Uh oh, infection? (Pic)

[Brewskier]

The cloudy film is just some yeast that ran down the inside of the better bottle, but I'm worried about those white blobs on the surface. Is that just yeast? I used WLP830 German Lager Yeast. I've gotten a slow "glug" since about 3-4 hours after pitching. That's increased to about 1 glug every 5 seconds, and it's been about 15 hours. The krausen hasn't started rising yet, though.

Anything to worry about? Or does this look normal?

 

[chumpsteak]

Looks like normal yeast and co2 bubbles to me.

 

[unionrdr]

Idk,I think I see some webbing forming...?

 

[theveganbrewer]

This is the yeast kicking up. As fermentation begins, this stuff will rise to the surface and soon you'll have krausen.

 

[Brewskier]

Thanks for the reassurance.

 

[passedpawn]

Your freezer needs more rust. And a lot of odd glop and mold down there. And some random hop pellets floating in a bunch of nasty condensation. Way, way too clean. You wouldn't believe the crap at the bottom of my chest freezer.

(oh that looks pretty normal to me inside the carboy; carry on marine)

 

[Brewskier]

Your freezer needs more rust. And a lot of odd glop and mold down there. And some random hop pellets floating in a bunch of nasty condensation. Way, way too clean. You wouldn't believe the crap at the bottom of my chest freezer.

(oh that looks pretty normal to me inside the carboy; carry on marine)

Hah, thanks. Believe me, it wasn't always so clean! I didn't use it for about 6 months and opened it up one day.... I almost fainted after I saw all the black mold growing inside. I eventually dumped a ton of bleach in there and let it soak for a few days. Scrubbed it out clean, and I use damprid to get rid of excess moisture now. Seems to have made a big improvement.

It's actually not as clean as the picture suggests. The flash of the camera helped out, some. There are some pits full of black gunk I can't quite clean out, but they are mostly minor. Some of the chrome plating has rubbed away in a few places, too. Not too bad considering I've owned and operated it for about 5 years, though.

 

[Brewskier]

Looks like you guys were right, I've got a nice thick layer of krausen now, and the glugs are 1-2 seconds apart. Steady 51 degrees. All looks good at this point.

I had a 3.5 liter starter on a stir plate for over 24 hours, then I cold crashed for about 20 hours. Still, I'm worried I threw out some yeast. Next time I may cold crash longer, or make my starter a few days earlier. Hopefully I didn't underpitch.... I noticed minor airlock activity within 4 hours of pitching, so that's a good sign. It didn't really get started until 16 hours or so.