Quick question regarding all grain fermentation...

[OccasionalTipple]

Hi there,

Following lots of helpful advice from previous posts and questions I've asked etc. I've finally switched to all grain from kits using our homemade mash tun and my friends electrim style commercial homebrew boiler.

Last Sunday, my friend and I brewed up a bitter recipe from the internet and we used Gervin English Ale yeast.
Not long after it went into the fermenter, we noticed clouds forming inside the beer, noticable through the sides of the fermenter.

Yesterday, I went solo and brewed an experimental brew and used Heart of England yeast and the same thing, clouds inside the fermenter.

I'm assuming this is normal healthy yeast / protien behaviour?

Being the first time I've done an all grain beer, I'm not sure whether it's normal or not.

The beers are certainly fermenting away nicely and posts I've read say it's just suspended yeast doing their work.

Other than that, everything went well (considering these were first attempts).
Can't wait to sample LOL

Thanks guys!!!!

[Spud395]

Sounds perfectly normal to me

[Eric]

Sounds more like cold break to me. That doesn't all form, as the name might suggest, once the boiled wort is chilled, but is a continuous process over some time. Unless you've pitched a good quantity of active yeast, it is unlikely you'll see much yeast for a few hours.
If you've mashed and got reasonable extraction then given it a good boil for a decent time it's hard to think there can be anything in there it can't tolerate.

[Normski]

Sounds normal to me too. Give it a taste.

[guypettigrew]

Almost certainly cold break. Worry not! It will settle out at the end of the fermentation, along with the spent yeast, and shouldn't have any affect on either the clarity or the taste of your beer.

Enjoy, and welcome to the fun of all grain brewing.

Guy

[Spud395]

You may be right Eric, I didnt read carefully enough, I assumed more time had passed.
You will often see clumps of yeast forming in the lag phase

[Eric]

Agree Spud, but whatever, it is no cause for concern and he's obviously hooked now.

[OccasionalTipple]

Thanks guys!

Most of the clouds have settled now.
I'm going to wait until the Krausen has dropped and I will rack it off into a clean fermenter to continue it's fermentation.

You're deffinately right about being hooked... As long as it took to make the beer and as tired as I was when I finished clearing up, I was a very happy man at the end of it.
Even more so when you see the end result doing something at least hehehehe.

AND It's even better when it's nearly all done with equipment we've made ourselves

Thanks again all!!!!

Cheers n Beers

[Kev888]

Excellent stuff, and as above this all seems normal to me too

Just wanted to mention though; if you choose to rack to a secondary fermenting vessel as you suggest, don't forget to sanitise evetything in the process and try to avoid splashing/oxidising the beer too much during the transfer. Opinion is divided on the need to use a secondary fermenting vessel (personally i don't find it necessary within a couple of weeks or three), but either way you won't do any harm unless you accidentally contaminate or oxidise it in the process.

Cheers,
kev

[keith1664]

As Kev says, I don't bother with racking to a secondary unless I intend to leave the beer there for a while or want the yeast cake. My usual regime is 10-14 days at fermenting temp then crash cool and bottle / keg. In my experience the more you mess around with a beer the more likely you are to ruin it!

[guypettigrew]

My original technique was to rack into a secondary for a couple of weeks after the first few days of fermentation in the primary.

After reading all the info on here I switched to leaving the beer longer in the FV then racking directly into the keg. It's worked fine for the last dozen or so brews, less messing about and fewer containers to wash up!

Guy