Sexy white rafts - Houston, do we have a problem?

[huskeypm]

Dear all,
I brewed a partial mash patersbier (2 row + a light LME of some sort). I used harvested yeast from a marvelous, dry-hopped IPA. The yeast smelled bready, looked normal, thus no cause for alarm. Early the fermentation, the airlock smelled sulfury, but I let it go for another few weeks (the recipe called for a 4 wk primary + 2 wk secondary). I cracked the lid and found these chunks. (see picture). The beer (hopefully ☺ ) smells like beer. What is this? Can I rack from underneath and salvage this?

Thanks as always for your invaluable help!

 

[BigB]

Nope.... just left over krausen... You are fine, but those buggers are a pain in the azz for racking as they like to join the party in the next vessel.

 

[huskeypm]

That's great news! I've never seen this happen before - any speculation on the types of conditions that would lead to this? Usually I just have the foamy crud around the rim of the bucket.

As a follow up question, I was planning to ferment a high-gravity belgian on top of this guy's trub (once its racked) - are these chunks just going to be an unsightly nuisance?

Thanks!
pete

 

[ahaley]

My brother added orange peels to his mr beer kit, forgot about it went to Afghanistan for deployment came back 6 or so mo later, I asked him about it and he said its in the closet I grabbed it and instead of orange peels, it looked like furry pizza bites. Gross.

But it yours is normal then woo don't worry! Lol

 

[huskeypm]

Glad you brother made it back from Afghanistan ok to enjoy some brew. Furry and chunky, however, are just a couple of the adjectives I don't like to associate with beer!

 

[ahaley]

Glad you brother made it back from Afghanistan ok to enjoy some brew. Furry and chunky, however, are just a couple of the adjectives I don't like to associate with beer!

Thanks, and yes it was pretty disgusting. Without further delay after we discovered his abomination, we went to the store and bought a case lol

 

[duboman]

That's great news! I've never seen this happen before - any speculation on the types of conditions that would lead to this? Usually I just have the foamy crud around the rim of the bucket.

As a follow up question, I was planning to ferment a high-gravity belgian on top of this guy's trub (once its racked) - are these chunks just going to be an unsightly nuisance?

Thanks!
pete

What yeast was it, how many times has it been harvested and reused and is this typical for the yeast strain? If not I would start with a fresh pack

 

[huskeypm]

It's a white labs trappist yeast (I think they just have one). I've washed it 4-5 times and there's also champagne yeast. I've never seen the chunks before, so i'd say somethings unusual. Sounds like I should just invest in a new batch of yeast and make a heavy duty starter.
thanks everyone!