Dry Hop Scuzz/Foam - Infection? (w/pic)

[gobluedc]

5 days ago, I dry hopped 2 ounces of simcoe pellet hops. Boiled 2 muslin bags and two dozen glass florist marbles in water for 10 minutes, let it all cool to room temp, then added one dozen marbles to each bag, one ounce of hops to each, tied it up and tossed it in the primary. (Primary had been sitting for 21 days prior).

At the time I tossed the hops in, the there was no foam or scuzz on top. It was pretty clear.

The next day (4 days ago), I realized that I had a half ounce of cascade pellets sitting around, so I repeated the procedure with the muslin bags and marbles and tossed them into primary as well. When I added the cascade hops, the simcoes were still floating on the surface, and the surface was clear.

So today, I opened up the fermenter to see if the hops had settled down or not yet, and they're still floating. No big deal, I guess I could give the whole thing a gentle swirl or prod the bags with a sanitized spoon...but then I see some foam on the surface.

Sorry for the poor picture quality (cameraphone). The foam on top looks sort of like a cross between beer head and the sort of foam that sometimes forms during a wort boil.

FWIW, the fermenter smells great. I didn't take any gravity readings, so I can't say with 100% certainty that fermentation didn't start up again, but after 21 days in primary before I added the hops, I figure it was done.

I plan to bottle on friday (7 days post dry hop, 28 days total in primary). I guess I can taste it then to see if it's okay, and if the foam is still there, I'll just rack underneath and bottle.

I'm not worried since it doesn't smell funky...and on the offchance it is bad, there's nothing I can do at this point, but has anyone seen this sort of foam stuff before?

FYI, I believe that I'm pretty good with sanitation, and the yeast is S-04.

Thanks!

 

[eastoak]

this sometimes happens after dry hopping, it's not an infection.

 

[jgourd]

So when you add hops, it disturbs the beer slightly. This may kick up some of the yeast to action again. It also releases some of the CO2 in the beer (although there's not much) which could also do the same. If you ever see yeast as the beer is fermenting, they like to float around and rise and fall and so on. This looks very normal to me. Especially for S-04.

 

[douglasbarbin]

Looks like normal yeast and krausen to me

 

[gobluedc]

Thanks for the input!

Just out of curiosity, if it is sort of a second krausen that's popped up, should I wait for it to settle before bottling? (I would plan on removing the dry hops after their 7th day in primary regardless).