Is my belgian a goner? Infected? Pics attached

[DudzTx]

This is about our 8th brew. we had to dump a pale ale last weekend because it got infected. aftertaste was metallic. After transferring this belgian one to secondary, these white bubbles are starting to show on the surface about 2 weeks after. These were not here about 3 days ago so not 100% sure what to make of it. I know its hard to tell from a photo -- but what do you think?

OG 1.09
FG - shooting for 1.022
Currently been fermenting for 1 month.

It seamed after transfer to the secondary, fermentation hung at 1.044 for about 2 weeks.

Tested today - 1.041 so that's a good sign I guess.

Taste - seems to have lost some of its fruitiness over the last 2 weeks. a little more dry. taste isn't bad, so it might be worth cutting our losses and kegging now before the bacteria take over if present.

Smell... smells a little "yeasty" is the best I can describe. not sure if that's just a manifestation of 70 degree temps with a carboy still full of yeast at the bottom.

Give me your thoughts. thanks!

 

[unionrdr]

Looks normal to me. My watermelon hefe looked a lot like that a little while ago when I went to bottle it. You must've had a temp shift that stalled it out?

 

[TNGabe]

To me it looks like transferring the wort kicked the yeast up and restarted your stuck ferment. If it starts to develop a film or snot bubbles, you've got a problem.

 

[LLBeanJ]

It could be the beginning signs of an infection or it could just be yeast rafts.

Is there a particular reason why you transferred to secondary before it was at FG (or within a couple of points of getting there)? Belgians can take a while to finish up, but at 1.044, it still had a long way to go.

Edit: I agree with TNGabe. Most likely what you're seeing is yeast rafts due to fermentation restarting after the transfer. While there are still some yeast present, the amount available is a lot less than what you had in primary and they are really going to have their work cut out for them in bringing this brew down to FG.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

Give me some info on your boil kettle and mash tun. What material is the tun, manifold/false bottom/screen? Stainless kettle? How about your valve, dip tube, screen for those?

 

[DudzTx]

Thanks everyone. I transferred at 2 weeks - i thought i understood that you are to transfer to secondary once your primary fermentation drops to about 1/2 the OG?? Have we mis-understood? I use a Keggle type system - HLT, Mash, and boil is all Cut out Kegs. False bottom is stainless as well. All valves 3piece and diptube are high quality. Fermenting fridge is temp controlled with Johnson digital at 68-72

 

[LLBeanJ]

No, you want to reach FG or be within a few points before you transfer. Usually, big Belgians should be at FG at around 1 week then moved off the yeast, but this is really dependent on yeast health, pitch rate, aeration, etc.

 

[DudzTx]

ok, well that's news to me. will definitely do that going forward. we pitched with a lot of yeast though so not sure why after 2 weeks it was still only about 1/2 way down. we made a big starter and used a second vile of high grav Belgian yeast.

 

[helibrewer]

Yeast have work to do after fermentation (reached FG) is complete...leave things alone until then. Once you see the beer start to clear you can move it to secondary if you wish, their job is truly complete at that point

 

[LLBeanJ]

What was your ferm temp schedule? Belgian yeast can often be temperamental. They will go strong as long as the temp is stable or rising, but allow it to cool, even just a degree or two and they will often call it quits. I've found it's best to raise the temp a degree or two per day to keep them active.

How was your aeration? That's a big beer. Even with a healthy pitch, the yeast will need a lot of oxygen to build up the required reserves to chew through that much sugar, especially once the alcohol level starts to become substantial.

 

[DudzTx]

we did a heavy aeration. shook for at least 45 seconds in my arms. it was well foamed up when we pitched the yeast. we had a level temp through the entire brew... basically about 70 degrees. temp fluctuates with Johnson control kicking the fridge on. if 1 degree will make the difference, we probably need to adjust the d- a bit so it doesn't allow a 4 degree difference going forward.

any suggestions on kick starting the yeast? something that doesn't require a re-pitch. will re-aerating it help?

 

[LLBeanJ]

With an OG that high, you really should be doing 60-120 seconds of pure O2 infusion. Aeration by shaking will only get you so far.

I wouldn't advise oxygenating again at this point. Since gravity appears to be dropping, albeit slowly, I think I'd just let it go and see how far it can get with the yeast you have. If it stalls again, we can look at more drastic measures. And yes, tighten up the temp diff setting to 1° and set the interval to 15 minutes to prevent short cycling.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

You may also benefit from letting it finish out in temps closer to 80+ degrees. Possibly even some swirling to get some of the flocc'd yeast up off the bottom and exposed to more residual sugars...

 

[DudzTx]

So I shook the living crap out of it to try and re-aerate. I'm holding temps steady at 70, but may raise after my pumpkin ale finishes up. The gravity dropped about a bit over the last week to about 1.036. still slow, but I imagine that's due to low yeast quanitity in the beer from transferring too early and not aerating enough initially. The tastes seems to have become a little more sweet again and I'm not seeing any signs of further "bacteria" growth so all is well here. I think it will turn out ok.

I'm not sure I'm going to pitch and new yeast. i'll just hope it gets to my target gravity soon enough and hopefully its conditioning as it continues to sit on the remaining yeast cake.