What is this

[chezzesteak]

help!!!! what is this and whats this caused from?

i brewed two batches yesterday and the other one is not like this..

 

[NyPDFustercluck]

Trub. Don't worry about it. It'll settle in a day or two.

 

[buckeyebrewer]

Looks like tiny particles of hops that are sticking to the carboy....I usually get a little of that each time I ferment in a glass carboy.

 

[chezzesteak]

is there reasons why one beer would do it and not another. i am worried lately becuse i have had 3 bad batches in the last 2 months.

 

[chezzesteak]

BTW i dont think it hops because i used hops in a bag for the first time. i got sick and tired of chweing on hops out of my glass

 

[Shooter]

Hops, trub, yeast stuck to the side of the fermenter, could be a lot of things, but doesn't look like anything to be worried about at this point. Even with hop bags, I still get some hop sediment in the fermenter.

 

[NyPDFustercluck]

I've ha the exact thing in my Carboy before. It was a mix of hops, grain particles, and coagulated proteins, they settled out after the aggressive fermentation slowed down (and looked pretty cool while the ferm was going full tilt) When you were transferring to your primary from the kettle, did you whirlpool your wort post boil? did you filter? How quick did you chill your wort?

 

[chezzesteak]

I've ha the exact thing in my Carboy before. It was a mix of hops, grain particles, and coagulated proteins, they settled out after the aggressive fermentation slowed down (and looked pretty cool while the ferm was going full tilt) When you were transferring to your primary from the kettle, did you whirlpool your wort post boil? did you filter? How quick did you chill your wort?

i stopped doing primary and secondary. i found out i was just increasing my contamination. i do 3 gallon boils , still extract, chill it with immersion chiller which is about 15 -20 mins, add 2.5 gallons of sterile filtered water ...

yes on filter, i have one of those funnels with the filter in it. just used that for the first time. trying to get my beer more clear and not so much **** in it

Thanks guys...

 

[Homercidal]

is there reasons why one beer would do it and not another. i am worried lately becuse i have had 3 bad batches in the last 2 months.

I'd be interested in knowing your brewing method. Honestly, there are ways to keep that stuff out of the fermenter (to a certain point). And really, a lot of people don't bother keeping it out, they just work around it. Generally, it should not end up in your bottle.

And having bad batches is something that we can also help keep from happening if we know your methods. Almost every problem has a simple solution for it.

 

[Homercidal]

i stopped doing primary and secondary. i found out i was just increasing my contamination. i do 3 gallon boils , still extract, chill it with immersion chiller which is about 15 -20 mins, add 2.5 gallons of sterile filtered water ...

yes on filter, i have one of those funnels with the filter in it. just used that for the first time. trying to get my beer more clear and not so much **** in it

Thanks guys...

It's been a while since I brewed extract, but do you really need to chill before adding top-off water? I think you could refrigerate it before hand and just pour it in to drop the wort temp.

That might eliminate the chiller as a suspect.

I always siphon from the top and slowly lower the siphon down the side of the boil kettle. Give the wort a good gentle stir to get it swirling and let it settle a bit before siphoning. This will help get the stuff to drop down.

The mesh filter is what I use to finish off the filtering as well. Works pretty good.

Let it ferment for like 3 weeks (minimum) before bottling and try not to stir up the trub when you transfer into a bottling bucket with the priming sugar.

What do you use for a sanitizer?

 

[COLObrewer]

. . . . . Generally, it should not end up in your bottle.

And having bad batches is something that we can also help keep from happening if we know your methods. Almost every problem has a simple solution for it.

+1, what was the source(s) of the problem(s) on your bad batches?

 

[jsweet]

Can't speak to the bad batches, but yeah, I've got something that looks just like that on a batch that I am doing, and I can tell you exactly what happened:

I ended up having a bit of a cold break in the carboy (I'm lucky the thing didn't shatter with how hot the wort was when I poured it in, d'oh... I was pouring on top of cold water, but the amount of hot water compared to the small amount of cold water, it was dicey) and then it also took forever to cool, so by the time I was ready to pitch THREE HOURS LATER, a huge amount of trub had already settled... but I felt I ought to aerate it one more time right before I pitched, so I did, and got trub splattered all over the sides.

