CDGoin
Well-Known Member
They look good to me.. looks like the beginning of fermentation.. CO2 bubbles from the yeast and some yeast..
So far I havent had a infection, but from what I am seeing of the pictures and talking to friends..
If you have an infection it will look more like a thin white film with spider web like threads running across the top with possibly LARGE (3/4" or larger) bubbles growing from the film. Like someone is blowing bubbles with your beer and no the kind in the picture above, or the kind you expect to see in a beer with a nice head. It also looks like it would have very little or no head.
So far my limited experience has been it goes from the bubbling you see in your pictures, to a nice white and foamy head (The Krausen if you will - which is just a nice head of CO2 bubbles from the yeast), then as it gets older and the yeast get more active they will get ejected from the beer and get thrown on top of the Krausen causing it to develop black spots on top, and then slowly build up yeast colonys on top of the Krausen, which can start making it look ugly. Then from there is can waver from a clean Krausen to an ugly one depending on how busy the yeast are, what gets to heavy on top and falls through.
I'm a newbie myself, but deliberately did 2 styles (Lager and Stout) to see the differences and my experiences with both have been fairly consistent (and both were infection free as far as I could tell) . Starts with some small surface bubbling, bubbling gets more active and tightens up to give you a nice head (Krausen), then the head gets brown/black spots, then small yeast rafts develop on top, and these rafts can get quiet gooey and gross looking. Then towards the end it all falls through the beer to the bottom leaving some floaters and a ring on the top. Does taht sound about right to the long time brewers here ?
Anyway, the Oktoberfest I am doing is using a lager yeast and is fermenting at fairly low tempuratures (50s-60). It took 2 days to just get fermentation to start and is now on day 9 and still fermenting very well.
By day 6 it had the pretty white Krausen. Then I had the room where it was sitting get a little warm (up to 64) and the yeast got all sorts of busy and made a huge mess of my pretty Krausen. It freaked me out a little as it was ejecting yeast at a monumental rate. Then as I mentioned above the temps dropped back, the yeast chilled out a bit and the Krausen got back its nice white cap. Took a sample last night and it was fantastic.. and it's still going.
The stout had a warmer fermentation and used an Ale yeast. It finished a LOT faster - 6 days start to finish. Fermentation started within 8 hours, and the Krausen was pretty on day 2, by day 3 it got ugly.. and stayed that way. It was finished day 5 and fermentation was virtually over, On day 6 the Krausen dropped through down to the yeast cake, leaving the top clean with some yeast rafts floating around.
Hope that helps some noobs like myself in visualizing what you can expect to see. Different styles at different temps I am sure will cause different fermentation rates, and different yeast ejaculate.
My next batch I will try to take pictures of the stages as I seem to be having fairly good luck with sanitation and have a nice clear fermenter to see whats going on.
So far I havent had a infection, but from what I am seeing of the pictures and talking to friends..
If you have an infection it will look more like a thin white film with spider web like threads running across the top with possibly LARGE (3/4" or larger) bubbles growing from the film. Like someone is blowing bubbles with your beer and no the kind in the picture above, or the kind you expect to see in a beer with a nice head. It also looks like it would have very little or no head.
So far my limited experience has been it goes from the bubbling you see in your pictures, to a nice white and foamy head (The Krausen if you will - which is just a nice head of CO2 bubbles from the yeast), then as it gets older and the yeast get more active they will get ejected from the beer and get thrown on top of the Krausen causing it to develop black spots on top, and then slowly build up yeast colonys on top of the Krausen, which can start making it look ugly. Then from there is can waver from a clean Krausen to an ugly one depending on how busy the yeast are, what gets to heavy on top and falls through.
I'm a newbie myself, but deliberately did 2 styles (Lager and Stout) to see the differences and my experiences with both have been fairly consistent (and both were infection free as far as I could tell) . Starts with some small surface bubbling, bubbling gets more active and tightens up to give you a nice head (Krausen), then the head gets brown/black spots, then small yeast rafts develop on top, and these rafts can get quiet gooey and gross looking. Then towards the end it all falls through the beer to the bottom leaving some floaters and a ring on the top. Does taht sound about right to the long time brewers here ?
Anyway, the Oktoberfest I am doing is using a lager yeast and is fermenting at fairly low tempuratures (50s-60). It took 2 days to just get fermentation to start and is now on day 9 and still fermenting very well.
By day 6 it had the pretty white Krausen. Then I had the room where it was sitting get a little warm (up to 64) and the yeast got all sorts of busy and made a huge mess of my pretty Krausen. It freaked me out a little as it was ejecting yeast at a monumental rate. Then as I mentioned above the temps dropped back, the yeast chilled out a bit and the Krausen got back its nice white cap. Took a sample last night and it was fantastic.. and it's still going.
The stout had a warmer fermentation and used an Ale yeast. It finished a LOT faster - 6 days start to finish. Fermentation started within 8 hours, and the Krausen was pretty on day 2, by day 3 it got ugly.. and stayed that way. It was finished day 5 and fermentation was virtually over, On day 6 the Krausen dropped through down to the yeast cake, leaving the top clean with some yeast rafts floating around.
Hope that helps some noobs like myself in visualizing what you can expect to see. Different styles at different temps I am sure will cause different fermentation rates, and different yeast ejaculate.
My next batch I will try to take pictures of the stages as I seem to be having fairly good luck with sanitation and have a nice clear fermenter to see whats going on.