Lots of floaters towards end of fermentation

[noisebloom]

Working on my first beer ever from a Northern Brewer 1-gallon extract starter kit (Kama Citra IPA). It's been fermenting for 10 days, and after what seemed to be a very active fermentation, the krausen fell and the beer darkened. I haven seen any activity in at least four or five days, but there are a TON of floaters in suspension the middle of my carboy. They are basically little yellow/white flakes, so I'm thinking either yeast or DME (my mixing was probably bad and I didn't do a great job of keeping trub out of my carboy when transferring the wort). Nothing is floating on top of my beer. I have no idea what yeast was included with the kit as I tossed the packet and the instructions don't say.

I'm checking the FG daily to see if it changes... so my question is if I should keg it after the FG stabilizes or wait until the floaters all sink? When I took my reading today, I tasted the sample, and it tasted like a great IPA! I couldn't perceive any excessive sweetness like there's a ton of fermenting to do. I should be able to cold crash too, but I don't want to do anything prematurely.

 

[Garrett Allen]

Cold crashing can get those stubborn floaties to sink a little more, but I wouldn't worry about them too much. It's most likely a mix of yeast and proteins.

I'm an advocate of doing as much as possible to avoid oxygen exposure to beer post fermentation, and I'd suggest just bottling after you think everything has settled enough to not bring too much trub over to bottles when you do eventually package. Cold crashing is very beneficial if you can do it without sucking in oxygen/air.

And on the sweetness part, do you take density measurements? The best way to tell that fermentation is completely done is to take hydrometer readings.

 

[V-Fib]

Most likely yeast hanging out, I would recommend waiting till they drop but if you are kegging it they will drop to the bottom once the temp is cold. For future reference you shouldn't have to check FG daily. It opens up your brew to a higher chance of infection and oxygen exposure. Most of the time its better to just pitch it and forget it for 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[noisebloom]

I'm an advocate of doing as much as possible to avoid oxygen exposure to beer post fermentation, and I'd suggest just bottling after you think everything has settled enough to not bring too much trub over to bottles when you do eventually package. Cold crashing is very beneficial if you can do it without sucking in oxygen/air.

And on the sweetness part, do you take density measurements? The best way to tell that fermentation is completely done is to take hydrometer readings.

Thanks for the response and advice!

I basically took a gravity measurement with a refractometer post-fermentation ONLY, which means I have no way of correcting that reading except for using the OG from the manual. From that, I was able to guess that I'm at 1.008 FG and 5.5% ABV, and even if my FG is wrong, I can tell if it changes...

 

[RM-MN]

I haven seen any activity in at least four or five days, but there are a TON of floaters in suspension the middle of my carboy. They are basically little yellow/white flakes, so I'm thinking either yeast or DME (my mixing was probably bad and I didn't do a great job of keeping trub out of my carboy when transferring the wort).

When your beer is done fermenting it contains way more CO2 than can stay dissolved in it. As it comes out of solution it picks up some of the cold break and yeast and carries it toward the surface which is what you are seeing. It may even carry some of it all the way to the surface and make what we call "yeast rafts". All this is normal beer behavior and nothing to worry about.

What it is not is DME. Whether or not you mixed it well, the yeast will find it and eat all of its components they are able to digest.

 

[noisebloom]

When your beer is done fermenting it contains way more CO2 than can stay dissolved in it. As it comes out of solution it picks up some of the cold break and yeast and carries it toward the surface which is what you are seeing.

This makes sense. Thanks for the explanation; I didn't find a physical explanation for this before now!

 

[efigaro18]

Brewed the same kit from Northern Brewer, I definitely also had a lot of stuff still in suspension after 10 days. I let it sit in the fermenter for around 2 1/2 weeks and it cleared right up! I would just wait a few more days and let the yeast finished cleaning things up.

 

[noisebloom]

I ended up assuming that the fermentation was done and cold-crashing my fermentor... And after ~5 hours, everything in suspension was at the bottom!

Kegged, did a quick burst carb to take a sample, and it tastes great! Super stoked. It's going to sit at serving pressure for a few days to condition.

 

[Surly]

Another one took the bait. Well done all...