What in the heck is this stuff?

OK…I transferred my Festivus to the secondary last night.

Sanitized the air lock, carboy, siphon and line, thief, etc.

Grabbed a sample…FG at 1.020 which is what I came up with where it should end. Took a smell…spicey sweet, a little over powering but it should level out. Took a small tatse…flat…blech…BUT…no off flavors…good feel in the mouth…should be pretty good once carbed.

Ok…so I transfer to the secondary. The only thing I had available was a 6 gallon carboy because my other one is being used to ferment more Dunkelweizen.

All goes well…I put the air lock on it…

Check it this morning…and this is what is on top. Is it mold? God I hope not…or is it possible still fermentation bubbles? It does not appear to be moving and not really bubbling. Never seen it before.

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It looks like some yeast clumps suspended with CO2 bubbles. Racking tends to knock out some CO2 from solution, so this is fairly normal. You’re asking for trouble with that much headspace, though - unless you purge your carboy with CO2, there’s a lot of oxygen in the headspace that can really kick-start an infection. How long are you planning on leaving it in secondary?

I’m not familiar with that beer, but 1.020 SG and tastes sweet sounds to me like it isn’t done fermenting yet. So that is probably yeast activity you see on the surface. Just curious, why did you rack it when you did? If you want to use a secondary, it is best practice to wait until the fermentation is definitely done before you rack.

Thanks for the help.

Recipe calls for 2-4 weeks, I was going to split it and call it 3.

As far as fermention that was day 14…things had pretty much stopped…maybe burp or a bubble once every minute or so.

Don’t go by the calendar to decide if fermentation is done. Take two gravity readings a day or two apart, and if they are the same, fermentation is done.

Lots of factors, from fermentation temperature to water chemistry to yeast viability to recipe or simply pitch rate can influence how fast fermentation happens.