What is floating in this stout?

[Redpiper]

My Russian stout came out pretty well. When bottling I tried a few things. For the last round of bottles I added lactose which had been boiled and cooled as well as some vanilla extract and unsweetened cocoa powder (boiled in 1 3/4 cup of water and cooled).

The earlier bottles do not have this floating in them, the later ones do (there's a middle group I haven't tested yet - choc/vanilla but no lactose). Any ideas what it is? Some kind of infection?

In case the pic isn't appearing here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47356819@N03/5545369394/

(Not sure why pic won't show...)

 

[itsme6582]

1. Edit your post.
2. Click the picture button (it looks like a mountain with a sun)
3. Paste the link to the picture

That looks like delicious beer. I've seen floaters before but I've never noticed anything like that before. Where's the head?

 

[theredben]

+1 Where's the head?

Looks like rosemary leaves from my spice cupboard. Certainly can't hurt to drink it. What does it taste like?

 

[Redpiper]

I'm not sure where the head is. It's carbed pretty lightly and doesn't pour with much of one. I'll have to read up on what creates a good head (please save the jokes I've already considered all of them!) and see what I see.

Tastes nice - very rich, sweet but not cloyingly sweet. The chocolate and vanilla are present but not over powering. It was bottled 1/29 so I think it's still a bit young but delicious enough to throw a supply in the fridge.

 

[Pandaren]

The cocoa powder that you used...was it nonfat? I had the same problem with a chocolate oatmeal stout I did and I noticed that around the neck of the bottles, sitting on the beer was a tiny tiny amount of oil. When chilled and then poured, the oils solidify and come out lookin like that. At least that's what I'm guessing it is. Purely cosmetic, unless you feel a chunk in your mouth, cuz then its gross!

 

[dfc]

Looks like rosemary. Stop adding rosemary to your stouts and this won't be an issue.

 

[dfc]

Looks like someone beat me to that joke...

 

[Redpiper]

I just checked, and yes the chocolate wasn't totally fat free - could have sworn I looked for this - obviously not.

Interesting that I used the same chocolate on the whole batch in secondary with no fat now visible. Maybe it settled or filtered out during the secondary or racking to bucket process.

Okay - that makes sense. Thanks.

Or it's the rosemary - but I only used 20 oz. of that so I can't imagine it would be an issue. :cross:

 

[Pandaren]

Np!
Ya, if you can't ever find nonfat coco in the future, you can just rack it a few times to get the oils out (well, off would be the better word, all the oils sit on top of the brew).

 

[mr_cad]

Looks like maybe some of the sugars were not broken down and left a slight ring around the the neck at the liquid level and then it breaks apart when you pour it. Just my thoughts....never had this problem.