Milky brew, help!

[O-Ale-Yeah]

This is my 2nd time brewing. The brew was dark with fleks of off-white yeast swimming on day 1 and now it looks as if I poured in a gallon of milk into it. I sanitized everything and used incredibly careful procedures with everything. Is this normal?

 

[Lefou]

Yes, this is perfectly normal. It looks like a successful fermentation to me.

What you should expect is a slight surface foaming about 12 hours after pitching.
Within 24-36 hours your wort should literally cloud up and look like a snow globe as the the yeast leaves the growth phase and starts the fermentation process in earnest. Within two to three weeks the raw beer should drop clear and any yeast cap on the surface of the liquid should drop. When you start with a low original gravity and a vigorous yeast you may not get much foaming activity, but some yeasts - like hefeweizen yeasts - aren't like that. Hefeweizen yeasts can produce a lot of churning and CO2 with a large krausen.

 

[Lefou]

If you'd like, saving your yeast as a starter for a second brew would be very cost effective.
All you have to do is sterilize a small Mason jar and save some of the trub from the bottom of your glass primary after siphoning out your raw beer. Keep some of the raw ale and use it to cover the yeast then store in the refrigerator.
You can use the yeast again. The yeast can be stored for a few weeks easily.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

Ok thanks Lefou. That's a huge relief! It was a clean looking coffee color on day 1. The yeast started swimming like a feeding frenzy on day 2. I put a blanket over it and peeked today and it looks like a gallon of coffee mixed with a gallon of milk.

 

[Lefou]

I like doing hefeweizen brews for a couple reasons. This type of yeast tends to stay suspended in the wort and lends itself well as a bottling yeast. I've used a mix of bottom collected and top-cropped yeast more than once to brew with and it lasts through multiple brews. Your raw beer will clear up a bit and looks like it will be a nice golden color.

 

[Immocles]

If you'd like, saving your yeast as a starter for a second brew would be very cost effective.
All you have to do is sterilize a small Mason jar and save some of the trub from the bottom of your glass primary after siphoning out your raw beer. Keep some of the raw ale and use it to cover the yeast then store in the refrigerator.
You can use the yeast again. The yeast can be stored for a few weeks easily.

Sorry to hijack momentarily, but this is something I've been researching quite a bit recently. When you personally do this, do you make a starter with that harvested yeast or do you generally just decant off the old beer and pitch it as is? I've read both work, but I've never harvested, or made a starter before. I'm 100% committed to trying to do this as I'm able to since I'm forced to order yeast online.

 

[bleme]

Sorry to hijack momentarily, but this is something I've been researching quite a bit recently. When you personally do this, do you make a starter with that harvested yeast or do you generally just decant off the old beer and pitch it as is? I've read both work, but I've never harvested, or made a starter before. I'm 100% committed to trying to do this as I'm able to since I'm forced to order yeast online.

If the yeast has been sitting in my fridge for more than 3 weeks I will make a starter. My preference though is to bottle/keg on Saturday and brew the next batch Sunday. In that case, I just pitch the slurry.

 

[RM-MN]

If you'd like, saving your yeast as a starter for a second brew would be very cost effective.
All you have to do is sterilize a small Mason jar and save some of the trub from the bottom of your glass primary after siphoning out your raw beer. Keep some of the raw ale and use it to cover the yeast then store in the refrigerator.
You can use the yeast again. The yeast can be stored for a few weeks easily.

The trub is reported to have sufficient yeast for about 4 more batches. Divide it up as evenly as you can after swirling it into suspension into sanitized mason jars. Cap loosely so any excess CO2 can escape.

Sorry to hijack momentarily, but this is something I've been researching quite a bit recently. When you personally do this, do you make a starter with that harvested yeast or do you generally just decant off the old beer and pitch it as is? I've read both work, but I've never harvested, or made a starter before. I'm 100% committed to trying to do this as I'm able to since I'm forced to order yeast online.

There is no need to make a starter, the previous batch of beer was the starter.

If the yeast has been sitting in my fridge for more than 3 weeks I will make a starter. My preference though is to bottle/keg on Saturday and brew the next batch Sunday. In that case, I just pitch the slurry.

Yeast maintains viability far longer than 3 weeks if refrigerated.

http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/12...refrigeration-effects-on-yeast-viability.html

 

[bleme]

Yeast maintains viability far longer than 3 weeks if refrigerated.

http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/12/refrigeration-effects-on-yeast-viability.htmll

If you want to trust a source that says 2 of his yeasts became MORE viable after a month in the fridge...

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

If you'd like, saving your yeast as a starter for a second brew would be very cost effective.
All you have to do is sterilize a small Mason jar and save some of the trub from the bottom of your glass primary after siphoning out your raw beer. Keep some of the raw ale and use it to cover the yeast then store in the refrigerator.
You can use the yeast again. The yeast can be stored for a few weeks easily.

That's a great idea! I'm all for saving. When I siphon the beer to my bottling bucket, the top trunk will be sitting on the bottom trub. I save it all divided evenly into a few Mason jars with how much beer mixed in? And then I have 4 weeks to use it up? I was thinking I'd brew 5 gallons every 6 weeks but I guess I could brew 2 batches to make good use of the yeast.