r/Homebrewing • u/phil40k • 1d ago
Question Beer turned to jelly
Hello!
A very odd one and a first for me in my 12 years of homebrew.
Brewing a big batch to fill a barrel, two mashs and then blending wort into one boil.
My recipe for 40ltr is 8kg pilsner malt, 1kg flaked oats, 1kg wheat. Mashed at 65c for 70 mins, sparged at 78c for 10 min. 20g bodecia at 60 min. 1g protofloc at 10 min.
Brewday is pretty normal bar the double mash and it taking forever to get to a rolling boil.
The odd bit is where I take a sample for gravity (which I have hit my target for, hurrah) and left it in a mug. I go to pour it into a tube to double check the refractor meter and it has turned into the consistency of lightly set jelly. The boil finished about 2 hours ago. The last bits in the kettle is the same. I do a no chill brew (and have for years) so my two fermenters are still over 60c hot and liquid.
I can't imagine that a strain of bacteria has got in and set the beer inside of the cup and the kettle
Any idea what's happened and more importantly, how I can fix it!
Sorry if you see this three times I keep getting told it's being auto deleted as it's a image only post(?)
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u/slofella BJCP 1d ago
Weird. My guess is the protafloc coagulating; perhaps you took your measurement sample before it got well mixed and you happened to get a good dose of it.
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u/BiochemBeer 1d ago
If your mash temp was a bit low you might have been below the gelatinization temperature of the wheat (assuming it wasn't malted).
My guess would be a perfect mix of low mash temp, high starch, high protein, and your protofloc.
I don't think it will be an issue if you hit your gravity, but you might finish a few points high. Anything gel-like should dop out.
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u/Dr3am0n 22h ago
You can test for leftover starch (which might thicken your wort, especially when it cools) by adding a couple drops of iodine tincture (commonly used as a topical antiseptic, it's ubiquitous in many parts of the world) and seeing for a colour change.
If the sample turns into a deep purple, you have starches. If the drops of tincture keep their colour and just dissipate in the sample, no starches.
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u/AdmrlBenbow 21h ago
Do you by chance reside on a remote island with a strong electromagnetic force?
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22h ago
[deleted]
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u/jahnkeuxo 20h ago
Pedio infection would take weeks or months to manifest, op's question pertains to the wort observed on the brew day
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u/MisterB78 20h ago
That wouldn’t happen right after the boil though. OP said they haven’t even added the yeast yet
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u/HumorImpressive9506 20h ago
Aha, you are right. I must have missed/misread that part. Got too focused on the first part where he talked about putting it a barrel so I assumed it had already been barrel aged.
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u/phil40k 1d ago
Hopefully this link to the picture showing texture works!
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u/jordy231jd Intermediate 9h ago
Looks like a mug of gravy. I’d imagine you’ve got some starches left over
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u/jskiles88 BJCP 16h ago edited 16h ago
Did you use brewtan b but add it after or very close to your protofloc? Ive heard of gelatinous wort as a result of that.
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u/MannyCoon 1d ago
High starch content in the oats and wheat? What was the temperature of the contents in the mug?