Identify this Nasty

[bspisak]

Here's what's growing on a small beer (low alcohol) at 12 hours into the primary. Yeast was from a starter built up from small sample of WLP001 CA Ale. I guess you do have to be careful when building up small starters!

Anyone know what this is (besides nasty?)

 

[KellyK]

I've seen perfectly healthy yeast float to the top and look like that before. Not to say it isn't an infection, but I'd RDWHAHB and see how it tastes in a week or two. It's already in the fermenter, might as well let it go.

 

[Doc Robinson]

That is a beautiful photo. What kind of camera do you have?

Besides that, your beer is legit. That's not an infection, just break material and yeast that has floated to the top.

 

[Yooper]

Cool! It's very hard to tell, but it looks like cold break to me- coagulated globs of protein matter that should settle out when fermentation is over.

 

[NCBeernut]

+3 on a healthy looking beer - I get that look with highly flocculant English yeasts sometimes. Also looks like break material, but dense. That pic really is high quality. Much better than people posting fuzzy pictures from their free camera phone and asking everyone to assess the beer from it.

 

[Gremlyn]

Looks like yeast to me... Mine looks very similar, but with a different yeast.

 

[Revvy]

Looks like a combination break material and a krausen starting to form...in other words perfectly normal. !2 hours in primary is really too soon for any nasties to develop anyway.

 

[bspisak]

Interesting. Well, the reason I thought it was infected is I've used this yeast before and I've never seen it do this. This is WLP001.

Also, I have never built a starter from such a small amount before and understand it is more susceptible to infection. I pitched perhaps 98% of the vial to make a large starter for a barley wine. The rest was started in 50mL then stepped up to 1L. I took the 2nd runnings from the barley wine and made a small beer and had both batches in the fermenter within 2 hours of each other. The barley wine is going gangbuster with no little danglies, but the small beer developed what you see here.

I'll let it go and see what happens though....

Re: My Camera:

LoL - I took this picture hanging my head into the freezer with the camera upside down and trying not to get a reflection off the carboy! It is set to macro, because I didn't have much room to work and I thought that would give better detail. The camera is a Panasonic DMC-FX07. Nothing special.

 

[ChshreCat]

I think it's cottage cheese. Strain it out, add some pineapple and you'll have a nice light breakfast.

 

[bspisak]

Oh, one more point. The barley wine was pitched from a starter that I let floc out then chilled to decant. The small beer (the one that looks strange to me) was pitched from a starter that was just past high krausen. I would have expected the small beer to take off faster....

 

[Spillz]

Does it kinda look like pond scum? Does anyone know if this looks normal? 3 hours after I transferred wort to primary this stuff showed up.

 

[Pkrd]

Does it kinda look like pond scum? Does anyone know if this looks normal? 3 hours after I transferred wort to primary this stuff showed up.

Thats cold break. Nothing to worry about.
RDWHAHB

 

[Spillz]

Thank you for the insight

 

[sborz22]

+3 on a healthy looking beer - I get that look with highly flocculant English yeasts sometimes. Also looks like break material, but dense. That pic really is high quality. Much better than people posting fuzzy pictures from their free camera phone and asking everyone to assess the beer from it.

Idt camera phones are free, you have to buy the phone with it for a cool grand haha