Yeast Ring above beer in bottle - krausen?

[Norselord]

Its been a long time since i last bottled, having switched to kegging.

I did a 1 gallon batch of hefeweizen and decided to bottle it. When the beer went into the bottles with the carb drops, it had some bubbly foam on top.
Per the instructions on the bag of carb drops i used 5 for "well carbonated" beer.

Now the bottles look like they have a ring of yeast 1/8" to 1/4" above the beer level. I popped one open to check for carbonation and to make sure everything was OK. It tasted fine; a slightly tart wheat beer. But the aroma was a pretty funky yeast-like smell.

I dont recall this ever happening before when i used to bottle - but i used to do APAs and IPAs back then, and cold crashed prior to bottling.

What should i do? Flip the bottles upside down for a few days to try to solubilize the yeast? Or would that just put a yeast cake in the cap?

 

[porterpounder]

Usually a ring on the neck of the bottle is a sign of infection.

 

[Norselord]

Usually a ring on the neck of the bottle is a sign of infection.

Damn -- it didnt taste infected...

 

[porterpounder]

Damn -- it didnt taste infected...

And that's the most important thing. Just pour, close your eyes and enjoy!

 

[Revvy]

Usually a ring on the neck of the bottle is a sign of infection.

RARELY is a ring on the neck of a bottle a sign of infections, because infections are RARE.

Bottle krausens form more often than folks realize. More than likely in the case of the last bottle you picked up a lot of sediment, enough that you're actually seeing krausening.

People seem to forget that carbonation is just another fermentation, except in a mini fermenter that we've clamped the lid on extra tightly.

If you're brewing with ale yeast, which forms a krausens during fermentation, why would you think it would suddenly change genetically at bottling time, and NOT do the same thing? Most of the time we don't notice them, because many of us just shove the bottles in the closet for 3 weeks, and also they more than likely form really quickly and then fall (forming the sediment layer in the bottom of the bottle, just like a layer of trub in a bucket or carboy) probably within the first few hours of carbonation.

More than likely all bottles form them, maybe for an hour or a day and fall down and we never see it happen.

And usually only newer brewers who watch their bottles carb with more "dilligence" and who tend to be hyper paranoid then those who just shove them in the closet for a month tend to notice them. But they're around.

People who prime with DME usually get them a lot....

Somewhere I have a pic of one I finally managed to catch in a clear bottle.

Relax.