So can yeast take on this form, floating at the top like pieces of Styrofoam?

[vegas20s]

Used a "Home Brew Kit" Irish Stout. Added 8oz of bakers chocolate, 1lb corn sugar, and 4oz multo-dextrin. The kit had 3.3 lbs of Dark lme and 3lbs Dark dme, 2 oz uk gold hops pellets, .5lbs crystal, .5lbs roasted barley and Muntons yeast.

So I racked this to the secondary about 2 weeks ago and it's been slowly continuing to ferment. I shake it up about once a week to help distribute the vanilla flavor. As it sits it get some carbonation bubbles on top. The Vanilla bean has been leached of colour and is now white looking and floating on top.

Now when I racked this batch I also bottled off one half gallon growler and primed with brown sugar. After two weeks I went to put it in the fridge and found some strange floaties. Now I've read some of the other posts and most of them say that floaties are yeast. My floaties are about the size of a large grain of sand say a 32nd of an inch and they float on top the way Styrofoam would. (Note: there isn't any floaties like this on top of the secondary)

There is sediment on the bottom of the bottle so I know it's been carbonating.

So can yeast take on this form, floating at the top like pieces of Styrofoam?

It makes since that they could form a clump and surround some co2. I'm still going to drink it unless I get some responses that say otherwise. I just want to make sure I don't have some weird infection that will make me sick.

 

[vegas20s]

after 2 days in the fridge it seems to have settled

I'm out of beer right now so this bottle is looking mighty tempting

 

[bigdug]

It's probably yeast from the carbonating fermentation. Sometimes you will even get a "bottle krausen" when you bottle conditon in 12 oz bottles. It should settle out when you refridgerate.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

I know this doesn't really pertain to your question, but if you've been shaking your secondary and causing splashing, you are probably going to have oxidized beer.

 

[wonderbread23]

Probably just yeast. I'd be more concerned with the growler. Most aren't meant to accommodate bottle conditioning pressures, and can potentially break.

 

[vegas20s]

I know this doesn't really pertain to your question, but if you've been shaking your secondary and causing splashing, you are probably going to have oxidized beer.

I've only done this twice to give the vanilla a chance to mix around the batch.
I'm not really planing on doing it any more. Plus it was well into the 1st week in the secondary that I shook it up. so there was mostly co2 at the top of the carboy. But thanks for the info knowledge never hurts and I'm still knew at this.

As for the mystery lumps I drank some of this bottle last night and was able to pull a lump from the glass. It smashed in my hand just like a crumb of yeast would so I've no doubt it was yeast.

As for the taste. I must first say that I like to tinker so I added half the hops well before the instructions said to. So I have a VERY hoppy stout with not so much ABV. Almost like a black pale ale or a ESB would probable be a better description since the dark color is not what comes to mind when you think pale ale. Any ways after drinking my 50% corn sugar stout with no extra hops additions for 2 months this was a nice change of pace.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

That actually sounds a lot like my first batch. It was all extract and I shook it a few times in an attempt to rouse the yeast and get below the dreaded 1.020 extract curse. It stayed at 1.020 but I did end up with a nice oxidized porter that tasted like bitter, wet cardboard, hahaha.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Another comment on your original post. Secondary isn't for fermentation, it's for aging/conditioning and a majority of homebrewers are forgoing it altogether. You should actually see very little fermentation in secondary if you're doing it right. If you're seeing a lot of activity, it's likely that you racked too soon. Don't worry about letting your beer sit in primary for a long time, it's not going to go bad sitting on the trub. The yeasties need time to clean up.

 

[vegas20s]

This brew originally got off to a hot start it was done with majority of fermentation in like 2 days. I was very worried about the esters that might have formed. In retrospect I don't think I did that much damage. some one on the forums suggested I rack to secondary let it age for a a month or two. Some one else suggested the vanilla beans in the secondary to help mute any estery flavors. When I racked to secondary I also added a bit of brown sugar (10 tsp) to make sure it forced all the oxygen out and left co2 on top. So while there is nothing like a primary fermentation going on there is some fermentation still accruing enough to put a few bubbles on top.

So I've got this in the secondary to age and condition out any esters as well as soak up some vanilla flavors. I didn't ever plan on using a secondary I only got it so I didn't have to tie up my bottles for 2 months.

As far as the shaking goes I read (can't remember where) that some brewers would shake their secondaries when racking onto fruit or adjuncts, in order to distribute flavor. Seemed like a good idea to do once or twice especially since I'm going to let it sit for a while after shaking it up a bit. I don't really see how it's going to cause oxidation if there isn't much in the way of O2 in the secondary. I could be wrong and I guess I'll find out in a few months but it seem that the more I learn about home brew the more I find out just how amazingly resilient beer.

I'm going to relax not worry and have a home brew.

 

[dougf]

Restarting my computer to pics will load...