Strange Yeast Color

[richas]

Hi,
I just pushed a Blonde into the secondary/serving tanks. The yeast used was a White Labs WLP001 California Ale.
The ferment was 3 weeks and temperature was controlled at 69 degrees. OG was ~1.05, FG ~ 1.006.

I have never seen these colors before. The yeast cake on the bottom looks normal. I do not detect any off flavors at this point.

Anyone seen this?

Rich

 

[richas]

The fermenter was a snarky keg. I had just welded a 4" sanitary flange on the top. Of course I scrubbed it out before.....

Rich

 

[richas]

Bump! Anyone seen such colors?

 

[The_Mad_Scientist]

This just a shot in the dark. Chemical reaction to something in the beer with the metal tube.

 

[Warthaug]

By the looks of it, it was near the surface of the beer. If so, it may be an infection with Rhodotorula, which is an oxidative yeast that has a bright orange/red pigment. Here's a picture of some colonies from one of my wild-yeast experiments:

The good news is that it would have died off early, due to increasing alcohol levels and decreasing oxygen. The bad news is that it can create some unpleasant flavours - nothing that will kill you, probably no reason to dump the batch, but you may have some unwanted off flavours (esters, in particular).

Bryan

 

[richas]

By the looks of it, it was near the surface of the beer. If so, it may be an infection with Rhodotorula, which is an oxidative yeast that has a bright orange/red pigment. Here's a picture of some colonies from one of my wild-yeast experiments:

The good news is that it would have died off early, due to increasing alcohol levels and decreasing oxygen. The bad news is that it can create some unpleasant flavours - nothing that will kill you, probably no reason to dump the batch, but you may have some unwanted off flavours (esters, in particular).

Bryan

Very Interesting! I am going to guess that it had nothing to do with the new welds on this fermenter. I think it has more to do with this is the first batch done it it, it previously held Dos Equis and I probably did not do a good enough job scrubbing it out and sanitizing it.

My fingers crossed that the batch is still drinkable. I have it in the secondary now. It is now at 59 degrees, perhaps I should take it cold early to help stabilize it.....

Thanks for the insight.

Rich