What is growing in my beer/wort?!

[Acumen]

There are hundreds of these little disks that are 1-2 mm in diameter floating at or just under the surface of my stout.

WARNING: LARGE IMAGE
Lilly Pad Bug?

This is not full beer, I had a stuck fermentation from 1.042 to 1.04 from too high a mash temp. I had put it aside for a few weeks as I have been busy, and was coming back to add dextrose for the yeast to ferment and found the "lilly pad" bug growing.

I tasted some of the wort, and it might be a little sour/bitter? I am not sure if it is just my mind playing tricks on me or what. It doesnt taste so good at the moment, and it used to taste great... if its not all in my head.

I was planning on boiling up 4 pounds of dextrose, syphoning into a new carboy and repitching. Now I am worried about possible bottle bombs or bad beer.

 

[Rick500]

My first guess is it's yeast. But sitting around not being fermented for that long a period of time, I could be wrong.

 

[carnevoodoo]

How high did you mash?

 

[Acumen]

I hope its yeast, maybe they traveled with small C02 bubble streams and just built up? By then why havent they sunk down, C02 trapped in the yeast lilly pads maybe? Is there any trick to tell if it is yeast?

This is the original thread, I am not sure exactly how high, but it left me with almost all unfermentables:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/stuck-fermentation-1-042-a-117788/

 

[Revvy]

looks like yeast colonies bouyed up by co2 from the bottom and sitting on the surface...very few beer surfaces are perfectly clean, there is usually somethig floating on top, mostly bubbles, or yeast.

 

[Acumen]

Thanks, thats a relief. I've only made 9 batches so far and hadn't experianced this phenomenon yet. I will proceed as scheduled with the sugar injection.

 

[ekjohns]

Hate to be the bad news guy but i work in a biochem lab and when we see this in our tissue culture dishes is fungus. look to see if it seems at all "hairy" may be hard to tell when wet but to me im going fungus. =0(

 

[Acumen]

I scooped some out to take a closer look. For scale that is a 3/8 inch tube over an espresso saucer. They are not as scary out of the wort as they are very yeast colored. I don't really perceive them as hairy, but what do I know.

WARNING LARGE IMAGE:
Lilly Pads out of their natural habitat

I am actually more scared of my tube then the lilly pads now after seeing it that close up.

 

[Revvy]

Hate to be the bad news guy but i work in a biochem lab and when we see this in our tissue culture dishes is fungus. look to see if it seems at all "hairy" may be hard to tell when wet but to me im going fungus. =0(

But we're not in a lab, nor are we talking about tissue cultures...we're talking the surface of his beer...and most of us have seen it before...and are pretty sure it is benign....

I scooped some out to take a closer look. For scale that is a 3/8 inch tube over an espresso saucer. They are not as scary out of the wort as they are very yeast colored. I don't really perceive them as hairy, but what do I know.

WARNING LARGE IMAGE:
Lilly Pads out of their natural habitat

I am actually more scared of my tube then the lilly pads now after seeing it that close up.

I still maintian that it looks like yeast colonies.....

More importantly, how does it smell and taste? We can't really diagnose it for you (whether or not we work in a lab ) unless you have a more experienced brewer near you who can taste it..you'll have to figure it out for yourself...Our experience is that infections are rare, thogh they do happen...and sometimes mold can grow..BUT with mold and some infections..it may only have penetrated a little ways in the beer...many people (including myself) have racked below mold, and have had the beer turn out fine...

But you have to taste and smell it first...if it taste and smeels fine, then more than likely (once again) it is not infected.

 

[Acumen]

I've racked a beer from under mold as well, and this doesn't look like the mold did at all, the mold was clearly mold. I think it's probably just yeast and fine. It does taste a little off. It's hard to describe, just a little to bitter and maybe a tad sour? But I also used 3# of flaked barley and it's been sitting the the carboy for a long time. It definatly used to taste better though. I will probably bottle it, wrap it in a towel and put it in a trash bag just to be safe.

 

[jspence1]

definitely looks like yeast to me, I always seem to get floaties in my beer

 

[brian_g]

I've only got three mashes under my belt. My first one was way too hot 185F. I did notice a slightly sour taste in that beer. I'm not sure if it was the mash temperature or not, but I don't see any thing else that could have caused it.