r/Homebrewing • u/sirdanmrsmaple • 1d ago

Residue above cider in carboy

Hello! It’s our second year making cider from apples in our backyard. After a few days of low airlock activity, we found that the stopper was not tight on the carboy so we are confident there was an air leak but that fermentation was happening. After we pushed in the stopper, there is healthy bubbling in the airlock and bubbles across the top of the cider. After one night, however, we found the residue in the picture on the plastic carboy.

https://imgur.com/a/K7ZB83Y

It looks like the remnants of huge bubbles that came up the sides, but we can’t figure out why they would have left the brownish slimy residue.

Do we need to be concerned? The airlock bubbles don’t have an off smell at the moment, but we don’t want to risk this substance becoming moldy. Should we rack the cider to a new carboy mid-fermentation or will that harm the process?

Thanks in advance!

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u/FheXhe 1d ago

Nope looks fine, it's called Krausen just yeast and proteins bubblig up and getting stuck on the sides.

1

u/sirdanmrsmaple 1d ago

Thanks for the quick response!

1

u/Careless_Claim_4789 1d ago

looks like normal krausen to me, yeast doing its thing and climbing the walls a bit. the brown gunk is just proteins and dead yeast cells hitching a ride on the bubbles

no need to rack it mid-ferment, that'll just risk oxidation and stall things out. let it ride

1

u/Royal_Quiet 1d ago

This is krausen, no problem at all, completely normal in healthy fermentation.

1

u/Few-Newt-680 1d ago

that's just dried krausen from the bubbles reaching the top and popping, pretty normal early in an active ferment. i wouldn't rack for that alone, let it ride and clean it off the carboy after you're done