Infection or yeast floating

[joe_brewer]

I dry hopped my DIPA last weekend, after letting it ferment in the primary for 21 days and moving it to a secondary. Just swirled it a bit and now have this floating on the top.

I still get an occasional bubble in the airlock, could it still be fermenting, or did I infect it when I racked it to the secondary and dry hopped it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Probably should skip using a secondary vessel. There's only downside, in my opinion.

It doesn't look like mold and it's not a pellicle.
Most people would call that "yeast rafts". Maybe it's fine.

If it smells and tastes fine, don't worry about it.
If you bottle, keep a close eye on carbonation.

 

[Dgallo]

What yeast strain did you use? And was there any visible Krausen or yeast on top when you dry hopped. The pictures aren’t that clear so it’s hard to really identify what it could be

 

[BarleyStanding]

Probably should skip using a secondary vessel. There's only downside, in my opinion.

It doesn't look like mold and it's not a pellicle.
Most people would call that "yeast rafts". Maybe it's fine.

If it smells and tastes fine, don't worry about it.
If you bottle, keep a close eye on carbonation.

+1

 

[joe_brewer]

Used California Ale yeast (WLP001), racked onto the yeast cake of a prior batch. My gravity reading was pretty high when I racked it off (1.027, from OG of 1.085) but there hadn’t been any fermentation activity in the primary for several days (bubbling in the airlock) Hindsight, it was in the garage and the temp was mid to low 50’s after I racked it to secondary and brought it inside to a mid-60’s temp I did see some bubbling in the airlock for a few days after dry hopping.

 

[Dgallo]

Used California Ale yeast (WLP001), racked onto the yeast cake of a prior batch. My gravity reading was pretty high when I racked it off (1.027, from OG of 1.085) but there hadn’t been any fermentation activity in the primary for several days (bubbling in the airlock) Hindsight, it was in the garage and the temp was mid to low 50’s after I racked it to secondary and brought it inside to a mid-60’s temp I did see some bubbling in the airlock for a few days after dry hopping.

Gotcha. Yeah so letting it get in that temperature range made healthy yeast start to slow down and floc out of suspension and stalled fermentation. That’s why when you warmed it up and racked it into a secondary(yeast got back into suspension) you started seeing signs of fermentation. Knowing this information leads me to agree with @RPh_Guy that it’s yeast rafts.

Just going to give some advise here. Airlocks not bubbling isn’t a true sign of fermentation being over. there could be air escaping else where if it’s improperly placed and the airlock won’t pop. Always check your gravity over a 3 day period to determine if it’s stop fermenting.

I would also suggest not using a secondary. They were in practice for sometime due to bad theory on racking off the yeast cake to prevent off flavors and more so as a marketing scheme for brewing kit company’s. They would suggest in their recipes to rack on day 5-7 into one so that you would free up a fermenter and brew more often and buy more kits. Using a secondary has be linked to off flavors due to taking the beer of the yeast cake too soon and not giving the yeast time to clean up. It also has been shown to increase the potential for oxygen absorption.

 

[joe_brewer]

Thanks for the feedback and the advice on the secondary.

 

[day_trippr]

Looks like break material from here...and a bag?
Doesn't look sketchy...yet...

Cheers!

 

[Vale71]

WLP001 tends to build veritable yeast rafts you could try and cross an ocean with...
I have a Unitank and when I pitch WLP001 I can forget about dumping trub after 24 hours, which is my standard procedure with other strains. The one time I tried it I dumped a pint of clear, unfermented wort, as all the yeast had floated upwards leaving a pocket of unfermented wort (I even checked gravity and it matched the OG to within one point!) in the lower part of the cone. Of course the yeast started dropping eventually and fermented everything fully before I started dumping it, but you get an idea of how "floaty" this strain is. As you moved the carboy the yeast cake was on the verge of floating back up and at the slightest disturbance it did just that...