Floaters in fermentation jug

[wolfeman]

Hi,

This is my first brew and tomorrow I should be bottling according to the instructions, this will be 21 days since starting fermentation. I have attached two pics. You can see the floaters on top of the brew and the second pic shows the airlock which appears to indicate gas is still coming off by the "bubbler" being pushed against the cap. At least that is my thought.

Should I wait to see if the floaters sink or is there something else I an do? Will waiting hurt the brew in anyway? Can this be racked and filtered before bottling to remove the floaters if they do not sink?

Thanks

 

[TestTickle]

I can't tell from the first photo what the "floaters" look like, but it's not unusual to have things floating in your beer after fermentation. It could be yeast rafts or something. Do you have a hydrometer or refractometer to be able to check the gravity of the beer? That is the most certain way to determine if it's done fermenting.

There is still a possibility of the floaters being a contamination of some sorts, which could also lead to additional fermentation past what you would expect, but I can't tell from the photo if that could be the case. If you used good cleanliness and sanitation practices, it's probably nothing to worry about. In around 300 brews, I can't say I have ever had that issue, but it does happen.

If you don't have one, get your hands on a hydrometer or refractometer to check the gravity. Then check it again after a few days to see if it's changed. Then check it again after a few days after that and if it hasn't changed since the first reading, I'd bottle it up and call it good.

 

[Rob2010SS]

+1 to that ^

 

[hotbeer]

Looks like nothing unusual at all.

Depending on your recipe, the yeast you used and all sorts of other things, some will look nasty like that and some won't. So don't worry. Just clean up anything if it ever gets outside the fermenter or in the airlock or blow off tube.

Sometimes the stuff floating on top goes away and sometimes it doesn't. It's only the stuff between the top and bottom you want anyhow. And if you do get any of that other stuff when you rack to bottles or kegs it'll just become trub on the bottom.

 

[wolfeman]

first thanks for the responses. I do have a hydrometer so I can test for SG. That wan't my plan initially because it is a one gallon batch and I didn't want to waste any on testing, I was just going to go by the instructions and start to bottle after three weeks in the fermenter. As far as trud, this is new to me, as a wine maker we use additives and filtering to clear the wine. Sounds like that is not the case for making beer.

So when I do bottle, the process is to try and not capture stuff at the bottom and stuff at the top into the bottles.

Is filtering and straining before bottling out of the question? Is that not an acceptable practice?

Thanks.

 

[RM-MN]

I do have a hydrometer so I can test for SG. That wan't my plan initially because it is a one gallon batch and I didn't want to waste any on testing

Did your hydrometer come in a plastic tube with caps on both ends? I use that as a sample tube as it doesn't take a lot of beer for the test.

If you drink the hydrometer sample is it really a waste?

Is filtering and straining before bottling out of the question?

When I dry hop a beer I wrap a piece of paint strainer bag around the inlet end of the siphon. I've even gone to making a wire expander that keeps the strainer from being sucked into the siphon or plugging instantly.

 

[hotbeer]

I do small batches too. So once it's in the fermenter I don't check SG until about 4 days to maybe a week after I think it finished fermenting. I still am using clear fermenters so it also has to look dead inside. Then if the next SG 3 days later agrees, then I'll bottle. Or wait longer for the beer to clean itself up more. If you don't have a hydrometer, then just wait an extra 5 to 7 days over what the instructions suggest. With few exceptions waiting longer is never as bad as bottling too soon.

Sometimes when you look closely for more than a glance and let your eyes focus you and get the light shining just right you can stuff happening in that otherwise dead looking beer that isn't bubbling.

At bottling time I have sometimes put one of those flat bottom permanent coffee filters in the bottom of my priming pot and racked the beer into it. But much of what I fear getting in my bottles stays in the fermenter and so I've not worried about it for the last few batches. Even if it did get in the bottles, it'd just become trub on the bottom of them.

 

[wolfeman]

Did your hydrometer come in a plastic tube with caps on both ends? I use that as a sample tube as it doesn't take a lot of beer for the test.

If you drink the hydrometer sample is it really a waste?
Yea this is true didn't think of it like that before and I do want to taste it.


When I dry hop a beer I wrap a piece of paint strainer bag around the inlet end of the siphon. I've even gone to making a wire expander that keeps the strainer from being sucked into the siphon or plugging instantly.

I am reading about this now. I guess from my wine making days that I just want as clear a product as possible.

 

[wolfeman]

I do small batches too. So once it's in the fermenter I don't check SG until about 4 days to maybe a week after I think it finished fermenting. I still am using clear fermenters so it also has to look dead inside. Then if the next SG 3 days later agrees, then I'll bottle. Or wait longer for the beer to clean itself up more. If you don't have a hydrometer, then just wait an extra 5 to 7 days over what the instructions suggest. With few exceptions waiting longer is never as bad as bottling too soon.

Sometimes when you look closely for more than a glance and let your eyes focus you and get the light shining just right you can stuff happening in that otherwise dead looking beer that isn't bubbling.

At bottling time I have sometimes put one of those flat bottom permanent coffee filters in the bottom of my priming pot and racked the beer into it. But much of what I fear getting in my bottles stays in the fermenter and so I've not worried about it for the last few batches. Even if it did get in the bottles, it'd just become trub on the bottom of them.

For my future batches I will start with taking the readings and I do have a refractometer so I can use that in addition. Eventually I want to scale up but only if I can make that process efficient and easier, as I am in my retirement years and I want to limit the lifting of 5 gallon batches.

 

[RM-MN]

I do have a refractometer so I can use that in addition.

Refractometers are great as long as you know that their reading is skewed once alcohol is present. It won't directly show what the final gravity is but if you take 2 or 3 readings and they are the same, albeit higher than expected for FG, it is time to bottle or at least time to take a hydrometer reading. I have had one fermentation stall and without the hydrometer reading to show that I was not at FG I might have bottled that beer too early.

 

[hotbeer]

IMO, knowing what the SG is between OG and FG is just a lot of useless information for many of us. It lets us postulate a lot of stuff, but in the end the result will be the same with or without that knowledge.

Temperature inside the fermenter might be a better thing to know. However so far I haven't worried about that much either.