Muntons Yorkshire Bitter

[tumi2]

Im a little concerned.

My Yorkshire bitter is still in the fermenter and it is now day 7.

On Sunday (day 5) i opened the lid and added some finings and a dry hops bag. I am only new to brewing and each time i am trying to do a new process with the intention of one day being able to do an AG beer in a bag. So i am always trying new things which is why i dry hopped.

Anyway i looked through the clear panel on the fermenter last night and noticed that some small scattered patches of froth had developed on the surface of the wort. When i added the Hops and fining the wort was pretty much flat with no surface froth. i checked again this morning and the scattered froth is still present. It looks like very early stages of fermentation after pitching yeast.

The gravity at the time i added it was 1022 down from an OG of 1055. I thought that day five would be a good time to do it as it would still have some minor condition fermenting to go so the chance of infection would be minimal.

My process was as follows:

- boiled a cup of water and sanitized a cup. Added water and finings to cup and dissolved. then added to fermenter with a very gentle stir.
- Boiled some water and added some muslin cloth and string to the water for about 10 minutes after boil. Put 15 gr of Goldings hops pallets into the cloth that i had removed from the boiling water and tied it in a sack with the string. Dropped the sack of hops into the fermenter.

Overall the lid was open for about 20 seconds.

Do you think that the froth that has now developed mean i have an infection in the wort?. I cant smell anything but i cant smell anything normally anyway.

Why would froth develop after it had already subsided?

 

[cozmocracker]

tumi,

at this stage i woundnt be to concerned with infection, im not experienced enough to say what it is, maybe the yeast is reacting with the hops or maybe some co2 that is being released is gathering on the bag? as i said i dont know, what i do know is no point worrying about it now, let the beer finish, bottle or keg and see how it goes. something i would recommend is adding the finnings after you have dropped the temp down as low as you can get it to drop out anything that is in suspension, say a few days prior to bottling. also if your worried about infections just put the hops straight in dont worry about a bag, the few kits and bits i did i just chucked everything straight into the fermemter, it all settles out especially if you cold chill before you bottle, all my beers have been clear.

im sure if i have given you a bum steer someone will sort me out and set you straight.

cheers cozmo

 

[tumi2]

tumi,

at this stage i woundnt be to concerned with infection, im not experienced enough to say what it is, maybe the yeast is reacting with the hops or maybe some co2 that is being released is gathering on the bag? as i said i dont know, what i do know is no point worrying about it now, let the beer finish, bottle or keg and see how it goes. something i would recommend is adding the finnings after you have dropped the temp down as low as you can get it to drop out anything that is in suspension, say a few days prior to bottling. also if your worried about infections just put the hops straight in dont worry about a bag, the few kits and bits i did i just chucked everything straight into the fermemter, it all settles out especially if you cold chill before you bottle, all my beers have been clear.

im sure if i have given you a bum steer someone will sort me out and set you straight.

cheers cozmo

Thanks for that info

So as it turns out i took another reading last night and it had reduced from 1022 to 1018, the scattered bubbles are still present.
So it is still fermenting which i think means i dont have an infection and the bubbles are just fermntation that has started after a brief stall. Also i tasted it and despite being a bit bitter from the extra hopps i added the taste was nice and definitely no taste of infection that i could notice. it had cleared out alot also i guess due to the finings.

 

[c0z]

I get little islands of bubbles a day after i add finnings, they look bad but they go away.

 

[RobboMC]

Remember that during fermentation the brew is holding as much dissolved CO2 as it can handle. That's called a saturated solution.
A solution that is sitting very still can become over-saturated and the CO2 won't bubble out because there's no physical way to start the bubble. Then particles that are added like finings become places where bubbles can form. It's called nucleation.
This could be the cause of your slight frothing.

So adding the finings and hops allows the over-full solution to release it's gas. No harm done as you're going to put plenty of gas back when you do the priming.

It's the same as when adding hops to very hot water, it boils over instantly.

Instead of taking the lid off, consider just removing the airlock and trickling your additions thru the hole with a funnel.

 

[tumi2]

Thanks for the info.

I will keep this on the yeast for another few days and then bulk prime for the first time.

I will calculate my sugar amount to get normal carbonation. I know it is usually less on an English Bitter but i prefer a bit more carbonation than the English Bitters i tried in England.

Will update this once i have tasted one.