Infection? Any ideas? Please look at pic

[floydmeddler]

After transferring my Hophead clone into secondary and adding gelatin, I noticed a white substance spread over several areas of the beer. It tasted completely fine so I bottled. I've looked at the bottles and this weird substance has returned. I've tasted it again and it tastes absolutely fine. Here is a pic:



It breaks up quite easy then some of it sinks to the bottom of the bottle. Not sure if it progressively getting worse... hope not.

Any ideas?

I fermented with S05 and it completely fermented out so it's not yeast related.

Cheers

[EccentricDyslexic]

Hmm...drink it quick!

steve

[OldSpeckledBadger]

If it tastes OK then it is OK.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers. This is how I'm looking at it too. Still intrigued to know what it is though...

[floydmeddler]

Not sure why you say it isn't yeast related, it looks like yeast and even if it were apparently bright when you bottled it there will still be sufficient yeast in suspension to form a noticable deposit. Bottling inevitably introduces a small amount of air which can kick off the fermentation of any residual sugars and priming can also produce yeast growth. It's not unusual for yeast to cling to the side of the bottle. Twist the bottle back and forth or upside down and right side up a few times to get it to settle out.

It's never advisable to fine beer intended for bottling though, even with gelatine, the deposit formed is just too unstable making it difficult to pour by comparison to an unfined beer. Even if you allow it to fall bright in the fermenter after fining all you have done is taken the most flocculant cells out while leaving the least flocculant cells behind to form a powdery residue.

Beer destined for bottles rarely requires fining, if it did i'd filter and reinoculate it with a suitable priming strain (better to choose the right yeast in the first place). A bottle is around a 1/3rd of the height of a keg and therefore requires much less time for the beer to fall bright and you wont be tossing the bottles around a week before serving like the drayman does with cask ale so a bottled beer doesn't need to be able to settle as quickly as possible after disturbance.

Ideally what you want is a yeast that forms a stable deposit and isn't disturbed at all when it is moved and I suspect US 05 is a poor choice choice for that although I have never used it for this purpose, particularly as Nottingham produces virtually identical results but settles out quickly into a very stable sediment, ideal for bottling.

Cheers for reply Chris. I ruled yeast out as this substance has no similarities to S05 at all; it isn't powdery. However, I'm hoping you are right!

As for using gelatin when bottling, I see what you mean with regards to the yeast forming a powdery residue. My beers, however, don't get knocked about because they are usually consumed in my flat. I also use very little priming sugar as I hate 'fizzy' ale... unless it's a Belgian.

If I had the £££ I'd buy me one of these: http://www.goodlifehomebrew.com/buon-vi ... filter.php