Over the next 24 hours, as the yeasties went to work, most of the trub on the sides got scrubbed off. I would literally see a piece get ripped off, float up for a couple of inches, then settle to the bottom. It was pretty cool actually. However, even after the yeasties had scrubbed the sides, there were a few patches remaining...

...And about 5-6 days in, as some of the yeast began to precipitate just a bit, it got "slowed down" I think by catching on the trub stuck to the sides, and beneath all of those clumps I've got something that looks exactly like your picture.

So it occurs to me... how confident are you that your carboy is clean? Not sanitized, clean? I'm thinking, in my case I got those striations of settling trub up and down the sides because I had something stuck to the side. I know what that thing is and am not worried, but maybe you have some sticky lump of dried gunk around the sides that you can't see, and that is causing both your infection problem and the weird trub up and down the sides? Just a thought...

 

[chezzesteak]

I'd be interested in knowing your brewing method. Honestly, there are ways to keep that stuff out of the fermenter (to a certain point). And really, a lot of people don't bother keeping it out, they just work around it. Generally, it should not end up in your bottle.

And having bad batches is something that we can also help keep from happening if we know your methods. Almost every problem has a simple solution for it.

here it goes dude..i will try and keep short

1. steep grains for min of 30 mins. usually around 45 or so
2. while this is going i usually mix my star san in a clean bucket.
3. clean all utensils and put in star san
4. sanitize my carboy by siphoning into carboy.
5. sit for a bit, dump back in bucket. cover carboy top with foil
6. grains are done, pull out and bring to a boil
7. add DME
8. bring back to boil and start with hop additions
9. last 10 mins i throw in cleaned chiller
10. cover pot with foil after boil and start the chiller.
11. after its chilled siphon into carboy, alternating 1 gallon wort 1 gallon top off water
12. put airlock on
13. transfer to cooler with water in - i live in AZ so trying to keep air temp around 70 degrees with A/C could be expenisve.
14. remove airlock, pitch yeast

takes me two mins to type but 3 hours to complete...

i did a double batch with some buddies one day and both those batches where bad, and i think i just got a little lazy with the sanitizer, but have had one good batch and one bad batch since then.

i stopped using plastic buckets as i think the lids had something to do with it.

also i have thrown out all tubing and siphone and started new.

any suggestions is very welcome. Thanks

 

[Dome555]

The picture looks like standard fermentation junk to me. You might be keeping in some stuff you'd rather get rid of by covering the pot before it's chilled. I know junk and stuff are very technical terms but I'm betting someone much smarter than me can answer what exactly is boiling off. How long are you leaving it in the primary? The longer you give it, the longer it has to settle out, the longer it has to settle out, the easier it is to rack without stirring it up, the easier it is to rack without stirring it up, the less hops you chew on.

 

[Homercidal]

Not seeing anything unusual or concerning about your methods. I would probably skip the foil on the BK during the chill, but it won't hurt anything, probably just not necessary.

I've used lids for years with never a bad batch. As long as they are cleaned with a sponge of soft cloth and sanitized, they should be fine. I have not tried it yet, but one of the more local brewers has given me plastic liners to go into buckets to help with cleaning. After siphoning the beer out, just toss the liner.

Good call on replacing all plastic tubing and everything.

I think at this point you'll have to see what happens with the bad batches.

 

[jsweet]

Yeah the only thing I noticed that I haven't heard a thousand other places was the foil over the brewpot, but it's not like nasties can really live on aluminum foil.. unless you're like pulling used aluminum foil out of your recycle bin or something

I still think it's worth double-checking the carboy after this batch. It was buried in my previous rambly post, but the cause of the trub speckles on the side of my carboy is that there is some gunk stuck to the side (in my case, disturbed trub) that the precipitating trub is catching on any slowing down. If you had, say, sticky dried up beer gunk stuck to the side of your carboy, that could potentially cause both the speckles on the side and the infections. It's a long shot, but worth checking I think.

 

[Bithead]

Also please tell us how you determined the previous batches were bad.

