Weird looking fermentation!

[mjrinkenbaugh]

Ok, I apologize for such a noob sounding question even though I've been brewing intermittently for 10 years. 22 hours after pitching to a small, second runnings wort (1.040 OG), I have a beer that looks unlike any beer I've ever brewed. I noticed a ton of hot break settling before I even pitched. Does this look normal to someone else or is it already infected somehow? I used (non-expired) dry yeast - Danstar Abbaye Belgian-Style ale yeast. Wondered if that could be the difference, but this doesn't look right to me (see attachment).

For background info:
I brewed my first parti gyle batch last night. My big beer was a russian imperial stout that I created a huge two-stage starter for. I aerated it with O2 and pitched my yeast. The Airlock took off within a couple of hours. My small beer that I created from the second runnings won't really fit with any existing beer style I don't think. I hoped it would be a belgian-style black IPA, we'll see.

Anyway, I left the regulator on my O2 tank since I would be aerating this small beer too, but when I went to aerate the small beer, there was no O2 left. I think this regulator leaks just a little bit. So, I rocked the carboy to try to aerate a little bit, and pitched the dry yeast into it after rehydrating it. Fermentation took off very slowly. Most of my beers don't have this much lag time, but it took 20 hours before I even saw my first bubble. Maybe that's because I couldn't aerate properly? I dunno, the picture still doesn't look normal to me!

Let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Mike

 

[nettekdl]

I am not good with telling if something is infected by looking at it so I'll leave that for someone more qualified but I will say that is a ridiculous amount of head space and you are asking for an infection if it isn't already. I would get that in a much smaller vessel asap

 

[liquiditynerd]

So what else is in it? It looks like a section of fruit cake.

Do you have your sparge #'s? It could be astringent as black tea, did you check ph?

My RIS little beer was a bit astringent and also took a little while longer to get active, I added some LME but the ABV was still low so not much fermentation, idk maybe 3.0%, its been awhile since that batch.

PS Forgot to mention, other than that it looks like its suppose to!

 

[christyle]

Looks totally normal when a yeast colony is getting started....

 

[mjrinkenbaugh]

This is primary fermentation just getting started, not secondary fermentation, so the CO2 production will push the oxygen out through the airlock. Have I misunderstood your concern? The way I understand it, headspace is not a problem for a beer that is actively releasing CO2. I will rack this into a much smaller secondary fermenter for when it's not releasing CO2 anymore.

I am not good with telling if something is infected by looking at it so I'll leave that for someone more qualified but I will say that is a ridiculous amount of head space and you are asking for an infection if it isn't already. I would get that in a much smaller vessel asap

 

[mjrinkenbaugh]

I haven't been taking ph. I'm still using bottled water for brew days, but I'm looking to start using city water. The water at our old apartments never tasted good, so I didn't want to use it, but in our new house, the water tastes great. I got a report from the city on the water from 2014 and I'd like to read up a little bit to see what I need to do to the water when I start using it.

What numbers are you looking for on the sparge? I did a fly sparge with 7 gallons. I pulled the first runnings and collected my first 6.75 gallons of 1.083 wort, then allowed the rest of the sparge water to come through the mash and collected only 4.75 - 4.9 gallons of 1.030 wort. I had a lot of evaporative loss with that wort. I'm probably down to 3.5 gallons or something. By the time I was done with the boil, OG ended up at 1.040.

So what else is in it? It looks like a section of fruit cake.

Do you have your sparge #'s? It could be astringent as black tea, did you check ph?

My RIS little beer was a bit astringent and also took a little while longer to get active, I added some LME but the ABV was still low so not much fermentation, idk maybe 3.0%, its been awhile since that batch.

PS Forgot to mention, other than that it looks like its suppose to!

 

[mjrinkenbaugh]

I'm really starting to think this is more normal now. Here's what it looks like this morning.

 

[christyle]

It's fine....don't worry about it.