New to kit brewing - Advice about potential contamination

[yuridwyer]

Hi, I'm new to brewing and new to this forum, hoping someone would be able to give me some advice. I'm on my fifth, Cooper's Irish Stout, no issues with contamination for the first four, but after about three weeks in the PV I noticed a yellow thing in my airlock, stuck to the wall of it, as the beer tasted fine I continued onto bottle it about 10 days later. However while I was bottling some of the liquid in the airlock bubbled up and I think went into the fermenter, and once it settled I noticed there was yellow bits floating around in it (the airlock that is, which I removed and continued bottling with the airlock off). I asked a friend who thought it might have been the krausen blown up into it, but I don't think so myself, but I could be wrong. Anyone any ideas? Any advice greatly appreciated!!

[phildo79]

Wouldn't worry too much about that tiny bit of yellow stuff. Which is probably a little bit of krausen. You should see the state of some of my airlocks midway through fermentation.

But aren't you transferring to a secondary FV before bottling?

Transferring to a second FV and through a sanitised sieve will give you a cleaner beer and reduce sediment in the bottle.

[mick02]

Hi Yuri and welcome to the forum.

About this yellow stuff. Was your airlock clean before you used it? What I'm trying to figure out is if this was a product of fermentation (such as krausen as was previously mentioned)

If it was there before you started then you might be in trouble but if it's just krausen that made it's way into the airlock then I reckon you're safe enough.

[LordEoin]

looks to me like a few grains of dried yeast fell in there

[yuridwyer]

Thanks for the responses guys , to answer your questions:
1. Am not using a secondary fermenter (yet), just using carbonation drops, as I want to walk before I run with this home-brewing lark, experimenting with 1, 1.5, 2 carbonation drops per 500mL bottle, but will move on to batch priming at some stage. Only put 1 per bottle in for the stout, as I don't want too much fizz in it
2. Airlock was clean and sanitized beforehand, used oxipro I think it's called, for all equipment

Looking forward to it either way in mid December, either a tasty stout or something to give me two weeks off work 

[LordEoin]

1 carb drop should be plenty. 2 will probably overcarb unless you have big-ass bottles

[phildo79]

I've never used carb drops so I don't know an awful lot about them. However, if they are Cooper's carb drops, they are designed for 375ml and 750ml bottles. These are the bottle sizes in Australia and back when I started brewing, this was the advice given in the little booklet that came with the kit. Cooper's would prefer you to buy their big plastic PET bottles when you're making their kits.

Maybe things have changed? Maybe there are lots of different carb drops to choose from nowadays?

My mate that first advised me on homebrewing told me not to waste my money on carb drops and just buy a box of sugar cubes. I wouldn't bother doing that, if I were you, as trying to cut a sugar cube in half is a right pain in the arse.

Get yourself a second FV for a tenner, a length of 1/2" syphon tubing, some measuring spoons or a set of scales (whatever way you prefer to measure your sugar) and batch prime after transfer. It really is a straightforward way to prime your beers and practically full proof.

[Raxy]

I used the drops for my first batch. 1 drop is not enough imo for 500ml bottles. Not sure if 2 would be too much as I didn't use them again after.
I think I seen a recommendation somewhere to cut a drop in half for 500ml bottles but that would be a pain.
I keep the leftover sugar from kits for carbing & batch prime.

[Ceedee]

I too used the carbonation drops just once, they aren't suitable for 500ml bottles. As others have already said, batch priming is not that much more effort you just need to be careful to avoid introducing oxygen when transferring.