Strange Fermentation....

[MVZOOM]

Hi All,

I am fermenting a Golden Ale with US05 @ 18deg. When I pitched the sachet, the wort temp was about 22deg and I dropped it from there. I poured into the fermenter ex cube, so it got a good dose of O2 prior to pitching (I didn't re-hydrate though).

That was on Sunday - I have been away and have just checked the ferment. Got a weird, 1/2 krausen going on, with strange formations that I havn't seen before. Looks like mould - not like a normal ferment. Also seems a little 'slick' on top, like an oily sort of buildup.

I took a sample, it tastes fine and smells great. It's dropped by 20 points over the last 5 days - which is slow, but the yeast may have just lagged.

Anyone had anything similar? It was a new sachet of yeast bought from Daves in Nth Syd and stored properly. Any ideas?

Cheers - Mike

PS - will try and get photo.....

 

[Double Hopper]

Hey Mike,
I am writing this post about the mould and oily slick on top
I myself brewed a stout and pitched wyeast and the same result happened to me
I later spoke to a mate and told him about my symptoms and he put it down to a bacteria i picked up in the beer while it was in the primary and i transferred the ugly stuff in the secondary as well, i was using plastic 3/4'' plastic ball valves in my fermenters which you cant take apart and there the problem lies "cleanliness"
no mater how hard or what stuff i used to clean the problem still lies, so i went back to the original taps and had no problem, i did try the beer it tasted mouldy and horrible so my suggestion make sure you clean and sanitize every thing
by for now
rodney

 

[peas_and_corn]

A photo always makes diagnosing these things easier

 

[Goofinder]

Does the "half krausen" cover the whole of the wort? Have you fermented with US-05 at 18deg before? Could be possible that it's just a less vigorous ferment than you're used to? Where's the photo?

 

[MVZOOM]

I used my standard sanitisation (ie.. cleaned everything with sod.percarbonate / rinsed, then used iodopher as the sanitiser), I take apart my taps and stuff too.

I have fermented aty 18deg with that yeast before too - bloody hell, I'll get a photo, that'll help!

Cheers - Mike

 

[MVZOOM]

And some photos:

 

[reviled]

:unsure: Looks tasty...

Dare I say the gladwrap may be the culprit? h34r:

 

[MVZOOM]

:unsure: Looks tasty...

Dare I say the gladwrap may be the culprit? h34r:

Wouldn't think so, my last 40 or so brews have used gladwrap. It's a fairly common practice.

 

[reviled]

Wouldn't think so, my last 40 or so brews have used gladwrap. It's a fairly common practice.

Ive seen a bloke in christchurch had something similair on top of his fermenting wort, but it turned out sweet as and he even won a Uni comp for it...

linky

 

[MVZOOM]

OK, update for Saturday. Wort now has a 1"+ krausen over the whole surface. I took a sample, it tastes and smells fantastic. Still can see a weird sort of krauseny type growth on some part of the surface, through the normal type of krausen.

It's all very strange. The only thing I can think of is that my temp controller isn't 100% and that it sat at too low temp for a few days - thereby stopping the yeast kicking off quickly and causing a weird start to fermentation.

It's now sitting at 21.7DegC and has hit 1039, after 6 days in the fermenter. Will not chuck it, it may be that it survives, albeit with a bit of a 'yeast struggled' kind of flavour.

Cheers - Mike