Separated/Divided wort

MockY · Dec 28, 2014

This has never occurred in my carboy in the past and my mind is boggled. The wort is separated in two distinct section. The one on the bottom looks and behaves like I expect and am used to. The top however is not, and is significantly lighter in color.

It has only been about 6 hours but the yeast is happily dancing vigorously in the bottom half of the carboy. It seems like the yeast is bouncing off of the top layer as if it was the surface of the wort. Krausen is forming like usual. I noticed that cold break was floating on top as well as sinking to the bottom, leaving a section in the middle of clear wort after it went through my plate chiller. Usually it all falls to the bottom.

The only difference from other times is that I did not decant the starter and dumped the entire 1600ml of starter in the carboy, but since I already noticed the layered sections before dumping it in, the color difference could be just the different worts. However, this batch was properly oxygenated as well as shaken (I shook it after dumping in the yeast).

Does anyone now what's going on, and why is this happening?

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jddevinn · Dec 28, 2014

The bottom just looks like it has more trub in it to me. I think in a couple hours what you see in the bottom layer will settle out.

MockY · Dec 28, 2014

It's actually the top layer that confuses me. The bottom layer acts and looks just like I'm used to. The top layer however is much lighter and has no visible yeast activity, even though krausen is forming on top. As far as I can tell, there's only trub on the bottom of the fermenter and nowhere else.

MockY · Dec 28, 2014

Even though it sits in the background, you can see the divide in the carboy. This is before pitching yeast. I wonder if it has to do with the types of grains used. This recipe called for a fair amount of Victory.

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schematix · Dec 28, 2014

Give it a swirl?

MockY · Dec 29, 2014

I did multiple times and yet it went back to the separation. The fermentation is now so active that this is no longer an "issue". I was more curious to why this happened in the first place and if someone had similar experiences.