Flakey brew

[OldFlaDiver]

I pitched an IPA and after about 24 hours I checked it. It was perking away beautifully except for one thing. It looks kind of like one of those glass balls with the Capitol inside that you shake and it snows. I’ve got light brown flakes about ¼ to 5/8 of an inch boiling up from the bottom and settling back down from the top in a rich chocolate brown background. It’s really beautiful, in a way (that whole, "Miracle of Life" thing we so enjoy). But never having seen anything like it, I’m afraid my compost bin is going to get more than grain and hops.

Know what that phenomenon is?

 

[Bob]

Could be clumps of accumulated yeast. Could be clumps of protein. Could be just about anything floating about.

Put a t-shirt over it, have a beer and forget about it, that's my advice.

You should never contemplate dumping beer unless it tastes like complete a$s. I presume you haven't tasted it yet?

Very, very few things can ruin your beer. That includes excessive worry! Excessive worry tempts you to go mucking about in the fermenter. Mucking about is bad.

RDWHAHB, my friend, and if you have no homebrew, go get something worthwhile from the beer store and save the bottles.

Bob

 

[JoMarky]

Sounds like you got a good hot break, a good cold break, or both. Its a natural, beautiful thing, and a GOOD sign. Its just break material being tossed about by the forces of fermentation.

 

[Revvy]

I pitched an IPA and after about 24 hours I checked it. It was perking away beautifully except for one thing. It looks kind of like one of those glass balls with the Capitol inside that you shake and it snows. I’ve got light brown flakes about ¼ to 5/8 of an inch boiling up from the bottom and settling back down from the top in a rich chocolate brown background. It’s really beautiful, in a way (that whole, "Miracle of Life" thing we so enjoy). But never having seen anything like it, I’m afraid my compost bin is going to get more than grain and hops.

Know what that phenomenon is?

Yeah it's called fermentation....

No fermentation ever looks the same as any other, that's the random factor that using a living micro-organism called yeast imparts to the process, as long as it's alive it's going to behave in countless unpredictable ways; like teenagers, wives, dogs, goldfish, and ourselves.....This is organic as opposed to inorganic chemistry at work, otherwise we'd be making Koolaid instead.

You're fine.

 

[Nurmey]

I surprised that no one mentioned this before but DON'T EVER LET US HEAR YOU TALKING ABOUT TOSSING AN UNFINISHED BEER AGAIN! Unless a beer is finished, bottled, and aged and still tastes like a$$ there is no tossing beer.

I glad you asked about the floaties because it's doing just what it's suppose to do and you might have thrown away the best tasting beer ever. It sounds like you might have made a batch with the just the right amount of hot and cold break. It's such a beautiful thing that it brings a tear to my eye.

 

[ifishsum]

Ferment in a bucket - that way you can't see all the weird things that happen during fermentation and worry about them

Seriously, that stuff is normal and will settle out to the bottom after the yeast gets less active and starts to drop.

 

[GroovePuppy]

Ferment in a bucket - that way you can't see all the weird things that happen during fermentation and worry about them .

Screw that! I've seen the pics and vids of weird and active fermentations. I'm thinking of replacing my bucket with a 6.5 gallon carboy so I can watch all that lovely activity. I may cancel my cable TV and move the primary into the TV armoire. :rockin:

 

[Bob]

ROFL! I can see it now -

You: Oooo. Ahhhh. Look at that clump of yeast there! Whee!

SWMBO: Uh-huh. Why can't I watch House?

You: Look! Look! The trub moved!

SWMBO: HELLO! Heroes is on in ten minutes!

You: Wow! The foam is really gooping up the blowoff!

[SFX: Front door slamming; tires screeching]

 

[OldFlaDiver]

Thanks for all the advice/encouragement. I've only put up about two dozen batches of beer, but have never seen yeast put on this kind of show. Watching it could replace House, but NEVER Earl or 24 (Day 7 begins Nov 23!). Anybody in the Tallahassee area will be welcome to stop by and have a glass of this IPA (or my Honey Porter) with the show (let me know you're coming first, as I am married and wives don't like too many unexpected guests). I'm thinking now of saving some of this yeast for my next batch.

And I've NEVER poured out so much as a bottle of anything I brewed, though some batches tasted like I had dropped a band-aid in the wort. But I could imagine something being so bad that a couple more weeks of fermenting would just make the stench strong enough to get complaints from the neighbors--in South Georgia. And if that was going to be the case, this being football season, I don't even want to run low on beer.

 

[OldFlaDiver]

Well, that wierd looking batch is in the keg now and when compared to Harpoon IPA (for which it is a cloned recipe) it makes me proud. Thanks again, all.