Furry clumps on fermenter

[Tim62]

Hi there very new to this. Did a couple of Coopers kits and all good. Just did a wetpack Southern lager with Saflager S23 yeast. After seven days at 13C to 14C in the fermenter seemed to be no fermentation. Raised temp to 14C to 15C and after 24 hours furry clumps (fungus?). See photos. My first thought is to dump, sterilize and go again. Any thoughts?
Many thanks
Tim

 

[Tim62]

here are the photos

 

[Tim62]

still trying to upload photos - help please.

 

[Dan Pratt]

yep she bad. drain and nuke that thing.

When making lagers its pretty much 3x harder than making ales, fact.

If you want to make lagers, you will need to get your yeast cell count and viability very very high. Id suggest at least 2 packets next time, even 3 which is expensive but its a lager.

From the above photos, the yeast was not able to compete with the bacteria hence the formation of such furry clumps.

 

[Tim62]

Thanks for the advice. It makes sense with what I observed of almost no fermentation happening. I have dumped and 'napisaned' everything and going back to an ale. Might try a lager again later.

 

[Tim62]

yep she bad. drain and nuke that thing.

When making lagers its pretty much 3x harder than making ales, fact.

If you want to make lagers, you will need to get your yeast cell count and viability very very high. Id suggest at least 2 packets next time, even 3 which is expensive but its a lager.

From the above photos, the yeast was not able to compete with the bacteria hence the formation of such furry clumps.

Thanks for the advice. It makes sense with what I observed of almost no fermentation happening. I have dumped and 'napisaned' everything and going back to an ale. Might try a lager again later.

 

[Tony M]

Don't be frightened of lagers; I've been making them for 15 years. As Dan says, a generous amount of yeast is imperative. Make a simple starter by boiling up 100gm light dry malt in a litre of water then adding your one packet of yeast when cool. That should ferment out after three days and give you plenty of yeast to brew with. Start your ferment at 18C or so and then drop down to 13C when your brew gets cracking. I harvest 50ml slurry for the next starter so may buy a packet of yeast about evert two years: but if you are going to do that, everything that comes near the slurry has to be STERILE, STERILE, STERILE. I had problems early when trying to harvest, but now i put my storage jar and collecting ladle in a pressure cooker and have not had a problem since.

 

[Tim62]

Don't be frightened of lagers; I've been making them for 15 years. As Dan says, a generous amount of yeast is imperative. Make a simple starter by boiling up 100gm light dry malt in a litre of water then adding your one packet of yeast when cool. That should ferment out after three days and give you plenty of yeast to brew with. Start your ferment at 18C or so and then drop down to 13C when your brew gets cracking. I harvest 50ml slurry for the next starter so may buy a packet of yeast about evert two years: but if you are going to do that, everything that comes near the slurry has to be STERILE, STERILE, STERILE. I had problems early when trying to harvest, but now i put my storage jar and collecting ladle in a pressure cooker and have not had a problem since.

Sounds good. Thanks so much for the detailed advice. I will have a crack after this ale.

 

[philrob]

The key to lager brewing is to use PLENTY of yeast.
I use Wyeasts, and grow up a fresh smakpak in a 2½ litre starter on a stirplate. After that's fermented I decant the starter beer, pour about 80% of my cultured yeast into a jar for storage, and use the remaining 20% into another 2½ litres of starter wort onto the stirplate. Once that's fermented out, I decant the starter wort and combine the yeast with the previously stored yeast. That gives me about a half a passata jar of clean yeast. That's what I use for a single 25 litre batch of lager. I ferment at 9 or 10ºC, and it turns out oh so clean and delectable.
That's not underpitching by any means, so the advice of using 3 packs of dry yeast is sound.
Looking at your photos, that's definitely an infection.

 

[Brew Bama]

If fermenter temp control is out of reach, several Lager yeast do very well at Ale fermentation temps. The Frohberg strains (W34/70 and S-189) are notable examples. Saazer strains do like it cooler though. In fact, I have a 1.052 Czech lager I am finishing up now that was fermented with one pack of W34/70 at 18*C. It showed airlock activity at ~18 hrs and finished fermenting at 1.012 in 9 days.

If you’re not sensitive to iodine, I recommend Iodophor to clean that fermenter along with everything else in your brewery. Iodophor is a stone cold killer. Nothing gets by it.

 

[Tim62]

If fermenter temp control is out of reach, several Lager yeast do very well at Ale fermentation temps. The Frohberg strains (W34/70 and S-189) are notable examples. Saazer strains do like it cooler though. In fact, I have a 1.052 Czech lager I am finishing up now that was fermented with one pack of W34/70 at 18*C. It showed airlock activity at ~18 hrs and finished fermenting at 1.012 in 9 days.

If you’re not sensitive to iodine, I recommend Iodophor to clean that fermenter along with everything else in your brewery. Iodophor is a stone cold killer. Nothing gets by it.

Thanks for the support. I have a $50 fridge and a temp controller that seems to be going well. I am pretty sure from previous answers that it was a yeast problem (Not enough). I'll check out iodophor.

 

[Busboy]

I must have been lucky. A few weeks ago I just tipped a packet of S-23 into a slightly diluted fresh wort kit at 22C. The next day I moved fermenter into my wine fridge and set it to 12C .I just left it undisturbed for couple of weeks and it was done. Perfect.
I wonder: Tim62, did you open it a couple of times early on, to see if anything was happening. If so, that might explain the infection.
Good luck next time.

 

[peterlonz]

I note the recommendation for high yeast volumes with lagers. I did not know this, but then I have never attempted a genuine lager.
However is that recommendation not appropriate for all beer brewing.
I realise that if each brew is started with either US-05 or a Coopers sachet that may be minimalistic.
Wherever possible I try to salvage a about 0.5 litres of the yeast & beer mixture which settles out as fermentation completes.
Comments ??

 

[Snake Eyed]

Did you put the yeast in at 13⁰

 

[Tim62]

I must have been lucky. A few weeks ago I just tipped a packet of S-23 into a slightly diluted fresh wort kit at 22C. The next day I moved fermenter into my wine fridge and set it to 12C .I just left it undisturbed for couple of weeks and it was done. Perfect.
I wonder: Tim62, did you open it a couple of times early on, to see if anything was happening. If so, that might explain the infection.
Good luck next time.

No checking until it was obvious no fermentation was happening

 

[Tim62]

Did you put the yeast in at 13⁰

I put the yeast in at 19C and then into the fridge, about an hour later it was at 13C