What the heck is floating in my beer?

[DJL531]

Bottled a pale ale 4 months ago and forgot 2 sitting on the shelf. These were bottle conditioned. It looks like mold, but flat and not fuzzy at all. I shook one slightly and it broke up and sunk to the bottom. Some protein or yeast?

The other bottles tasted fine and these just got over looked until today. Stored at room temp 75-80 deg. The yellow in the first pic is the label on the outside of the bottle, and not something inside.

 

[Dland]

If nothing is in other bottles, perhaps there was something stuck to bottom of that bottle that you did not notice when bottling? Looks kind of like wax.

 

[DJL531]

If nothing is in other bottles, perhaps there was something stuck to bottom of that bottle that you did not notice when bottling? Looks kind of like wax.

That's a perfect description. It does look like wax and it broke up with just a slight jiggle. These are Topo Chico bottles and first time I used them for beer. I used them because they are clear and this was only about 10 bottles taken from a batch I made that went into a keg. Only these 2 remain. I wanted to see how well this yeast settled and cleared up. They were kept out of sunlight and show no other issues.
I'm going to chill them tonight and pop them open tomorrow evening and see whats what.

 

[hotbeer]

I think mold would almost always look fuzzy or powdery. To me those look like congealed fat or oils that form on top of the broths and stock I use to make and put up in the fridge. Or maybe soggy potato chips!

Might just be interesting and large yeast rafts, but certainly those are unusual looking to me.

The orangish yellowish blobs I'm assuming are just the overhead light reflection.

 

[DJL531]

I think mold would almost always look fuzzy or powdery. To me those look like congealed fat or oils that form on top of the broths and stock I use to make and put up in the fridge. Or maybe soggy potato chips!

Might just be interesting and large yeast rafts, but certainly those are unusual looking to me.

The orangish yellowish blobs I'm assuming are just the overhead light reflection.

Your description is spot on. It looks like a thin layer of fat on broth. The orange color is the back side of the Topo Chico label. For those that don't know Topo Chico, it is a sparkling water from Mexico.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

in THIS case Topo Chico is sparkling water. But Coca-Cola bought them a while back and is selling hard seltzer under that name now. The fact that the bottle says 0 calories leads me to believe it's sparkling water and not hard seltzer.