Beginners: this is what a healthy fermentation can look like.

[seatazzz]

Hey all, since we seem to be getting a lot more of "is this right" and "is this infected" posts, I thought it would be nice for some of us more experienced brewers to post some pics of what healthy krausen/fermentation/yeast rafts look like. I just brewed this today and it's getting going. Looks nasty, right? Nope, just healthy yeast getting it on. Please ignore dirty shelf.

 

[RPh_Guy]

How do you know it's not contaminated with some of our wild yeast friends?

 

[seatazzz]

How do you know it's not contaminated with some of our wild yeast friends?

Good point. But I KNOW I have good process, and I also know it looks like that right now because that's what beer looks like with whirlfloc added at 30. 2 years ago I would have run screaming to HBT to wail that my beer was ruined if I saw this, now I know it's just happy yeasties getting their sexy on.

 

[Immocles]

Good point. But I KNOW I have good process, and I also know it looks like that right now because that's what beer looks like with whirlfloc added at 30. 2 years ago I would have run screaming to HBT to wail that my beer was ruined if I saw this, now I know it's just happy yeasties getting their sexy on.

Ha. I almost did that the first time I used whirlfloc. Luckily it was my second small batch that day, and I forgot to use it in the first one, so I could compare without too much panic.

 

[JPW]

Good point. But I KNOW I have good process, and I also know it looks like that right now because that's what beer looks like with whirlfloc added at 30. 2 years ago I would have run screaming to HBT to wail that my beer was ruined if I saw this, now I know it's just happy yeasties getting their sexy on.

So this is a beer with finings that wasn't filtered during transfer to the fermenter? It's not a lager, correct?

 

[seatazzz]

So this is a beer with finings that wasn't filtered during transfer to the fermenter? It's not a lager, correct?

No, and no. I never filter, just let the finings drop everything into the trub and am careful on racking. And it's my take on a Brut IPA. This morning it's going crazy and just dropped the amylase.

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

Good point. But I KNOW I have good process, and I also know it looks like that right now because that's what beer looks like with whirlfloc added at 30. 2 years ago I would have run screaming to HBT to wail that my beer was ruined if I saw this, now I know it's just happy yeasties getting their sexy on.

What do you mean by adding whirlfloc at 30?

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

It looks like cold break to me, not active yeast. Ale yeast at the beginning of fermentation would look cloudy. Clumps of cells rising and falling. A foam would develop on top. Even similar for lager yeast but with a cake formed on the bottom. See..

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

Here is the bottom cake on my lager after 1 week.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

My Rye IPA/Amber about 24 hours after pitching a 8 oz jar of slurry (it was about a month old). I took a video the next morning of the yeast churning away that is pretty impressive.

 

[tripeland]

It looks like cold break to me, not active yeast. Ale yeast at the beginning of fermentation would look cloudy. Clumps of cells rising and falling. A foam would develop on top. Even similar for lager yeast but with a cake formed on the bottom. See..View attachment 612153

I would have said the same thing a few days ago, but I found out that clumpy stuff is actually hot break that has settled, not cold break.

 

[seatazzz]

The clumpiness was due to whirlfloc, not cold or hot break. Picture was taken about 7 hours after pitching. That was the yeast, my friends. A day later it was going crazy with high krausen, and today (3 days later) it's cloudy. I've had it happen the same way many times. I just don't want beginners to freak out if they see it in their own beers, which is why I started this thread.

 

[seatazzz]

What do you mean by adding whirlfloc at 30?

Whirlfloc is a fining agent, whose main ingredient is carrageenan (seaweed). It comes in tablet form, very easy to use. Most recommend adding it at 15 minutes to end of boil, but I usually drop it in at 30 because I usually have a hop addition at that time and I am less likely to forget it. I've also used irish moss (dessicated and shredded fish bladders; yes gross, but it works well) but I don't get the weird clumpiness seen above with it. Like all fining agents, its main intent is to help the cloudy proteins drop out of your beer into the trub, leaving you with clearer beer.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Whopsie, Irish moss is algae (seaweed) isinglass, also a fining agent, is from fish bladders. I use Irish moss accept when I forget or I’m brewing something that should have haze or cloudiness. Cheers!

 

[S-Met]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/what-happened-to-my-beer-with-pictures.648029/

Could probably just link all of the threads asking the same question.

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

Whirlfloc is a fining agent, whose main ingredient is carrageenan (seaweed). It comes in tablet form, very easy to use. Most recommend adding it at 15 minutes to end of boil, but I usually drop it in at 30 because I usually have a hop addition at that time and I am less likely to forget it. I've also used irish moss (dessicated and shredded fish bladders; yes gross, but it works well) but I don't get the weird clumpiness seen above with it. Like all fining agents, its main intent is to help the cloudy proteins drop out of your beer into the trub, leaving you with clearer beer.

I use whirfloc at 15 min to flameout, just add it to the bowl of hop additions. My question is how you are using it. For instance i have a false bottom in my boil kettle that catches hops and cold break. When i add whirfloc or irish moss it help to coat the holes in my screen thereby slowing the return flows while im whirpooling/recirculating/cooling with my plate chiller. This process catches a lotta cold break in the kettle before hitting the fermentor. Before i had this setup i never really understood what the seaweed was for either. If you are adding whirfloc to say an extract boil or biab with a standard kettle, it might help to pull out the cold break once in the fermentor, but to me it seems like an unnecessary step. Not that its a real bad thing, your beer will still probably taste alright, just that it's not yeast shabangin' in your photo...

 

[seatazzz]

I use whirfloc at 15 min to flameout, just add it to the bowl of hop additions. My question is how you are using it. For instance i have a false bottom in my boil kettle that catches hops and cold break. When i add whirfloc or irish moss it help to coat the holes in my screen thereby slowing the return flows while im whirpooling/recirculating/cooling with my plate chiller. This process catches a lotta cold break in the kettle before hitting the fermentor. Before i had this setup i never really understood what the seaweed was for either. If you are adding whirfloc to say an extract boil or biab with a standard kettle, it might help to pull out the cold break once in the fermentor, but to me it seems like an unnecessary step. Not that its a real bad thing, your beer will still probably taste alright, just that it's not yeast shabangin' in your photo...

I mash in a bag and also have a false bottom. Not a lot of break gets into my boil kettle. That is yeast, nothing more, just with a very few coagulated proteins mixed in making it look like a nasty science project.

 

[Alex4mula]

These are my first four brews. All Ales extract kits clones using dry yeast and fermented at 68°F. In order, Bells Brown, Pacifico, Choc Stout, Blue Moon. Pics taken +/- at 24hrs-48hrs

 

[NGD]

These are my first four brews. All Ales extract kits clones using dry yeast and fermented at 68°F. In order, Bells Brown, Pacifico, Choc Stout, Blue Moon. Pics taken +/- at 24hrs-48hrs

View attachment 612268

That stout picture really makes me want a root beer float