Gunk at the top of carboy

[sternamagraph]

Hi everyone,

Im new to this site and new to home brewing. I have my first batch in bottles and will be ready for thanksgiving. I just brewed my second batch on saturday, and think i may have an issue.. i put the brew straight into the glass carboy and it brought a bunch of green gunk up with the foam and had to make a blow off system. The foam has gone down and the gunk is still at the top. Will this fall down or should i push it down? any suggestion is appreciated.

Thanks for your help,

Chris.

 

[prandlesc]

It looks like you have a great fermentation going. The stuff at the top will either drop naturally, or you'll clean it off when you wash your carboy after you rack your beer. You don't need to do anything with it now, or even worry about it. Relax, have a homebrew!

What type of beer are you brewing?

 

[dxbq48]

It looks like you have a great fermentation going. The stuff at the top will either drop naturally, or you'll clean it off when you wash your carboy after you rack your beer. You don't need to do anything with it now, or even worry about it. Relax, have a homebrew!

What type of beer are you brewing?

Agreed. Just let it go. Looks like a mess of hops to me.

 

[sternamagraph]

Thank You so much i was freaking out this morning lol the batch in the pictures is a Cream Ale, with Mulling Spices added during the boil. my first batch was a triple chocolate oatmeal stout.

 

[NTXBrauer]

Agreed. Just let it go. Looks like a mess of hops to me.

^^^This.

A very common sight if you do not strain your wort before transferring into the carboy. Not a problem to be concerned with.

 

[Tekn0ph1sh]

It looks perfect.

 

[Nagorg]

Yep... Hops and quite a normal layer of leftover kraussen.

Enjoy your brew!!

 

[jonmohno]

Its good you caught it when you did because it could have clogged your airlock and blew it off making more of a mess. I always start out will a blowoff if my headspace is questionable,then put an airlock on when krausen maxxed out and drops.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

What's the advantage to pulling the blowoff tube and putting a bubbler on after fermentation has slowed, vs just leaving the blowoff tube in a bucket of sanitizer or vodka?

 

[RM-MN]

If you get a cooler temperature the carboy will have negative pressure and can suck back the liquid. You might have half a gallon in the blowoff container but only an ounce in the airlock. Guess which one can suck back the most liquid?

ps If you use an S tube airlock and fill it correctly, it cannot suck back any liquid.

 

[Reaver]

Also... do your best not to knock that stuff into your beer as you rack it off. It will cause bad flavors. Its effectively stale beer/hops crusted to the top. Completely normal and should be expected. Just keep it out of the finished product.

 

[jonmohno]

What's the advantage to pulling the blowoff tube and putting a bubbler on after fermentation has slowed, vs just leaving the blowoff tube in a bucket of sanitizer or vodka?

Moving it around when you bottle it. Cleaning any gunk out before it crusts up.Theres two. I dont always do it. Its just easier to clean it right away. Plus you have to maybe wait for co2 to build up in the tube if your checking the seal, its visually easier to me to see/check bubbleing in the airlock sooner by pressing on the lid. No big deal if its not changed out alot of times Im lazy and just leave it on myself. Its perfectly fine just to leave the blowoff on.
The only time Ive had suckback problems with an airlock is cold crashing or if you have a plastic carboy.

 

[martiniw2olives]

Looks beautiful to me

 

[green_bierz]

HOLY KRAUSEN!
GOOD JOB MAN! no need to fret about it relax, dont worry and have a homebrew. thats one hell of a fermentation and some happy ass yeasty beasties for sure.
keep it up and let us know how the final product turns out.
cheers

 

[zachssoojdm]

Yum, hope you had a blow off tube!!

 

[brewhawk35]

Everything looks great. As a new homebrewer myself here are some things that I have learned over the last year. ALWAYS use a blowoff hose for primary fermentation, airlocks should be used for secondary fermentation when you are dry hopping, adding additional flavorings or aging a beer in secondary(I find it better to age in secondary than bottles because 1 the beer will clear up more as the yeast continue to clean it up and more fall to the bottom of the carboy and 2 the beer will age because I wont drink it). If you clean and sanitize properly everything is probably fine even if it looks or smell a little different. Different yeasts especially have different smells and depending on what you put in your recipe you can see all different things in your krausen the most common are green, tan, brown and white. And if you ever think things are way wrong just wait until you think the fermentation is done and pull a sample check the gravity and then drink your sample. Relax have fun and have a homebrew. Cheers!

 

[sternamagraph]

Thanks to everyone for your input, i feel much better about the situation.

 

[Daves69]

This is one of the reasons I moved to a Stainless Fermentor. I think I have thrown out multiple batches of good beer that just looked wrong to me (I am sure it was good)... Now I can't see it, use Co2 to push the beer into my corny and life it good! I bet sometimes even now it looks like that or even worse! LOL

 

[snowblind5150]

That looks delicious. However, if you don't trust my judgment, please mail the contents to me after bottling.

 

[CSI - CandiSyrup]

Pretty nice krausen for a first time homebrew! The green looks like hops trub. It'll drop out after secondary I'm sure.