I’m not sure if this had been asked or answered before. If it has, sorry couldn’t find the post. But I just bought a starter kit, and this is my first batch. Its the Chinook IPA recipe. Its been in my fermenter since Sunday and today I found a white crust around the bottom of air lock. Has this happened to anyone else? Is this normal? Or is it a sign my batch is ruined.
I have not seen that but I doubt your beer is ruined. Unless you were fermenting at a temp much higher than the yeast is recommended for, but that has nothing to do with the white crusty stuff. Is the seal around that airlock bung good? Wondering if it was the Krausen coming up through it, but I think you would have seen it inside the airlock as well. I also assume you were following good brewing practice regarding cleaning and sanitizing of everything that touches the beer.
When I zoom in on the pic the color of some of that crust has the look of water that has a high mineral content (?) I can’t recall what mineral. I am sure someone else can chime in and offer some input. I will just say, with all the mistakes I have made over the past few years of brewing, I have yet to brew a beer that was not drinkable.
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Thanks for your response! The airlock around the bung seems to be good! I followed all the sanitizing instructions. I did some research on mold, and everything i saw says that it has some sort of rotten egg smell. this doesn’t. It has a salty taste to it. Yeah i tasted it! hahaha. I am supposed to add hops on Sunday according to the recipe, hopefully when i open it, it will look ok. again! thanks for the feedback!
Good luck ! You could always take a few drops of the same water you brewed with and let it dry on something like the lid of the brew kettle and see if it leaves a similar residue.
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Thats a good idea ill try that!
Perhaps some water with cleaner/sanitizer that dried out… looks like the bucket sealed as whatever it is didn’t get in…
Sneezles61
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Good point , it has that look of dried up PBW .
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That’s my guess too @sneezles61 . Fermentation bubbles some sanitizer out of the airlock and it dried out.
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