what happened to this beer?

That's some shitty luck

 

Did you buy it fresh or more recently? Did you get it from a store or brewery? If store, is it a place you trust to properly care for the brew? How and for how long was it stored after you purchased it? Did you store it standing or on its side?

 

bottle was stored upside down?

 

You could contact the brewery and see if they have any idea. Send them the picture too.

 

Well, i agree that you have gotten totally awesome answers...WTF, people?

It looks like the residue I see in home brewing when the krausen falls. Whatever floats with the krausen sticks like crazy to the sides of the bucket above the liquid level. Is it possible there was a vigorous enough fermentation in the bottle to create a krausen? I dont know if that can happen, but others might. I was trying to figure how it could be yeast if it is on the top...was the bottle stored on its side or was it upside down for a while? Maybe just a foamy bottle at filling with some sediment floating on the foam? Kinda speculating here, but at least trying to think what it could be versus being a smartass. I cant figure if this beer was finished with Brett...one place says it is, but not the brewery web site. Pellicle in the bottle? Seems unlikely as krausen in the bottle...

This is a year old beer, according to the website it was not made this year, right? Shouldnt matter, as Propolis actually recommends some aging as beneficial. Most likely it isnt harmful since it more or less cant be. Maybe send them the picture?

Was the cap secure? I dont know if that would cause what you saw if it was not tight.

@JackHorzempa ...what do you think? You also know people (better than I do) who might be helpful...give some troops a shout?

 

Looks like secondary fermentation might have occurred in the bottle. Same thing happened in a few of my home brews, though I didn't notice any adverse effects.

 

I have changed many a baby diaper in my day and this reminds me of that.

I do have a story to tell though. About six months ago the termite inspector was looking around in my crawl space. When he came out he asked me if I knew I had an old case of Miller beer hidden behind one of the support posts. I had forgotten that I hid it there over ten years ago (reason why I will not copt to).

Anyway, I brought this up because I opened one and it looked good, smelled good, and being a guy was tempted to taste it. But I didn't. Instead, I poured the case on the compost pile because I was told earthworms like beer. My wife says that guys have a lot in common with earthworms.

So my question is how can a ten year old cheap beer not be in the same sorry shape as yours unless somehow it got contaminated/infected.

 

toilet aged stout

 

Everyone has thought it, I'm just saying it... could it simply be yeast? It's uniform in color and consistency and looks just like lees, only at the top of the bottle. It's maybe just a little darker. How it got to the top of the bottle... maybe it was upright at some point and was kept cool enough to stick to the sides, you did say it was refrigerated the whole time. I've had plenty of homebrews that were kept above freezing temperature and had yeast stuck in all kinds of weird places. Looks nasty, but if you tasted it and it seems fine... seems like an unnecessary drainpour.

 

Isn't Granum a Saison? I find that "residue" to be pretty dark for a Saison.

 

sh*t was stored on its side / upside down
dome that f*cker

 

I agree with you on the looks. For krausen, if that were true the bottle should have exploded from the pressure and shame on the brewer for bottling it before it reached terminal gravity.

 

It looks like yeast, probably from being stored at some point with the bottle neck down. It happens with bottle conditioned beers sometimes. Most (all?) Propolis beers I have had have been corked then capped. There would have been some non-trivial pressure release when you uncapped that if it were krausen from an unintentional secondary fermentation.

This assessment is coming from someone who lives fairly close to the brewery and is an active homebrewer.

 

Anybody ever point your shocking resemblance to Kenny from Half Baked? Nasty Nate shat in your beer, man

 

I don't see how the Krausen could form up without busting the seal. My bet is before you got it it was stored upside down and when it was flipped that shit decided to hang around the cap and neck. When you popped it was it under pressure or did it seem flat? As usual pour it and drink it, odds are you have done that already or dumped it.

 

What is in that photograph has the look of krausen. How krausen could have formed in a beer stored vertically (not upside down) is a mystery to me.

I think that @bbtkd has a good suggestion in that you should e-mail this photograph to the brewery and ask them what's up.

Cheers!