Haze at the top of beer in the bottle

[bd2009]

Recently bottled my 4th batch and a week later I'm noticing a haze within the top 1/8 - 1/4 inch of each bottle, just below the surface of the beer. Looks kinda like suspended yeast. There's definately something hanging out in there. The kinda thing that seems like it could leave a ring. I opened one to check it out, and it tastes and smells the way it should, but everything i've read tells me that this is a sure sign of infection. Can a bacteria kick in after a few weeks and sour it, or could this potentially be something else? Haven't seen any answers about this specific problem. Anyone seen this? Thanks!

 

[pericles]

Yeast kill bacteria, so you really have to have a pretty decent critical mass of contaminants in order to garner an infection. By the time you've bottled, I think it's safe to assume that you've either cleared the hurdle of infection, or you got an infection a long time ago.

If the beer tastes right, and the beer smells right, then you're fine.

Something to consider: are you reusing these bottles? Homebrew bottles that aren't properly cleaned can develop a sludge at the bottom from previous batches' trub. Spraying them and disinfecting them won't necessarily dislodge the gunk, and it CAN float up to the top. Is that it? If so, it's a little gross but, again, if it smells right, and it tastes right, don't worry. If not, then, same deal.

 

[Revvy]

It is more than likely the remnants of the bottle krausen that sometimes forms on top of bottles just like in our fermenters, and then falls through to become the trub in the fermenter, and the sediment layer in the bottle. Most folks don't notice anything happening to their bottles, because all but the newest of brewers, just stick their bottles in a dark closet for three weeks. So they don't see anything weird and get nervous about it.

Just relax, there's nothing you can do anyway right now except wait the three weeks minimum we recommend and see if it's still there. More than likely they won't be there.

 

[bd2009]

Thanks a lot for the input guys. Had never seen this in any of my previous batches, and read in so many places and heard from so many people that "anything looking like a ring at the neck of the bottle is a sure sign" that i blew it somehow. I think I'll just wait and see... Thanks again!

 

[Revvy]

Thanks a lot for the input guys. Had never seen this in any of my previous batches, and read in so many places and heard from so many people that "anything looking like a ring at the neck of the bottle is a sure sign" that i blew it somehow. I think I'll just wait and see... Thanks again!

A lot of that is just conjecture which ends up getting repeated over and over until it becomes another "brewer's myths" that get perpetuated.

But noone seems to realize that if you don't look at your bottles during carbing and conditioning, that you don't see what goes on in there.

The same fermentation process that happens in your fermenter is happening in your bottles, just on a tiny scale. Top fermenting yeast is eating sugar, so it's never been surprising, to me anyway that sometimes the right combo of yeast and sugar is actually going to produce a krausen that we are going to see.

Also people forget that many books talk about how primming with DME DOES often produce noticeable bottle krauzens.

I finally got to see one myself this summer. I had a couple of those tiny San Pellagrino Lemonatta bottles'

I bottled some of my saison in two of them, and i has stuck those in a cupboard above my fridge. The next morning when getting milk out of the fridge for coffee, I opened up that cupboard and low and behold they both have tiny krausens on the surface.

That night when I got home from work and went to check on them, they had already fallen and left that little layer of sediment on the bottom.

I've always believed that they form and fall quite quickly, perhaps even a matter of minutes, but like I said, few actually pay too much attention to their bottles during the three weeks minimum they take to carb up.

 

[GrizlyGarou]

Looks kinda like suspended yeast.

It most likely is. I like to look at a bottle with a light behind it every few days to see when the yeast drop out all the way. They're my little pets, and I like to check up on them!