Cold Crash - Milky Layer On Top?

[Tiedye]

Hello HBT!

I did my first real AG batch on 2-24-2012. It was a BIAB version of Bee Cave Haus Pale Ale. Brew day went smoothly, hit all of my numbers, no spills, no burns, no homebrew inspired random additions - a great day!

I use a wine fridge as a fermentation chamber. It held my carboy at 66 and I had a nice, vigorous fermentation. After activity slowed / stopped, everything continued to look good. No floaties, clean, normal, yummy!

Yesterday I dropped the temp on the fridge to 39 to cold crash for a few days before transferring to keg. This morning I took a look and there is a layer of white liquid on the top of my brew. Eeek! Still no floaties, but weird. It looks like the color and clarity of non-fat milk.

Is this normal? This is my first time doing a cold crash.
The pictures are not the greatest, but you can see the layer, the color, and that there are no chunks and floaties.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments!!!

 

[brewit2it]

When you dropped the temp you created low pressure in your carboy and sucked up whatever it is in your blow off vessel. You can see it in the hose. You should have changed to an airlock after fermentation slowed down.

Does it look like you have a lot less volume in that jug now than what you filled it to?

 

[Tiedye]

Doh! I "think" there was starsan mixture in there. Is this recoverable? Should I try racking this off the top, mix it in, leave it???

 

[brewit2it]

I was thinking if this happened to me I would probably try to use my auto-siphon to try to remove as much as possible off the top. That looks like a one gallon morebeer jug so I'm thinking you sucked up about half a gallon, most of which is still floating on top. If it is starsan I would remove as much as possible then keg it and see how it is. If it's anything but starsan I would probably dump it

 

[erikhild59]

Maybe you could rack the beer out from under the layer of pondscum into another vessel. Probably be ok..

 

[Tiedye]

Thanks for the quick response and great info!
Every day is a learning day!