What is Going on in my Bottles?

[TheSaxonaut]

Hey guys, first time poster here. I just bottled my second batch yesterday, which is from Northern Brewer's white house honey ale kit.

It had been in my 1 gallon glass carboy for two weeks exactly. I don't have any means of gravity testing yet, so I don't have any of that info. I've just been trying to follow Northern Brewer's directions to the letter.

I decided to check on the bottles after class today, and they all have something floating in them. I'm hoping it's just yeast or trub that will settle to the bottom soon, but it looks strange and kind of stringy. It rises back to the surface after a brief shake.

I took a picture, but I had a hard time getting anything better than this, so forgive me for the potato quality.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1yq-4rRnTVnN3hsU2t5X3lJc1U/view?usp=sharing

 

[CJ-3]

From the look of that picture it may be just yeast or trub but to be honest it is hard to tell. Do yourself a favor though, stop shaking the bottle if you want it to settle out.

I don't want to sound preachy so take this as a piece of friendly advice - you need to get a hydrometer. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. You need to be able to check gravity readings so you don't bottle too early and make a bottle bomb. Jusr because you wait 2 weeks dors not mean your beer is ready to bottle.

 

[TheSaxonaut]

From the look of that picture it may be just yeast or trub but to be honest it is hard to tell. Do yourself a favor though, stop shaking the bottle if you want it to settle out.

I don't want to sound preachy so take this as a piece of friendly advice - you need to get a hydrometer. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. You need to be able to check gravity readings so you don't bottle too early and make a bottle bomb. Jusr because you wait 2 weeks dors not mean your beer is ready to bottle.

Oh don't worry, I didn't intend on shaking the bottles anymore. When I first checked on the bottles, the stuff I'm seeing was sort of clustered together like a floating web, so I wanted to see if it would disperse. Probably not super wise, but it was too odd looking to not experiment with.

And believe me, a hydrometer is in my future (Along with larger fermenters). Just not in time for this batch. Gotta love the broke college student budget.

Thanks for the guess though. The more I look at, the more I think it's yeast or trub, but I didn't see anything like it in my first batch, so you can understand my concern.

 

[sky4meplease]

After two weeks it is likely done or done enough unless the temperature during fermentation got low enough to cause the yeast to go sleepy.
I normally hold fermentation temp for a week then work the temp up to the high end for the strain or even a couple degrees over to promote strong finish for a week before dry hopping/cold crashing etc..
If your not sure then put the bottles somewhere they could blow if they had to without hurting someone or making a huge mess and let them condition and clear for a month.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I've heard that honey beers need more time to finish than standard beers.