White spots on top of beer in secondary?

[StittsvilleJames]

What makes me nervous is that this is the secondary and there is more and more of it as time goes by. It has been in there about 5 weeks.

Taste will tell you if it's bad. If you puke or die, it's probably infected. If not, bottoms up!

 

[gary23]

Another vote for it just being yeast had the same thing happen to me thats a good thing

 

[colby36]

Secondary fermenter after 2 weeks primary, 10 days secondary with dry hopping. Any ideas?

 

[Gingie]

Hey fellas, first post here. Google search on "white mould on my wort" took me here.

Seems like I have the same question. At this point, I think I just want some extra reassurance that this is yeast & OK.

It's an Irish Red from OBK. OG 1.050. Moved it after 7 days in primary at 1.016. It's been in there for just over a day when I took this photo. This is only my 4 th batch, and I've never seen this white stuff before.

Oh yeah, its a 3 gal kit in case you were wondering where the rest of it was.

 

[unionrdr]

I think both these last two are yeast floaters with krausen left overs.

 

[KepowOb]

Generally when you use a secondary, you want as little head space as possible, so 3-gallons in a 5-gallon carboy might not be the best idea...

When your beer it's in the primary and fermenting away, it's putting off a lot of C02, which stops any air from getting to it, so a lot of head space is fine, plus you'll have a big kraussen, so you need room for that.

Once fermentation is done and you move it into your secondary, you want little to no head space, since the beer isn't putting off very much C02 anymore, and more contract with air raises the chances of infection.

A lot of people here (myself included) don't bother with a secondary unless they have a specific reason for it like adding fruit.

 

[IslandLizard]

^ +1

Racking to secondary is handling beer where you don't have/need/want to unless you do have a really good reason. Each time you handle beer infections can creep in.

Next time let it be for 2 or better yet, 3 weeks in the primary before even taking a gravity sample. When it's done, cold crash for a couple days to clear it and rack to your bottling bucket, prime, and bottle. 1.016 is still pretty high for this beer anyway. Chances are that beer wasn't quite done yet, although it looks really clear.

Read the stickies on the forums to learn about brewing. They're there for a reason.

If those white speck are fuzzy it can be mold. If they grow it points to an infection. They're probably just yeast floaters/rafts as unionrdr said.

 

[Gingie]

Thanks guys. Keeping it the primary makes sense. Less work, less risk of contamination, I get that.

I was moving it to the secondary because it was mentioned in the instructions - I'm not adding anything to it. Thought i had read something about not leaving wort in plastic > 7 days, or not allowing wort to be in contact with yeast for too long, but I'm a neophyte and probably only got half the story.

The white floaties really do look like a mould though. A bit fuzzy, but I can;t get a great look at them. Could mould have formed so quickly (28 hrs) at 66F?

I'll go check out the stickies now.

 

[unionrdr]

Plastic fermenters don't leach o2 into the wort that fast at all. & the yeast autolysis is an old boogie man. Commercial brewers are concerned with it by the sheer volume of beer in the fermenters vs the yeast on the bottom of the huge conicals. It was hard to tell in the pic,but if they're getting fuzzy,an infection could be developing.

 

[Gingie]

Bottled it this weekend, super clear. Gravity went down to 1.014, so a little extra fermenting was indeed going on. Had a taste and nothing funky. A little hoppier than I was expecting for a red, but that may change after a few weeks in the bottle.

Already ordered my next two kits

 

[zonzon]

Hi everyone!

I recently brewed my fifth batch of beer. I bottled it, then 14 days later I refrigerated it, and tasted it, and it was very good. But then, a month later, I opened one bottle that was still in my closet (not in the fridge) and I saw white dots floating on top of the beer. I could see white dots like that in every bottle (through the glass). There are small (smaller than a needle head), and there are 3 to 5 per bottle.

I didn't smell bad, nor taste bad, but I wonder if it could have turned bad even after it was okay a month earlier.

So... is my batch still good or not?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[unionrdr]

Maybe just yeast colonies floating around?

 

[Pkrd]

I didn't smell bad, nor taste bad,

Drink it all immediately then.

RDWHAHB

 

[Clonefan94]

Hi everyone!

I recently brewed my fifth batch of beer. I bottled it, then 14 days later I refrigerated it, and tasted it, and it was very good. But then, a month later, I opened one bottle that was still in my closet (not in the fridge) and I saw white dots floating on top of the beer. I could see white dots like that in every bottle (through the glass). There are small (smaller than a needle head), and there are 3 to 5 per bottle.

I didn't smell bad, nor taste bad, but I wonder if it could have turned bad even after it was okay a month earlier.

So... is my batch still good or not?

Thanks in advance for your help!

From what I have seen on this board, bad infections don't present themselves as tiny little, "What are those things in my beer" At room temp, most infections are going to take over the top of the beer.

More than likely, what you are seeing is yeast that has been stirred up when you picked up the bottle to inspect it.