Hello everyone…I’m a novice brewer (6 batches under my belt…literally) and I’ve never had any infection problems before. On Sunday I brewed a Belgian Witbier extract kit from Northern Brewer and followed my usual sanitization process. The only difference between this batch and the others is this time I added fresh orange zest during the last 10 minutes of the boil. I hit the target OG (1.044) and the wort temp was 70 degrees when I pitched at 4:30 pm. Fermentation started quickly and by 6 am the next morning I already had a good krausen and lots of activity in the bubbler. Temps in my basement have stayed in the 64-66 degree range. Today, I get home from work and see that activity has pretty much stopped, the krausen has dropped some and I have this strange “island” of white foam in the middle and a thin strip along the side.
I’m afraid it might be infected somehow but I haven’t found any pictures online that look similar to what I have. Does anyone out there with more experience know what, if anything is wrong with my beer?
Looks okay but the picture is kind of low resolution. Just out of curiosity, what is your usual cleaning and sanitizing process? I prefer PBW or Oxyclean followed by Star San.
My standard cleaning and sanitization process is washing with PBW (this was the first time using my new keg washer though) and soaking everything in Star-San (love that stuff). I’m kinda neurotic about the sanitization part so all surfaces and equipment get dipped or sprayed in some way.
Good to know that everything is good. My wife will be happy to know that I didn’t ruin her batch. I’ll open up a beer and calm down now. Thanks for the help.