 

[chezzesteak]

Also please tell us how you determined the previous batches were bad.

funny taste. i am a chef by trade so when i started drinking it out of the keg it just seemed like something was off. thought it might be the yeast strain i had or something. took to the LHBS and all the guys said it was bad from a bacteria. they said most normal new brewers wouldnt pick it up and then i told them that my tastebuds have 15 years of cooking on them and they said thats why you can pick up things..

i still dont know where it came from. carboys where cleaned with PBW then rinsed then sanitiezed.

the aluminum foil was brand new out of the box and i am just trying to be overly careful when i am doing this as i have wasted about 15 gallons of beer

thanks guys

 

[jsweet]

Geez, next time you have a beer with a "funny taste" that can only be detected by a professional chef, send it to me for proper disposal...

 

[chezzesteak]

i was more pissed than anything.....

 

[jsweet]

I'm sorry, I can't let this go. So you had two batches in bottles already (Edit: I see now the OP said it was kegged, not bottled -- this does not change the gist of my comment), and they tasted a little funny, but it was so subtle that "most normal new brewers wouldnt [sic] pick it up" -- and you dumped it? How long had it been in the bottles? Did you at least save a 6-pack to see if the off-flavors mellowed/disappeared with age?

The thing with beer is, nothing that can kill you can live in it. So unless a beer is totally undrinkable, I wouldn't ever think of dumping it. At the very worst, if it's drinkable but you don't enjoy it, throw a party and serve it to some sloshed friends. And in any case, there is no way in hell I would trust the word of a couple of guys at the LHBS that my drinkable-but-slightly-off beer was irrevocably ruined and should just be dumped.

 

[COLObrewer]

I'm sorry, I can't let this go. So you had two batches in bottles already, and they tasted a little funny, but it was so subtle that "most normal new brewers wouldnt [sic] pick it up" -- and you dumped it? How long had it been in the bottles? Did you at least save a 6-pack to see if the off-flavors mellowed/disappeared with age?

The thing with beer is, nothing that can kill you can live in it. So unless a beer is totally undrinkable, I wouldn't ever think of dumping it. At the very worst, if it's drinkable but you don't enjoy it, throw a party and serve it to some sloshed friends. And in any case, there is no way in hell I would trust the word of a couple of guys at the LHBS that my drinkable-but-slightly-off beer was irrevocably ruined and should just be dumped.

THIS!!!^^^^

Plus, I would not necessarily trust my LHBS guy, he wants to sell you new equipment and anything else.

What were the bad flavors? What did it taste like? How long after it was bottled/kegged?

 

[jsweet]

I've rapidly come to the conclusion that the guys (and gals) at my closest LHBS are idiots.

 

[mightynintendo]

Those are coagulating proteins. Did you use irish moss or some other clarifier? Something carrying a negative charge is coagulating those proteins and causing them to precipitate. They will settle to the bottom of your carboy along with everything else. This is perfectly normal.

 

[Homercidal]

Your beer most likely was NOT infected. Your sanitation techniques seem pretty decent and usually, even if you are a little lax, your beer will be fine anyway.

I think your brewing just needs to get a little better. If the LHBS says that most new brewers can't taste it, they are NOT talking about an infection. It may be young, green beer, or water chemicals, or something small like that.

I'd try brewing with some spring water or even distilled if you are an extract brewer, and see what happens.

Or, better yet, submit some beer to a local contest and see what the judges say. They will give an honest, unbiased review of your beer and if they are experienced, and have a decent set of taste buds, can give you a better explanation of what went wrong, if anything.

 

[jsweet]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

I'm seriously really disturbed that two whole kegs of beer went down the drain because of a barely detectable off flavor. That makes me a sad panda... If I were you, I'd have trouble restraining myself from going back to the LHBS and kicking those guys in the nuts.

 

[chezzesteak]

beer was barely drinkable and if i cant drink why should i keep it around. i only have a few kegs so out with the bad stuff and in with the good stuff. i did have some buddies come over and try.

i am alos on the water kick thing. in the last batches i used filtered drinking water instead of hose or tap water.

and yes i did use irish moss.

fermentation is going strong as of tuesday morning, had to leave for a couple of days for business trip, but i am expecting good things when i return.

The LHBS guy is a trusted friend so i doubt he had bad intentions on my beer and selling me equipment.

 

[chezzesteak]

fermenation was going strong still looks funny like the picture though.