What's in my secondary?

[Foller]

Something happened after I racked my pale ale to secondary and I would like your opinion on what it is exactly.

This is my first BIAB and the first time I used liquid yeast. I decided against doing a starter because I read that for lower gravity beer, it's not always necessary... and that was a bad decision. For the first week in primary, I didn't see any activity, but I've been taught not to worry and it would be fine.

I checked my gravity while I was racking and the reading was 1.035. By that time it was too late to stop, so I finished racking. After a couple of days, I saw some white/yellowish spots on top of my beer and after one week, it is everywhere. I opened it slightly to smell it and I didn't smell anything weird.

Can someone tell me if it is infected or some weird yeast reaction or something else?

Thank you!

 

[cullen]

It looks like yeast to me.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

That's not an infection.






^ that's an infection.

 

[Foller]

Well, that's good to hear!

A little follow up question: considering the high gravity when I racked to secondary, can the yeast still be somewhat active and lower it a bit more or is the secondary fermentation negligible?

 

[GASoline71]

Only a week in the primary seems short to me. Since the gravity was still pretty high (1.035)... it was probably still fermenting when you racked it.

Gary

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Some fermentation may happen in secondary, a few points, maybe more. The thing is, is when you racked from primary, the good bulk of the yeast was left behind so only a small fraction of the yeast will be working on the remaining sugars. In general, you want to take a couple gravity readings over a few days to make sure that the FG is stable before removing the beer from the yeast.