Pellicle Photo Collection

I posted on this beer before, (post#509). Take a look at how much it's changed...I've really enjoyed watching the pellicle do its thing.

Brewed on 5/20/12:

Is there any way to tell what I've got here? This is unintentional after my second dry hop. Must have come off the hops as my bag was dipped in starsan for a good half minute before adding. It tastes good, a little sour, not too much. I ended up kegging it because we're moving and our kegerator was almost empty. It's an IPA and the film, pellicle, whatever it is was between 3 and 9 days old.

Lacto?

snaps10 said:

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Is there any way to tell what I've got here? This is unintentional after my second dry hop. Must have come off the hops as my bag was dipped in starsan for a good half minute before adding. It tastes good, a little sour, not too much. I ended up kegging it because we're moving and our kegerator was almost empty. It's an IPA and the film, pellicle, whatever it is was between 3 and 9 days old.

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That looks like yeast rafts, krausen remnants, and hop oils, i.e. not an infection.

Just so I can learn from my betters: You don't think the white-ish film in combination with the slightly sour taste that the poster indicates a lacto infection?

drchris83 said:

Just so I can learn from my betters: You don't think the white-ish film in combination with the slightly sour taste that the poster indicates a lacto infection?

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All the photos that I've seen in this thread, along with the sour beers I've made, have indicated that, roughly, a bubbly, fuzzy film indicate Brett and a stringy film indicates lacto. I can't really say regarding the sour taste, although I've gotten some weird flavors out of beers that are still in the carboy. But the photo, at least, doesn't look like an infection; I've had a lot of saccharomyces fermentations that looked exactly like that.

The sour taste is oftentimes imparted from lots of dry hops. I would take a long time for a beer to sour from something like that. I does look like an infection to me with the cloudy bubbles, but I think if you got it into a keg you'll be fine. Just make sure to drink it up.

Hops are also antibacterial. That is why they were originally added to beer...as a preservative. It is pretty doubtful something was living in the hops to infect the beer.

One gallon wild sour starter

hunterlab said:

This is a unintentional infection I think. It was a pumpkin ale that I brewed a week ago.

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It's just fine. No worries.

Tiber_Brew said:

One gallon wild sour starter

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Are those black specks mould?

drchris83 said:

Are those black specks mould?

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No, that's where the pellicle is thin enough to see the wort beneath it. I was more worried about the white powdery stuff at first, but I think it's fine. It smells wonderful.

Peach wheat started with US-05 and finishing with Jolly Pumpkin dregs.

Sour wort infected with a lacto starter I made from grain husk.

KeyWestBrewing said:

Sour wort infected with a lacto starter I made from grain husk.

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Really cool!

Thank you!! It has a nice clean smell too . I'm excited to rack this baby on some rhubarb in a few weeks.

pellicle on my wild ale, had to pop the bubble on the right for a sample; still needs lots more acidity to get to where I want it to go; been aging since march. bucket is wrapped in "Saran Wrap©" to prevent over-oxidation.

These pictures are fricken awesome. I need to start reading up on this to do a sour in the future, I love sours.

My Blackberry Saison Brux

Somewhere between blonde and red. Brett B, C, L, lacto, pedio, jolly pumpkin dregs, started with US05.

jeepinjeepin said:

Somewhere between blonde and red. Brett B, C, L, lacto, pedio, jolly pumpkin dregs, started with US05.

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What size is the barrel?

bottlebomber said:

What size is the barrel?

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~53 gallons

jeepinjeepin said:

~53 gallons

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Good lord.. Is that a club endeavor or just you? How many batches did it take to fill the barrel? And what are you going to do with it all outside of the obvious?

bottlebomber said:

Good lord.. Is that a club endeavor or just you? How many batches did it take to fill the barrel? And what are you going to do with it all outside of the obvious?

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All me. I've put 8-10 batches in it at anywhere from 5-10 gallons each. It was several days of brewing. I think 2 week nights and a weekend. I've pulled one 5 gallon keg out of it so far. I'm not sure what the final plan is outside of 5 gallons out and 5 gallons of wort back in. I'll do that until I'm tired of it or it goes bad.

jeepinjeepin said:

All me. I've put 8-10 batches in it at anywhere from 5-10 gallons each. It was several days of brewing. I think 2 week nights and a weekend. I've pulled one 5 gallon keg out of it so far. I'm not sure what the final plan is outside of 5 gallons out and 5 gallons of wort back in. I'll do that until I'm tired of it or it goes bad.

