[CABUTLER]

Howdy,
I recently bottled a porter and I am concerned it may be contaminated. The bottles in question have a white haze from the top of the beer (in neck of bottle) down about 1 inch. When I swirl the beer around a bit, it slightly dissipates, but I can see small chunks of light colored sediment. The sediment is miniscule and very thin and flaky. I have been brewing for over 15 years and this is a first. Maybe this is normal, I don't usually check up on my beers that shortly after bottling, but I bottled an Octoberfest and noticed the haze in a clear bomber when I set the Ofest next to it. I was so concerned about this, I cracked a bottle open and tried it before it was carbed. It has only been 5 days since I bottled it. It tasted fine. Actually, it tasted great.  I have had one batch in my brewing career that was definitely contaminated and I knew why (bung blew off and have used blow-off tubes ever since). It was sour enough to make my eyes water. I still drank it. Here is another reason why I am concerned:

I brewed the Porter, then racked to a secondary. I then brewed an American Stout and pitched that onto the Porter's cake. The Porter was perfectly flawless in appearance in the secondary. It tasted great going into the bottles, as did the stout. Here's the confusing part. I didn't rack the stout to a secondary. Instead, I bottled both the Porter and Stout at the same time, one after another. The Porter first, then the stout. I sanitized my equipment and the bottles the same way, just like always. Every bottle of Porter has this 1 inch haze with sediment at the neck of each bottle. None of bottles of Stout have this ring.

They are both all grain batches using similar ingredients (base pale malt, chocolate, crystal). The exception is the Porter has black patent and the Stout roasted barley and the ratios. The Porter did have 1lb of local honey that I added with about 1 min left in the boil.

I'm stumped and hoping I'm being paranoid because of the volume of homebrew I bottled together. They both tasted spectacular...which I guess is all that really matters. I would value any thoughts on the subject.

Cheers 

Bottled: Robust Porter, Stout, APA, Smoked beer, Kolsch, and Octoberfest
Lagering: Dortmunder

[morticaixavier]

sounds like the yeast is still working. you can see it in the porter bottles but only in the neck because likely the porter is slightly less black than the stout and the neck it where the light penetrates the best.

There are a fair number of assumptions in that statement but regardless, if it tastes good, let it ride. it's not going to hurt you, just might not taste good.

I went to keg a stout the other day and popped the lid only to discover that my love affair with brett had bitten me on the... well bitten me anyway. a powdery tan pellicle had formed. I went ahead and kegged as it didn't taste bad and I do love brett (she's so dreamy). that bucket will no longer be used for clean fermentations though.

[David Lester]

Be careful of exploding bottles. CO2 pressure will build up a lot if it is still fermenting, whether it's from yeast or contamination.

Cheers,