FrogHollow
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2020
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- Reaction score
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Hello Fellow Brewers!
As a starter, I'm still fairly new to the brewing ins and outs as this is something I've picked up during quarantine. My buddy and I have brewed about 70 gallons+ of beer since late July, with many successes! On our most recent batch, I've noticed some particulates in the fermentor that I've not seen on any beer we've made previously, and can't quite find on any forums or chats. (I've been looking for a couple of hours now.) I made an account to get your all's opinions and hopefully some peace of mind and a solution possibly for moving forward.
I'll attach some pictures below but what I'm seeing, I can only relate to as "snowflakes" all throughout the beer-- All throughout it. They don't appear to be moving but suspended perfectly throughout the entire thing. They are best pictured in the second image.
We are currently, 20 days into fermentation on a Hard Root Beer, (brewed an English Porter grain bill with the rootbeer ingredients: sassafras, sasparilla, licorice root, anise added at 5 minutes to the end of the boil). We used a tablet of Whirlfloc at 10 minutes to the end of the boil and pitched our Safale-04 @ 72°F (dry but started the night before. Also, this is the first time I've used S-04). I've kept it fermenting in my basement which has been around 60°F give or take. The beer itself is around 61°F at the moment. The OG was 1053 and is currently at 1024. This is not yet close to our estimated FG and it does appear to still be fermenting, although incredibly slowly. (thoughts?) I'll be checking it with my refractometer over the next couple of days. (The larger "floaters" alongside the particles on top in the fermentor are Wintergreen leaves and Vanilla bean pods).
My questions, I guess, are: Are these particles simply suspended yeast? ...I've seen what whirlfloc does before and this seems way more spread out and not as clumpy and definitely not dropping, hence the "snowflake" term. Snowflaking is something I found only to have occurred with old and stale beer... It's been nearly 3 weeks and this stuff is still suspended. It wasn't something I noticed when racking to the fermentor. Do you think that cold crashing, once it's finished fermenting, will help clarify this? ...Are there any clarifiers you'd recommend now that fermentation has begun? Any help would be much appreciated.
I taste-tested the beer last night and while bitter (back sweetening was always the plan) it tasted fine, like bitter hard root beer! It doesn't appear to be an infection but I don't want to have particles this visible in my beer, haha.
Happy New Year!
As a starter, I'm still fairly new to the brewing ins and outs as this is something I've picked up during quarantine. My buddy and I have brewed about 70 gallons+ of beer since late July, with many successes! On our most recent batch, I've noticed some particulates in the fermentor that I've not seen on any beer we've made previously, and can't quite find on any forums or chats. (I've been looking for a couple of hours now.) I made an account to get your all's opinions and hopefully some peace of mind and a solution possibly for moving forward.
I'll attach some pictures below but what I'm seeing, I can only relate to as "snowflakes" all throughout the beer-- All throughout it. They don't appear to be moving but suspended perfectly throughout the entire thing. They are best pictured in the second image.
We are currently, 20 days into fermentation on a Hard Root Beer, (brewed an English Porter grain bill with the rootbeer ingredients: sassafras, sasparilla, licorice root, anise added at 5 minutes to the end of the boil). We used a tablet of Whirlfloc at 10 minutes to the end of the boil and pitched our Safale-04 @ 72°F (dry but started the night before. Also, this is the first time I've used S-04). I've kept it fermenting in my basement which has been around 60°F give or take. The beer itself is around 61°F at the moment. The OG was 1053 and is currently at 1024. This is not yet close to our estimated FG and it does appear to still be fermenting, although incredibly slowly. (thoughts?) I'll be checking it with my refractometer over the next couple of days. (The larger "floaters" alongside the particles on top in the fermentor are Wintergreen leaves and Vanilla bean pods).
My questions, I guess, are: Are these particles simply suspended yeast? ...I've seen what whirlfloc does before and this seems way more spread out and not as clumpy and definitely not dropping, hence the "snowflake" term. Snowflaking is something I found only to have occurred with old and stale beer... It's been nearly 3 weeks and this stuff is still suspended. It wasn't something I noticed when racking to the fermentor. Do you think that cold crashing, once it's finished fermenting, will help clarify this? ...Are there any clarifiers you'd recommend now that fermentation has begun? Any help would be much appreciated.
I taste-tested the beer last night and while bitter (back sweetening was always the plan) it tasted fine, like bitter hard root beer! It doesn't appear to be an infection but I don't want to have particles this visible in my beer, haha.
Happy New Year!