anyone know what could cause this? It's not like the yeast and proteins just fell out of solution and made it clearer, since that wouldn't have changed the color (and wouldn't have created such a discrete band of colorless liquid).

Any thoughts?

 

[Piratwolf]

This is fascinating, and a big reason why I love HBT! Never seen this before (in my whole 16 months of brewing-haha!).

First thing that comes to mind is not things dropping out but something less dense than water rising to the top. Reminds me of the fats that rise to the top of a stew that's chilled. Is that possible here? Lipids/cold break?

 

[theredbeard]

Is the water line at the thin brown line?

 

[jwbeard]

This is fascinating, and a big reason why I love HBT! Never seen this before (in my whole 16 months of brewing-haha!).

First thing that comes to mind is not things dropping out but something less dense than water rising to the top. Reminds me of the fats that rise to the top of a stew that's chilled. Is that possible here? Lipids/cold break?

To give context, it was a ridiculously simple Blood Orange Hefe recipe, but we had to substitute zest from cara cara oranges instead (because blood oranges are going out of season here)... Just 6lbs of dried wheat extract and a tea made with the orange zest and steeped with a few slices of the oranges. He had to boil a little extra water, which he added at the end, because it didnt make it to 5 gallons in the carboy (but that seems less relevant)...

Completely agree with the density point, but have no idea what particulates could be in there that wouldnt mix into solution and would separate out like that... *boggles* No idea what to tell the friend.

 

[jwbeard]

Is the water line at the thin brown line?

With caption-goodness...

 

[theredbeard]

wow, that is really strange. I can see it better that i'm not on my phone.

 

[brewingmeister]

Did this beer freeze during the cold crash? Maybe it's leftover from the ice.

 

[tmurph6]

Taste it

 

[jwbeard]

Did this beer freeze during the cold crash? Maybe it's leftover from the ice.

It's been cold crashing in a temperature controlled kegerator, with the temperature at ~37-38 degrees at the lowest. Certainly a bit could freeze if it was close to the cooling element, but its 4-6 inches away from the cooling element and the band appeared less than 24 hours after it was put in the kegerator. Partial freezing/thawing does certainly seem like it could make sense though.

 

[igotsand]

When you added more water, did you shake your carboy to mix it in?
Igotsand

 

[krazydave]

When you added more water, did you shake your carboy to mix it in?
Igotsand

I don't think that would matter... once the primary fermentation kicks in, there's enough liquid activity to mix the water in.

This is very strange though!

If it were me, I'd pull a sample and see what it smelled\tasted like.

 

[terrapinj]

any chance you had it hooked up to a blowoff tube with other end in sanitizer? perhaps the cold crash sucked up some sanitizer? or is that top line been the liquid level the whole time?

 

[krazydave]

any chance you had it hooked up to a blowoff tube with other end in sanitizer? perhaps the cold crash sucked up some sanitizer? or is that top line been the liquid level the whole time?

I thought about that also, as I've done that myself and sucked almost 1/2gal of star-san into two carboys. It didn't create a layer like this though...

 

[jwbeard]

Re smelling/tasting it: I plan to test it next time I'm by his house. He didn't want to sanitize everything just to test it, since we'll either be kegging it or tossing it when it's done crashing, so hopefully that happens this weekend.

Regarding the Star San - I actually mentioned that to him, since I remembered that the side of the carboy was sucked in (i.e. low pressure) and the pitcher with sanitizer felt light when I was looking at it. However, I don't know how full he had filled the pitcher. There was a quite a bit of blowoff tubing, though, and I'd be surprised if it was able to siphon into a closed system through loops like that. However, star-san'd water does seem to be the strongest candidate right now, regardless of how it actually happened...

 

[doctorRobert]

Re smelling/tasting it: I plan to test it next time I'm by his house. He didn't want to sanitize everything just to test it, since we'll either be kegging it or tossing it when it's done crashing, so hopefully that happens this weekend.

Regarding the Star San - I actually mentioned that to him, since I remembered that the side of the carboy was sucked in (i.e. low pressure) and the pitcher with sanitizer felt light when I was looking at it. However, I don't know how full he had filled the pitcher. There was a quite a bit of blowoff tubing, though, and I'd be surprised if it was able to siphon into a closed system through loops like that. However, star-san'd water does seem to be the strongest candidate right now, regardless of how it actually happened...

I think frozen, or star san. Maybe he messed with the temps and didnt tell you, and it froze. Those converted chest freezers get cold quick. Or maybe the sensor was left out?

I'd def taste it/smell it. and probably rack below it.

 

[PowellsPub]

So this post served a good purpose... It made me finally put down the pint and register. I am the infamous (clueless?) "friend."

I am almost 100% sure it is starsan. I had my blowoff tube in about half a pitcher full of starsan. The other day it was mostly gone and now it is bone dry. Usually, I coldcrash in a small dorm fridge in the garage, but that one was full already , so I had to put this in my danby kegerator, which I don't think is capable of freezing anything. To make it all fit, we put the pitcher/blow off tube on the back shelf about 6 inches above the bottom of the carboy. I've since heard that is a no-no and may have contributed to my starsan issue. I think it was slowly leaking in there, which might also explain why it is sitting on top (little agitation and this is a hefe which should be denser than starsan).

Anyway, now I'm worried about the amount of starsan. I'll definitely avoid it when racking, and I know starsan is *generally* safe, but is it really safe to drink that much of it if the Dodecylbenzenesulfonic Acid mixed in? I know the CEO drank a gallon or something on youtube, anyone heard whether he's still cancer free?