Is this bad? What happened?

[andersk]

Normally brew in glass and have a view into how things progress. Just opened my stainless brew bucket after a week and the Krausen looks sorta fine but the splotchiness of it seems new to me. Normal? Just hops in the process of clearing?

 

[Tom R]

Normally brew in glass and have a view into how things progress. Just opened my stainless brew bucket after a week and the Krausen looks sorta fine but the splotchiness of it seems new to me. Normal? Just hops in the process of clearing?

Looks totally normal.

PS: Do your beer a favor, don't peek. Try to minimize oxidation.

 

[csantoni]

PS: Do your beer a favor, don't peek. Try to minimize oxidation.

My first thought was, “well you oxidized your beer, for one thing.”

 

[andersk]

Opened for a dry hop… may try something fancy with magnets or thread next time

but good to know! Think it’s just thrown me not seeing it go through the stages

 

[Jayjay1976]

You're fine, ignore the oxygen nazis, a bit of O2 is an unavoidable part of the homebrewer's dry hopping process. You will want to drink this fresh tho, before the oxygen exposure destroys your hop flavors and turns your beer dark

 

[csantoni]

Yeah, I admit I probably overreacted to that. It’s mostly because I only recently started trying to minimize O2 exposure and it’s really improved my beer.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Opened for a dry hop… may try something fancy with magnets or thread next time

but good to know! Think it’s just thrown me not seeing it go through the stages

magnets and thread, that sounds like a bag of hops hanging out above the beer, which might create the environment for mold growth. IME, just be quick about it, keep the hops in a small ziploc with all the air squeezed out and try to minimize the 'lid off' time. As mere homebrewers, there isn't a whole lot more that can be done without going to extravagant expense. Me personally, I focus on other styles. I have had good luck with keg hopping too.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Yeah, I admit I probably overreacted to that. It’s mostly because I only recently started trying to minimize O2 exposure and it’s really improved my beer.

O2 is definitely the boogeyman WRT dry hopping, sorry I wasn't trying to say otherwise. Cheers.

 

[Tom R]

Think it’s just thrown me not seeing it go through the stages

You'll get used to fermenting in stainless.
Thankfully, the yeast do their thing whether we watch them or not!
Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Normally brew in glass and have a view into how things progress. Just opened my stainless brew bucket after a week and the Krausen looks sorta fine but the splotchiness of it seems new to me. Normal? Just hops in the process of clearing?

In this case, it's the yeast strain. I'm guessing wlp007, or maybe wlp002, or a closely related English ale strain.
No worries, but as has been drummed out, stop peeking

Cheers!

 

[andersk]

magnets and thread, that sounds like a bag of hops hanging out above the beer, which might create the environment for mold growth. IME, just be quick about it, keep the hops in a small ziploc with all the air squeezed out and try to minimize the 'lid off' time. As mere homebrewers, there isn't a whole lot more that can be done without going to extravagant expense. Me personally, I focus on other styles. I have had good luck with keg hopping too.

Ah very good point. I had seen some videos of people doing it to reduce O2 but sounds risky. Honestly the lid was off for maybe 20 seconds which seems safe enough

 

[GoeHaarden]

What We Know About Dry Hopping - S. Janish