A while ago I had some beer from a six pack that was sitting around too long and I noticed some things floating around in the beer that looked like translucent crystal flakes. The beer seemed to be going bad too. Does anyone know what this could be ?
Was it refrigerated? Sometimes some of the water in the beer can freeze if kept too cold for too long. Otherwise, it's probably just yeast sediment.
Yes it was refrigerated but not too cold.. Yeast usually sits at the bottom. These things were floating all around. Tasted okay but it was going bad because those things weren't there before. I can't really describe the shape but they were elliptical formations.
when you say "crystals" maybe the same answer (proteins) but based on other things (not beer specific) i've observed a similar sounding crystal phenomenon. it happens when the temp/environment swings rapidly from room temp to colder, the fat/oils don't swing at the same pace as the water/moisture & some of the oil then gets trapped separate. another thing that accelerates oil breakdown in beer is light. since you say it didn't taste different / bad, i wouldn't think light was the issue.
Thanks, I didn't think it could be protein. There was a fair amount of it floating around, and it seemed very light in weight. I think it may have been too abundant to be protein. These translucent elliptical formations were about 1 mm long. How much protein could form from the beer itself? Wouldn't it precipitate as opposed to float in solution?
