Oaky

Recipes 

So. This has happened to me twice now.
I wonder if it a yeast thing or a possible contamination.

I get some bubbles in the neck of the secondary. These look silky off white and don't look too different from fermentation bubbles - except that they stay there until undisturbed and are more solid and permanent compared to what I would normally expect from fermentation. They range in size up to 1 inch in diameter and create a layer on the surface that is about 1/4 of an inch and seems like a "film".
This has happened both times with fairly high gravity stuff. This time it is in my russian imperial stout which probably weights in at 9%. It also happened to a batch of concord grapes we pressed.

With the grapes we actually racked and kemetaed and that seemed to work fine. Taste doesn't seem affected in either case.

I wonder if I should do the same with the beer?
Could this be a yeast in my basement? I've done some wild ferments or is it a normal behavior based on some elements in the beer?

Having seen shots of pellicle it made me think of it, thus my question on the lambic forum ;-) I figure you guys must know weird yeast behavior!

jessup

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do the bubbles look anything like the pix in this thread?
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f127/does-starter-look-right-165803/

Oaky

Recipes 

yes. they look very much like that. so is that indeed a pellicle developing? Is there anything I should do? (other than rename the beer a sour beer or lambic?!)
Should I Kmeta it or Campden it or just rack it and let it do its thing?

jessup

Recipes 

what you have is a lactobacillus infection. this can be done purposely like in the starter thread, but lacto grows everywhere and can easily infect if you're not sanitary in your practices. when i first used roselare yeast is when i became familiar with lacto and those weird bubbles; fyi roselare yeast is a seasonal yeast and a mix of lactobacillus, pedioccus and brett http://www.wyeastlab.com/rw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=194.

from now on be sure to sterilize/sanitize well. and from what i understand a pellicle is from brett, so you don't have a true "pellicle" yet. now would be a good time to throw in some oak and brett and let this sit for a while, maybe in time you will have a pellicle

Oaky

Recipes 

Aha. Another science experiment! It somewhat makes sense in that I was playing around with cheese and had bad rennet - so it kind of lingered in a state of quasi cheesiness - and likely that would possibly lead to this infection.
So - bigger question is - should I be concerned about this? Should I try to mitigate it or roll with it (and add oak and brett?!)

electric_beer

Recipes 

If your stout wasn't very hoppy that will really help your chances of a good brew. I'd say give her a lil taste and see what you have going. That is usually the best indicator.

Oaky

Recipes 

Well - here is the recipe.
http://hopville.com/recipe/155341/russian-imperial-stout-recipes/rasputins-vision

The hop bill is actually incorrect. these were older hops - so likely to have low alphas. the rest were from my 09 tett harvest. the wormwood is making the drink fairly bitter even though i only used about an ounce.
Taste wise, I can definitely recognize the wormwood, and spices are less apparent now. It's not bad, but it definitely needs aging. I wasn't planning on drinking this beast until October/November this year - so I can still doctor it. I was thinking of adding some honey to try to combat the bitterness.