Pellicle?

Hello. I brewed EdWort's Bee Cave Hefeweizen an couple of months ago (delicious) and on a whim racked a gallon or so onto some fozen strawberries. I went to keg it recently and saw this. I had a small taste and it tasted sourish. I have never seen this before. Is this the growth of something good or something bad? Is it mold? Thanks.

Looks like a pellicle to me it doesn't look like mold which is hairier and fluffy. Whether its good or not depends on your palate. If you don't want this to happen in the future you should use campden on the fruit a day or so before racking the beer onto it.

Thanks Aschecte. Assuming it is a pellicle, I have a couple of followup questions.
Can it stay in the plastic bucket it is currently in for a good while?
How long should I let it go for?

The only problem with leaving it in a plastic bucket is the amount of oxygen permability and if there is any acetobactor it could cause it to grow and create acetic acid it turn it into vinegar.

Is it safe to transfer this to a glass carboy at this point? What would you recommend that I do to maximize my chances of sucess with this experiment? Thanks again!

Crayfish said:

Thanks Aschecte. Assuming it is a pellicle, I have a couple of followup questions.
Can it stay in the plastic bucket it is currently in for a good while?
How long should I let it go for?

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Well in theory you can leave it in the bucket but because I the higher amount of oxygen buckets allow in you most likely will end up with 5 gallons of vinegar from the acetobacter. I would rack it into a glass Carboy and age it for a year or more. This is all assuming you want to have a sour wild beer. You should not use that bucket any longer for non sour beer as plastic cannot be sterilized sufficiently. Also any soft plastics such as your racking cane and hoses will have to be sour only tools as well. Making sours is a commitment not only in time but in dedicating equipment.

I definitely want a sour beer and have actually been thinking about purchasing dedicated equipment and attempting something in the near future. So, this is actually serendipitous.
When I transfer to glass, do I transfer the fruit as well or just the beer? Thanks.

just cuz its in plastic isnt gunna lead to aceto and u can certainly re-use the bucket & other plastics for non-sours, i do it all the time. you might have some brett there, but the tart could just be from the fruit fermentation

dcp27 said:

just cuz its in plastic isnt gunna lead to aceto and u can certainly re-use the bucket & other plastics for non-sours, i do it all the time. you might have some brett there, but the tart could just be from the fruit fermentation

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To each their own I'm not saying your wrong but oxygen does allow aerobic bacteria like acetobacter to produce acetic acid as well as Brett produces acetic acid in aerobic conditions. Though on the flip side a pellicle does help minimize oxygen coming into contact with the wort just not fully. My take is glass all the way why risk it. Also why risk harboring bacteria in small scratches in plastic not to mention plastics are porous and will allow absorption of bacteria once again why risk it but if it works for you who am I to say differently.

Crayfish said:

I definitely want a sour beer and have actually been thinking about purchasing dedicated equipment and attempting something in the near future. So, this is actually serendipitous.
When I transfer to glass, do I transfer the fruit as well or just the beer? Thanks.

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I would wait till the 1 year mark then transfer, but you could absolutely bottle it when it tastes good to you.

Aschecte said:

To each their own I'm not saying your wrong but oxygen does allow aerobic bacteria like acetobacter to produce acetic acid as well as Brett produces acetic acid in aerobic conditions. Though on the flip side a pellicle does help minimize oxygen coming into contact with the wort just not fully. My take is glass all the way why risk it. Also why risk harboring bacteria in small scratches in plastic not to mention plastics are porous and will allow absorption of bacteria once again why risk it but if it works for you who am I to say differently.

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while oxygen does allow that, why would u believe this beer would be any more at risk of aceto than any other beer in a bucket? also, it takes alot more oxygen than whats permeable thru a bucket to get a noticable acetic acid content from brett. sure glass & separate equipment is much safer, but brett/bugs doesnt put a death sentence on plastics, proper cleaning/sanitation should make it plenty safe, at least it has IME and others here

OP, if it tastes to your liking now, there's no reason not to rack it to a keg whenever you're ready.

"while oxygen does allow that, why would u believe this beer would be any more at risk of aceto than any other beer in a bucket?"

- The only reason i question acetobactor is that he used frozen unpasteurized strawberries which may kill of certain things but obviously not all or he would not have developed and unintentional pellicle. Most likely it is Brett but there could easily be pedio, lacto,aceto in there with it too.

"it takes alot more oxygen than whats permeable thru a bucket to get a noticable acetic acid content from brett."

I'm just citing everything I have every read from Wild brew, and believe it or not Better Bottle. They all claim that buckets allow in a considerable amount of oxygen that makes them unsuitable for long term storage. Better bottle actually has a whole scientific study showing the different O2 absorbtion rates ( no there's did not rate the best ). also glass is not porous but the stoppers are and you even get O2 in through them using glass. No option is 100% but glass is the best of all options.

I don't mean to sound argumentitive I'm only going based on everything I have learned over the years but hey like I said if it works for you who am I to say different and for that matter maybe I'll give it a shot and I learned something new today.

I am going to transfer this because I want the bucket to start a new (sour) beer and I have an empty 3 gallon glass carboy (the batch is only a couple of gallons). When I do this, will the pellicle reform? I plan on leaving the fruit behind since transferring would be difficult. Is racking onto more fruit an option? Thank you both for the advice.