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I've got 20 gallons of sour blonde stock that's about 6 months old. I was thinking of making some of it into fruit lambic, at least a framboise and a peche, although tonight I had a Hops n Roses that is a wild with hibiscus and rose hips, it sounded weird but it rocked. I'll probably turn a case of it into that.

Mine too is six months young.

Jeepinjeepin,

I am unclear on the aspects of using a barrel. Do you primary your wort and then transfer to the barrel or do you siphon the fresh wort directly into the barrel and let the bugs and yeasts you have previously added do their job? If the later, do you have a problem with blow-off from the barrel?

lunshbox said:

Jeepinjeepin,

I am unclear on the aspects of using a barrel. Do you primary your wort and then transfer to the barrel or do you siphon the fresh wort directly into the barrel and let the bugs and yeasts you have previously added do their job? If the later, do you have a problem with blow-off from the barrel?

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I've done both. I fermented my first ~30 gallons with US05 in buckets. I didn't cold crash but did let them settle out. I added those 30 gallons with my bugs and added fresh wort to nearly top off the barrel. At times it was quite active but didn't make much if any krausen. Now when I add top up up to 5 gallons it is still again by the next day.

lunshbox said:

Jeepinjeepin,

I am unclear on the aspects of using a barrel. Do you primary your wort and then transfer to the barrel or do you siphon the fresh wort directly into the barrel and let the bugs and yeasts you have previously added do their job? If the later, do you have a problem with blow-off from the barrel?

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I also have a barrel going (60 gallon malbec from a local winery) and I did a clean primary in glass & then racked to the barrel with bugs. I also added a small amount of existing sour beer I had lying around.

First pic is what this wild yeast (harvested from wine grapes) did when I left some of it sitting in a pint glass open to the air for a few weeks.
2nd and 3rd are pics of the pellicle that's just formed when i woke it up from a long lonely nap.

mutedog said:

First pic is what this wild yeast (harvested from wine grapes) did when I left some of it sitting in a pint glass open to the air for a few weeks.
2nd and 3rd are pics of the pellicle that's just formed when i woke it up from a long lonely nap.

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I'm glad that flask says 'Feral' and not 'Fecal' as I originally read it.

jeepinjeepin said:

I've done both. I fermented my first ~30 gallons with US05 in buckets. I didn't cold crash but did let them settle out. I added those 30 gallons with my bugs and added fresh wort to nearly top off the barrel. At times it was quite active but didn't make much if any krausen. Now when I add top up up to 5 gallons it is still again by the next day.

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Fantastic. I am looking at a barrel but didn't want to commit if I didn't know what was going on. Cheers!

dcHokie said:

I'm glad that flask says 'Feral' and not 'Fecal' as I originally read it.

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I'm not sure how well candida ferments...

mutedog said:

I'm not sure how well candida ferments...

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A little TOO well.

Oh, you mean in beer. Dunno, man.

mutedog said:

I'm not sure how well candida ferments...

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My scientific curiosity is overcoming my common sense...

bottlebomber said:

I've got 20 gallons of sour blonde stock that's about 6 months old. I was thinking of making some of it into fruit lambic, at least a framboise and a peche, although tonight I had a Hops n Roses that is a wild with hibiscus and rose hips, it sounded weird but it rocked. I'll probably turn a case of it into that.

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Just make sure to look into which kind of hibiscus you use. I've heard the white ones are poisonous but I know for a fact the red ones are ok.

KeyWestBrewing said:

Just make sure to look into which kind of hibiscus you use. I've heard the white ones are poisonous but I know for a fact the red ones are ok.

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They sell dried flowers at a Mexican market nearby, red ones. I had figured on using those. Good to know about the white ones though. Maybe I'll do a case of some really wild wild using morning glory seeds in the secondary.

bottlebomber said:

They sell dried flowers at a Mexican market nearby, red ones. I had figured on using those. Good to know about the white ones though. Maybe I'll do a case of some really wild wild using morning glory seeds in the secondary.

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Morning glory seeds are great (Hawaiian baby woodrose is even better) if you don't mind projectile vomiting!

Just careful with the morning glory seeds lol. I had a summer where I was interested in different states of consciousness and perception of reality in these different states of mind. To sum it up simpler, me and a few friends did a lot of researching and experimented the different effects of different hallucinogens.... Morning glory being one of them. Morning glory seeds contain LSA, a chemical very similar to LSD, and have been used as far back in time as the ancient Mayans(they called it tlitlitzin) for their psychoactive properties. Depending on potency of the seeds as little as 25 seeds can be a dose with effects lasting 6-10 hours. Check out Erowid.org for more info as there are also health risks of ingesting morning glory seeds. Especially for those taking certain types of anti depressant medications.