Ever see this after pitching your starter??

[signal2noise]

I made a fresh 1.5L starter on Monday (Sept 15). On Tuesday I crashed it. Brewed today, Wednesday.

I usually try to decant as much liquid as possible from my starter wort before pitching onto my fresh wort I brew. Today I couldn't pout off more than a third (~500mL) of my 1.5L starter before I started to lose some yeast. So I decided toss it all in.

Here is what happened.

Picture one shows the starter wort stratified above the fresh brewed wort; yeast is between the two layers.

Picture two shows the wort in early stage fermentation, maintaining between 66-70F. Looking closely you can still see the partition between the two layers.

Assuming the starter was fully fermented, its gravity (density) should be much lower than the freshly brewed wort. So having a lower density it should float above.

I have never observed this before. Comments and thoughts?

Additional details: Yeast is Wyeast 1056. Fresh brewed wort OG is 1.055. Grain bill consisted of american 2-row, flaked oats and rye.

Thanks!

 

[DSorenson]

I have had a similar looking thing happen in a beer with 33 percent rye... it was merely a density thing combined with a high protein beer that marked the density segregation.

 

[Setesh]

No, but it looks cool. It does appear to be stratification to me. Pretty neat, and should disappear when fermentation gets going. There are some other really neat pics of strange stratification on the forum, if I can find it I'll post the link here.

I couldn't find it It was a great thread, had lots of fermentor pics that looked like lava lamps. The wort simply didn't want to mix with the starter. Thread starter posted pic of a lager if I remember correctly. Oh well....

 

[edecambra]

Totally infected.....


Just kidding but yeah I have had similar experiences. Once I had great cold break and used whirlflock and came to pitch to the beer in my fridge to see a "python" of protein material, it was pretty cool!

 

[signal2noise]

Thanks for the comments. Everything looks as it should today.