I had some other things come up in my schedule and my nice Sierra Madre Pale Ale extract kit sat in my secondary for 5 months after a good primary and good final gravity. Much of the yeast came to the surface eventually and held together in little white clumps which some call yeast rafts (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=227052) (apparently from certain ale yeasts rising up with Co2 per the Handbook of Brewing 2nd ed. p501), which from several other posts I understand is normal. However, I now see the breakdown of those clumps and they have begun to turn blackish gray on the surface, but nothing is fuzzy or hairy. Worst of all, I realized my floater airlock has now dried out sometime in the last month and I fear the yeast turning color is due to oxidation. :o
Should I bottle the batch? or ditch it?
Do I try to siphon off the black/white off the top first? Or leave it?
Do I stir the top layer back into the beer now to get more yeast suspension, or just siphon out of the middle and dump the bottom inch and top inch in the secondary?
Please advise only if you have seen this before. No guessing unless you are fairly certain please. And thanks in advance for your responses.
Here is a new photo I just took. homebrew - Imgur
Taste and see for yourself, but you will likely want to dump it. If your airlock has been dry for more than a day or two without active fermentation, it has gone too far.
ETA - I have no clue what your are referring to by yeast coming back to the top. I don’t think whatever that is can be considered normal.
Dump it.
A pale ale bottled for 5 months may begin losing flavor. Taste a SG sample and decide. If you would decide to bottle leave the stuff floating on the top in the fermentor.
+1. Go get a new kit and start over. You will be much happier with the results.
+2. Life’s too short to drink nasty beer. It’s not a guess on our part - that beer will taste atrocious after a month with a dry airlock. Do yourself a favor and rebrew.
Dump it.
That is a pellicle forming indicating an infection. Dump it, clean the hell out of your carboy, and live to brew another day.
The airlock is a bit of problem, but your taste buds will tell the tell.
If it taste like good flat beer,then go for it. Siphon below protein layer in the fermenter. The yeast has most likely dropped out of solution. So you will need the make a new yeast ( US 05) will work fine. Don’t bottle bad beer, it doesn’t get better.