I brewed 2 kits… 1 being caribou slobber and the other was a black ipa… I racked both into secondary fermentor… The day after my caribou slobber developed a off white flakey film on the surface… It did not grow any further after the first day…I am concerned it is an infection… I am a novice… I will try to post a picture and would appreciate any feedback or thoughts … Thanks
Not sure I see anything to worry about there. “Crud” floating on your beer rarely tells you anything about an infection.
Sure fire signs:
1)What does it smell like? Infected beers usually smell like really nasty belgian beers.
2)Is there anything abnormal about the fermentation? Is there significant fermentation going on far longer than normal (like weeks longer)?
- Is it clearing out propperly? Infected beers are very slow to clear out - if they even clear out at all.
Your beer looks fine to me.
Looks like floating yeast. According to your specific gravity readings, was fermentation complete before you racked to the secondary vessel?
Thanks for the information so far… It was put in second vessel at 3 weeks… The fermentation appeared to initially stop after the first week… After i put it in the second vessel the film developed…The film looked a little worse initially as it completely skimmed the top over and was slightly bubbled… I swirled it around when I first noticed it and it kind of broke up in flakey chunks… The rest of the beer looks fine below it… This is my 5th brew and had never seen this before and was concerned …I will give it some time and see what develops… Thanks!!!
To answer the questions it smells like normal beer, is very clear below the film, and the fermentation was very aggressive during the first week but stopped after first week and has been inactive since
You’ll be fine. If it smells like beer and tastes like beer then you have beer!
I’ve had an infection scare in the past - only once - but I pushed through and bottled the beer anyways. It was perfectly fine. Yeast are finicky little things and tend to make odd looks and smells from time to time.
It’s hard to tell from the picture, as the carboy is a bit blurry. If the surface of your beer develops a translucent or opaque film, the likelihood that it is an infection is higher than if you have whitish or off-white spots. In the latter case, those spots are likely just floating yeast.
Take a look at what real infection looks like, for comparison:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/pellic ... on-174033/