Lactobacillus-like bubbles formed while dry hopping?

So I'm not trying to start one of those newbie "is my beer infected?" threads, but I saw something today that caught my eye and could use some opinions.

I have recently seen pictures of what a lactobacillus infection looks like on beer. Well, I came home today and looked at my ipa and these caught my eye:



Normally I'm used to seeing very small clusters of bubbles on the surface this late into fermentation (its been 16 days). Bit I can't recall if I saw this on another beer I've dry hopped (only done 2).

I'm curious if the hops could be forming these bubbles. Like a hop resin on the surface thats not allowing co2 to escape easily, thus causing the big bubbles.

I'm really thorough when I clean and sanitize so I'm not very worried about this but wanted to get the opinion of some seasoned vets.

I would take a sample but I'm out of Sanitizer.

Thanks, guys/gals.

Sometimes dry hopping looks disgusting. I'd give it a few days and see what happens.

went to the store and bought some sanitizer... about to give it a try.

Tastes fine. A nice roasty Black IPA. But I did notice that there is a film on top of the beer. Im wondering if I should keg early to get it away from that film. Its almost been fermenting for 3 weeks. Dry hopped for 6 days. Thoughts? Leave it alone? Get it out of there?

Depends on the kind of film really. The tail part of fermentation can leave a film, but so can a pellicle. If you haven't, go to the Lambic/wild brewing forum and check out the pellicle thread in the stickies. It's an awesome read/view whether you have an infection or not! So far I'd say that your first picture looks pretty normal.

lowtones84 said:

Depends on the kind of film really. The tail part of fermentation can leave a film, but so can a pellicle. If you haven't, go to the Lambic/wild brewing forum and check out the pellicle thread in the stickies. It's an awesome read/view whether you have an infection or not! So far I'd say that your first picture looks pretty normal.

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Yeah I'm having some back and forth battles in my head. On the one side, I don't want to throw out a potentially fine beer. On the other side, if its a lacto infection I've read that you need to replace everything plastic so I'm hesitant to keg at the risk of infecting my beer line. Those lines are tough to change!

mrrshotshot said:

Yeah I'm having some back and forth battles in my head. On the one side, I don't want to throw out a potentially fine beer. On the other side, if its a lacto infection I've read that you need to replace everything plastic so I'm hesitant to keg at the risk of infecting my beer line. Those lines are tough to change!

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Meh - beer line is a one-way street, and would easily be cleaned afterwards. A mild bleach/water solution left to sit overnight would likely do the trick. Then a good rinse and flush over the next couple nights, and BAM! New beer lines!

paulster2626 said:

Sometimes dry hopping looks disgusting. I'd give it a few days and see what happens.

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Exactly.

My first dry hopping did the same thing, Buermuncher showed me pics of it happening with some of his.

Sometimes hop oils form a "skin" and traps rising co2 bubbles, but it's NOT really a pellicule.

Revvy said:

Sometimes hop oils form a "skin" and traps rising co2 bubbles, but it's NOT really a pellicule.

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Right on. I'll wait it out and go from there. I thought that's what it was but wanted to double check.

An update for those who care:

I started cold crashing when I got home this afternoon from work. 4.5 hours later and all the bubbles have disappeared. Most of the hops have already fallen from suspension. There is a very light film on the surface that I am assuming (and hoping) is from the hops themselves. The film looks nothing like the films I've seen in the numerous pellicle/infection threads I've been scouring the past few days. It is more of a transparent film if that helps.

I wish I could RDWHAHB but I'm fresh out haha. Maybe a trip to whole foods is in order tomorrow to pick up something to hold me over.... or I could bust open that Parabola in the back of my fridge.... but I think I'll save that for a cold winters day.

Thanks for all your input!

Keg'd it yesterday. Tastes amazing! Thanks for all your input!