Floating oily balls post fermentation - Help!

[Mils24]

Hi all,

Need a little help please. Ill try and give as much info upfront as possible so please bear with me.

Ive been brewing now for a few years (all be it, this is the first in a few months due to having a baby) I have never seen or come across this issue before.

I was dry hopping my IPA this afternoon and taking a FG sample at the same time. When I was taking my reading I noticed a few wee black balls floating in the sample tube. When I picked them out with a wooden coffee stirrer I noticed they were oily. Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

Few points to note:

1. Grain bill is, pale malt, cara malt and torrified wheat.
2. Brewed in an all in one machine with 25+ brews through it.
3. Fermented in a SS Brewteck Conical fermentor - 2nd time using it but was bought 2nd hand and had been used before. Also cleaned by me when I bought it.
4. All cleaning and sterilising was done as usual for the 20+ brews I've done to date. Never seen this before
5. New yeast used this time for the first time - AEB FY-4
6. when adding in the dry hops and after seeing this in the sample tube I looked at the beer in the fermentor and I don't see any signs of this on the top of the wort.
7. Seems to float in the sample tube but not floating on the beer - odd?
8. Fermented at 20C for days 1-4 and then ramped to 23C for a diacatyl rest. Temp controlled via SS Brewtech glycol chiller
9. Chilled to 14.5C today from 23C before dry hopping
10. FG was supposed to be 1.009 but I missed it badly and only hit 1.020. However sample tube was very cloudy so Im hoping that the hydrometer wasn't floating properly due to yeast in the sample.

Questions:
1. Does anyone know what this is?
2. Is it safe or is batch ruined?
3. Seems odd to me that Im not seeing it floating on the top of the batch when I open the lid. Could it be something in the sample taps of the SS fermentor?
4. Is my 1.020 FG accurate and I missed that badly, possible contamination in the batch causing FG to miss? Ive never been this out in any batch.

Sorry for the long post but Ive tried Googling this and I can't seem to find any other examples or answers.

Thanks

 

[DuncB]

What did sample taste like?

I wonder if this is hop oil?

 

[Mils24]

What did sample taste like?

I wonder if this is hop oil?

I didn’t drink it as it was super yeasty.

 

[doug293cz]

Could it be nothing more than contamination in the sample jar, since you don't see it in the fermenter?

Brew on

 

[Mils24]

Could it be nothing more than contamination in the sample jar, since you don't see it in the fermenter?

Brew on

I wish it was but took 3 samples and washed the tube thoroughly in between.

 

[IslandLizard]

What does that sample tube look like? Is it an "auto-siphon" with a black rubber plunger inside, or a simple wine thief, no plunger, just dip into the beer, then put your thumb on the top?

 

[Mils24]

What does that sample tube look like? Is it an "auto-siphon" with a black rubber plunger inside, or a simple wine thief, no plunger, just dip into the beer, then put your thumb on the top?

It’s a 250 cylindrical glass jar. Filled from the sample tap on the SSBrewtec SS Fermentor.

Not this but like this - Simax Glass Measuring Cylinder - 250ml

 

[IslandLizard]

Filled from the sample tap on the SSBrewtec SS Fermentor.

Sorry, that's what I was after, how exactly you take samples from the fermenter.
It can't be the tall glass jar.

Since the "oily deposits" float, they can't come from the top of the beer, because the sample valve is on or near the bottom.

When this batch is done, and packaged, take a good look at that sample tap assembly and clean the inside well. Does it come apart for cleaning? That would be best.
Maybe there's a rubber gasket that sheds "oily" deposits.

 

[HM-2]

They look a bit like dry yeast granules in the picture.

 

[Miraculix]

Hop seeds maybe?

 

[Mils24]

Sorry, that's what I was after, how exactly you take samples from the fermenter.
It can't be the tall glass jar.

Since the "oily deposits" float, they can't come from the top of the beer, because the sample valve is on or near the bottom.

When this batch is done, and packaged, take a good look at that sample tap assembly and clean the inside well. Does it come apart for cleaning? That would be best.
Maybe there's a rubber gasket that sheds "oily" deposits.

This is the only thing that is giving me hope that the batch is not ruined... Floating in the sample jar but not in the main fermentor.

Will disassemble all taps once beer is transferred into kegs and give them a good scrub.
Think I will syphon from the top into the kegs this time too.

 

[Mils24]

They look a bit like dry yeast granules in the picture.

when I fished them out of the sample jar with a wooden coffee stirrer they were oily.

 

[Mils24]

Hop seeds maybe?

again they were little balls of oil, when I fished them out. Can hop seeds react like that, as in rub them between your finger and thumb and they dissapear? or would they remain hard like a seed?

Also my hops are in pellet form not whole cone or leaf. Are seed possible in pellets?

 

[IslandLizard]

Think I will syphon from the top into the kegs this time too.

You could siphon out of the top of the fermenter, in this case. Or just use the bottom tap and flow the first pint (or quart) into a beaker, before filling the keg. That should purge any remaining oils from that tap area.

And fill into closed, liquid or fermentation gas pre-purged kegs to avoid your beer being exposed to air/O2 while filling. Hoppy beers don't fare well with O2 contact.

 

[Miraculix]

again they were little balls of oil, when I fished them out. Can hop seeds react like that, as in rub them between your finger and thumb and they dissapear? or would they remain hard like a seed?

Also my hops are in pellet form not whole cone or leaf. Are seed possible in pellets?

Nope!

 

[hotbeer]

Why do you worry that you beer is ruined? It either is or it isn't. You can't do much for it if it is ruined.

Just continue to do everything you should be doing. Which mainly is leave it alone. Decide if it's ruined after it has been bottled/kegged and appropriately conditioned.