Mosquito in the Kraeusen

In spite of careful attention to sanitization, this morning I found a tiny mosquito floating atop the foam in my fermenter! Best guess is she flew into the kettle during the boil or after cooling. It was well after sunset by the time I finished cooling the wort. The garage lights would have attracted any mosquitos out braving the cold.

I used a bamboo cake probe, about as big around as a toothpick, to fish the insect out through the top of the carboy. Boy, if a bug as big as a mosquito can get in so easily, what else might have drifted into the mix? Hopefully, the action of the yeast will kill off anything ugly.

Fermenter porn.

There's about an inch of kraeusen foam after twelve hours in the fermenter. And I've built a reinforced shelf twenty inches off the floor of the standing Ikea closet that is my fermenting booth. This way I won't have to disturb the fermenter when I rack to the secondary.