Yeast growth in carboy neck

N4teTheGreat · Oct 16, 2015

I'm pretty sure this is a case of RDWHAHB, but I have to ask. I took a OG reading from my carboy which resulted in the neck being sticky with wort. When I pitched my dry yeast (I know, second brew, not quite at the point to make a starter yet) stuck to the neck. Brew has been going nicely and was very active from Monday - Friday but I've noticed the yeast stuck in the neck has also done well.

I was good with sanitation, I had some Io Star in the carboy and swirled it around to cover all surfaces numerous times while the boil was going so I certainly got enough contact time. That said, the amount of yeast growth concerns this noob brewer. Should I worry? My goal is to let this sit in primary for at least 4 weeks to get decent clarity and I'm hopeful that not disturbance short of replacing the blowoff tube with an airlock will mean no infection.

It looks like it is just yeast, but what do you all think?

-- Nathan

jekeane · Oct 16, 2015

Unless you were making sweet love to your carboy I'm saying yeast.

snow16 · Oct 16, 2015

Sure looks like yeast to me.

At the end of the summer I brewed up a saison and pitched with a bunch of slurry from an earlier batch. I made a mess as I pitched and it was all over the inside neck of the carboy. That beer sat in primary for over a month at 80F. The yeast sure looked funky by the time I bottled it, but no problems whatsoever. As long as your sanitation is up to par, I doubt you have anything to worry about.

Have a beer.

Calder · Oct 16, 2015

Looks fine to me. Looks like yeast. I would not be concerned if I saw that in mine. I probably have had it and thought nothing of it.

N4teTheGreat · Oct 17, 2015

Awesome, thanks for the reassurance all!

-- Nathan

kombat · Oct 18, 2015

It's fine. And for reference, don't make starters with dry yeast. Starters are for liquid yeast only. For dry yeast, rehydrate them according to the manufacturer's recommendations (on their websites). For example, for US-05, I rehydrate it in 85° F tap water for 30 minutes, then drop in a stir bar and let it ride the stir plate for another 30 minutes. I then pitch the nice, creamy yeast, and fermentation rockets off within 12 hours. Stop pitching dry, you're killing half your yeast. Rehydrate.