Infection?

[pennyloaf]

I was wondering if you thought this is an infection or normal krousen? I dropped the temp and the fermentation slowed and when it came back to the mid 60's this formed on the foamy head.




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[livetaswim06]

Looks like a large clump of yeast solids to me.

 

[Yesfan]

Looking at the foam on the airlock, it looks like you have a normal looking aggressive fermentation going on.

Nothing to worry about.

 

[pennyloaf]

Thanks a lot. I got the big bottle of Sanstar and I usually over mix on small volumes and rinse with boiled water. Bubbles are from high sanstar concentration in airlock.

Fermentations are going strong, thanks to everyone here for their old posts (built keizer with stc1000). This is actually a cider but got no replies on that forum. I was concerned because there isn't any hops or thick stuff in the cider and I just added raw honey to bring OG to 1.06


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[freisste]

Star-San is a no rinse sanitizer. It's actually good for yeast at the concentrations that will end up in your bottles/fermenters/etc.

 

[cluckk]

Don't fear the foam! Never rinse the StarSan.

As for your kraeusen, it looks like when it was slow and cold the kraeusen got fairly dense and tight, then when you raised the temp it picked up quick and broke up the kraeusen and a small round chunk just hasn't broken up yet.

 

[Chadwick]

This looks good.

I vote: Not an infection, healthy looking fermentation.

Infections, the real thing, look far more sinister than this. Seeing that this is only your 5th post and you are obviously jumping into brewing with a fermentation in-progress. I'll give you this simple and useful guide to infections.

Signs my beer is infected:
-If there is hair growing inside the fermentation vessel - You might have an infection
-If there seems to be a LARGE amount of melted wax floating on your wort - You might have an infection
-If your fermentation vessel is challenging you to wrestle - You need to call the NSA and NASA
-If there is mold growing inside your fermentation vessel - You might have an infection

Before you freak out, know this:
Even if you do have an infection, it won't kill you, the Taliban will not offer to buy it.
I've had an infection before. Mine was the wax looking stuff. Laco infection most likely, but whatever. I bottled it anyways. After 4 weeks of bottle conditioning it was awful. After 16 weeks it was interesting, not really good but remarkably better. It is now 30 week old and I plan to keep it around. Lambic beers brewed in Belgium are actually fermented with the same types of bugs we avoid because we call these contaminates infections. Even an infected beer might age into something that is pretty good. What is most important to know is that none of these bugs will kill you. The worse thing that can happen, and it's not real likely to be an issue either, is you end up with the schitz.