cream ale brew with large yeast cake(i think)

[Shadowmonster]

Hi all, new to all grain with this being my forth brew, after second day in fermenter I seem to be growing an ugly yeast cake which I haven't seen with my three previous all grain brews. I'll post the recipe which was followed precisely and a pic at 2 days and perhaps someone can put my mind at ease and tell me that is okay.

Kit includes the following:
Freshly Packaged Professionally Milled Grain Recipe
2 Hop Additions of Cascade
Irish Moss
Fermentis Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast

This recipe requires the addition of 1 lb of standard white table sugar at boil






This is what my last three all grain brews looked like at 2 days in the fermenter

 

[jhoyda]

Have you used Irish moss before? It tends to look like that.

 

[stz]

That looks like cold break to me, I once pitched yeast red hot, like 100F and much to my surprise, it took off, but as the wort cooled, all the proteins coagulated out of it and it formed what looked like a fractal growth through the beer which rose to the top and formed an island. I swirled it back in every day or so and eventually, it settled out on the bottom of the fermenter just fine as a normal looking layer of sediment.

Strangely though, your beer looks quite clear, normally, which krausening/active fermentation mine is opaque/roiling with activity and always looks a creamy colour.

See how it goes, I wouldn't sweat it, but I'd likely give it a swirl to break it up and help it settle out.

 

[Shadowmonster]

First time using Irish moss, yeast was pitched at 68° and carboy rests at 68°. Wasn't sure about a bit of a shake at this point but I will give it a try. I just finished another cream ale 4 days in front of this that had lots of rolling activity, just threw me off being new and all and not seeing this previously.

Thx guys

Joe

 

[bluelimbo]

Yeah - agree with STZ. Definitely looks like leftover proteins from cold break. Did you strain the wort when moving it into the fermenter? If not, might be worth looking into picking up a strainer like this : http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/brewing-equipment/stirring-straining/double-mesh-stainless-strainer.html

Just dip it into the sanitizer 10 minutes before the boil, along with some cheese cloth, and then line the strainer with cheese cloth and pour your wort through it. It will capture all of the hop particulates and cold break so it doesn't go into you fermenter.

All and all - it should settle out in a week or so. Give it a bit of time.

 

[kh54s10]

Lumpy krausen. The top one looks chunkier that any I have seen but all my brews get some amount of foam on top. It is normal. After fermentation ends it will fall to the bottom. I never strain or skim anything during or after the boil although I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag to contain my hop debris.

 

[Shadowmonster]

Thanks everyone, thought about straining/filtering but decided a quiet screening going to my bottling bucket on first 3 all grains had worked well, perhaps its time to do a straining from kettle to fermenter. I did give the carboy a small shake and now have lots of rolling/movement action in the carboy, starting to look more like what I've seen in the last three all grain brews.

Had no idea there was that much sediment after transfer!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev5z_UNDjyo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Learning more each brew, thx again

Joe