Lazy Brew / possibly ruined beer?

[honkongphoo3y]

I need to know if my beer is ruined or what to expect from current observations after bottling and tasting. My current observation is thick layer of white coagulated particles at bottom of all bottles. I'm assuming this is a result of my lazy siphoning and lack of detail that allowed trub into my beer. Below describes my process if that heeds to other answers.

This is my 5th extract brew, with the first 4 turning out to my newbie satisfaction.

The brew in question is "Mill Run Stout"from Palmers 'How to brew". Despite the overwhelming amount of detailed covered in every other aspect of brewing, he's pretty vague with his 'recipes' - probably for obvious reasons..letting the brewer use his previous mentioned techniques and guidance to craft the brew catered to his/her liking. Anyways, I thought I'd outline this in case this information has relevance to your responses.

I used 6 LB light ale extract
.5 lbs crystal malt 60L
.5 lbs roasted malt (don't remember off hand what kind)
White Labs WLP004

Brew went well. Wort was aerated and yeast pitched. I use an airlock, and the krausen clogged the airlock (I noticed the following morning).. causing the top of the bucket to pop open on one end. I cleaned air lock, but did not immediately recover the lid to the bucket for obvious reasons. Waited 2 more days then re cleaned the airlock and sealed the lid (I assume risk of contamination is pretty low considering most CO2 is leaving the bucket.. and the location of the bucket is pretty remote). The brew sat in the fermenting bucket for 4 weeks at 68% in a dark closet infrequently visited.

4 weeks later...I finally had time to bottle. Only bottles that were saved and used had been rinsed thoroughly immediately upon drinking and rinsed with Starsan (before bottling). All equipment was thoroughly sanitized I quickly and nonchalantly siphoned to bottling bucket and siphoned to bottles, capped and laid to rest. A week later, went to test the progress, poured into tulip glass.. and watched these whitish looking particles sink to the bottom of the glass. The beer didn't taste ready, but wasn't repulsive and tasted as others I have brewed in the past at this stage. To my knowledge, I have never contaminated/spoiled a beer so I don't know what to expect. My question thus remains: What is this white coagulated "stuff" I'm observing. I'm assuming it's the trub--left over yeast and malted barley that i lazily siphoned into my beer. If that scenario is true..how does that effect the brew? If the previous scenario is not the case, what is it? Is my beer ruined?

Cheers in advance for your patience

[Duzdisluk Infektid]

I'm just curious about your previous 4 brews. Did you follow the same bottling process? And how did those turn out?

The white stuff settling out is most likely yeast. The process of conditioning will keep them active and in suspension as long as there are fermentables to eat, and then they will begin to settle out. But you should have noticed the same thing in your other beers. If it's a lot more than those first brews, I'm wondering if you might have disturbed the yeast cake in the fermenter prior to siphoning? Sounds like you got more yeast in the bottles than normal conditioning would produce.

How was the carbonation level? Sometimes it can take several weeks for bottle conditioning, depending on a number of factors. If it's a low level of carbonation now, give it another week or two. All the floaties should have settled by then. A little extra yeast won't hurt you. It may change the flavor a bit, but shouldn't be drastic. Yeast does have that laxative effect though...

[honkongphoo3y]

Followed the exact same process for my other 4 brews. I can tell the beer is not completely carbonated.. although a decent amount of head is visible on a vigorous pour. As I kind of hinted at before.. the 4 other brews I more carefully positioned the lower part of the siphoning tube above the trub.. not wanting to transfer that into the bottling bucket. I would sacrifice some potential beer for not adding this to the bottles. This time.. the trub seemed more volatile upon movement (possibly due to low flocculation of the yeast?) and seemed to dissolve into the beer--aka what you stated.. i disturbed the yeast cake.

I'm glad to know the "white mystery" (airhead flavor) its the yeast and not some type of contamination. Thank you sir

[Duzdisluk Infektid]

Followed the exact same process for my other 4 brews. I can tell the beer is not completely carbonated.. although a decent amount of head is visible on a vigorous pour. As I kind of hinted at before.. the 4 other brews I more carefully positioned the lower part of the siphoning tube above the trub.. not wanting to transfer that into the bottling bucket. I would sacrifice some potential beer for not adding this to the bottles. This time.. the trub seemed more volatile upon movement (possibly due to low flocculation of the yeast?) and seemed to dissolve into the beer--aka what you stated.. i disturbed the yeast cake.

I'm glad to know the "white mystery" (airhead flavor) its the yeast and not some type of contamination. Thank you sir

You bet. FWIW, if you bottle something that's infected, you may end up with bottle bombs or gushers. Many bugs will ferment sugars that sach can't, taking you to a much lower gravity than planned, and hence, greater carbonation.

[spiderwrangler]

That yeast is a pretty good floccer, so I agree the clumps you see are probably yeast, while a less flocculative yeast would give a powdery appearance.

[madchemist83]

It's cum

[alan_marks]

It's cum

...really?

no pants bottling?
or you just like you're beer?

[spiderwrangler]

Apparently the chemist has been creeping through your brewhouse, jerking it in your bottling bucket when you weren't looking.