Concerned about my coffee porter..

[JerrySwirls]

Hello peeps Soooo I’m new to this forum and also new to the world of homebrewing! But anyways, I just recently cooked up a batch of coffee porter SUNDAY evening. What I usually do for the first few days of fermenting I use a cheese cloth over my 6.5 bucket because I have a ridiculously amount of foam forming and over flowing. I never likedthe carboy with a blowoff tube I feel like I lose a lot of beer. Anywho here’s my question, I noticed my top layer of the porter looks like little oily spots. What’s that mean? Infected? Was the cheese cloth letting into much oxygen? It’s fermenting as we speak... Would love to have some answers

 

[Redtab78]

What your seeing is completely normal. However, using cheese cloth as a cover WILL let in wild yeast and oxygen and can cause an infection. You can and will experiance wild flavors not quite expected, similar to using a coolship. These are not always bad tho, but they can be, and in some styles this is sought after (in some ways, but def not in a porter). You have to keep in mind that yeast is everywhere and on everything. Having that said, while you may not like using a blowoff, there is a reason why you SHOULD use it and what tiny amount your acutually loosing, it is not near enough to have to dump a full batch due to a bad tasting beer by NOT using it (and BTW, your not losing beer, just the krausen, which eventually will fall to the bottom of the fermenter as whats know as "trub")

Dont get me wrong here, we all have our own processes and enjoy different taste, but unless you have some controlled environments to prevent unwanted wild yeast, I would recommend you reconsider the use of a lid and a blowoff...MAINLY so that you make good beer that you will enjoy and not make a bad beer that makes you throw in the towel and give up this wonderful hobby

As you progress in the world of craft beer brewing, you will start to learn from your mistakes, which is awsome! I am just trying to help you learn on a faster curve

 

[JerrySwirls]

What your seeing is completely normal. However, using cheese cloth as a cover WILL let in wild yeast and oxygen and can cause an infection. You can and will experiance wild flavors not quite expected, similar to using a coolship. These are not always bad tho, but they can be, and in some styles this is sought after (in some ways, but def not in a porter). You have to keep in mind that yeast is everywhere and on everything. Having that said, while you may not like using a blowoff, there is a reason why you SHOULD use it and what tiny amount your acutually loosing, it is not near enough to have to dump a full batch due to a bad tasting beer by NOT using it (and BTW, your not losing beer, just the krausen, which eventually will fall to the bottom of the fermenter as whats know as "trub")

Dont get me wrong here, we all have our own processes and enjoy different taste, but unless you have some controlled environments to prevent unwanted wild yeast, I would recommend you reconsider the use of a lid and a blowoff...MAINLY so that you make good beer that you will enjoy and not make a bad beer that makes you throw in the towel and give up this wonderful hobby

As you progress in the world of craft beer brewing, you will start to learn from your mistakes, which is awsome! I am just trying to help you learn on a faster curve

That’s great news to hear! Thanks for the awesome advice redtab78

 

[RM-MN]

coffee porter

The coffee may be the source of the oily looking spots because the coffee probably added some oil.

 

[millatime]

Get yourself a stainless steel conical, I will never go back to buckets. So worth, at least for me anyway. Cheers and good luck!