Pellicle Photo Collection

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SarcasticHorse said:
sorry to potentially go off track on this post but I have a oatmeal stout that had been in primary almost a month that I just noticied some huge bubbles yesterday and transferred it to secondary to get it off the yeast cake. its been less than 12 hours and bubbles are slowly returning....does this look like Pellicle?

when I transferred it smelled like a delicious oatmeal stout. the only funky thing was a small fruit fly had managed to get into the airlock and die in the vodka at the top of the primary and was floating in it, not sure if that is a clear sign.
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Looks like a pellicle/krausen mix. Whatever is in there is very active.
 
SarcasticHorse said:
sorry to potentially go off track on this post but I have a oatmeal stout that had been in primary almost a month that I just noticied some huge bubbles yesterday and transferred it to secondary to get it off the yeast cake. its been less than 12 hours and bubbles are slowly returning....does this look like Pellicle?

when I transferred it smelled like a delicious oatmeal stout. the only funky thing was a small fruit fly had managed to get into the airlock and die in the vodka at the top of the primary and was floating in it, not sure if that is a clear sign.
Click to expand...

That just looks like krausen and normal fermentation to me. What were the temps like over that month? Any chance the yeasty beasties fell asleep and a change in temp or moving the carboy woke em up?
 
Yeast pitched and run about 64 for first 36 hours or so of fermentation a month ago, then a heat wave came through and our place got up to 69-70 so the yeast was pretty aggressive then stopped for a solid month. Temperature has been pretty consistently at 65-70 in our place in this period. Now that I've transferred it it definitely looks more krausen than pellicle and it smelled fine so I'll wait it out a bit and keep an eye it.

Sorry to hijack this, keep posting the sexy pellicle pics.
 
IMHO: oatmeal stouts contain a lot of "gunky" material (beta glucans, etc) that form long-lasting bubbles. in any other beer, those bubbles would have burst and you'd have a clear surface. with your stout, thick & sticky beer = the bubbles last.

we now return you to your regularly-scheduled images of surface rot.
 
Here are our first sours. Wizenbeir with Brett.

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My first lambic. 6 months into fermentation. Anybody know if this pellicle is good or bad? There are some grey and dark bits of stuff under. Just curious as to what experienced lambic/wild ale homebrewers have to say.
 
brendan65 said:
20130804_172738_zps0ea1c1b9.jpg

My first lambic. 6 months into fermentation. Anybody know if this pellicle is good or bad? There are some grey and dark bits of stuff under. Just curious as to what experienced lambic/wild ale homebrewers have to say.
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I'd suggest transfering it to something less permeable than a bucket. Some folks use them for up to 6 months to get some extra o2 transfer, but longer than that and you'll probably have some issues with acetobacter, autolysis, and other off flavors.
 
SarcasticHorse said:
sorry to potentially go off track on this post but I have a oatmeal stout that had been in primary almost a month that I just noticied some huge bubbles yesterday and transferred it to secondary to get it off the yeast cake. its been less than 12 hours and bubbles are slowly returning....does this look like Pellicle?

when I transferred it smelled like a delicious oatmeal stout. the only funky thing was a small fruit fly had managed to get into the airlock and die in the vodka at the top of the primary and was floating in it, not sure if that is a clear sign.
Click to expand...

Have an update for us?
 
TNGabe said:
I'd suggest transfering it to something less permeable than a bucket. Some folks use them for up to 6 months to get some extra o2 transfer, but longer than that and you'll probably have some issues with acetobacter, autolysis, and other off flavors.
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So when I transfer to a better bucket or glass carboy should I try to get all the sediment back in suspension before racking it? I would want to get all the bugs to go in with the liquid right?
 
brendan65 said:
So when I transfer to a better bucket or glass carboy should I try to get all the sediment back in suspension before racking it? I would want to get all the bugs to go in with the liquid right?
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I wouldn't. There are plenty in suspension already. Most of the stuff on the bottom is protein and dead yeast. Although lambic is left of the lees, most other wild beers are not.
 
TNGabe said:
I wouldn't. There are plenty in suspension already. Most of the stuff on the bottom is protein and dead yeast. Although lambic is left of the lees, most other wild beers are not.
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Are any of the bugs that would be left after racking be worth harvesting and washing?
 
brendan65 said:
Are any of the bugs that would be left after racking be worth harvesting and washing?
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I don't even rinse it. I just save it in a mason jar at room temp.

Have you tasted your beer? If there is even a hint of acetic acid (vinegar), I wouldn't save the trub. That's just me, but I don't like much more than trace amounts of acetic acid. Some brett will make very low levels of acetic, but higher amounts are indicative of acetobacter. Acetobacter is only active with oxygen, part of the reason long term storage in a bucket isn't ideal.
 
TNGabe said:
I don't even rinse it. I just save it in a mason jar at room temp.

Have you tasted your beer? If there is even a hint of acetic acid (vinegar), I wouldn't save the trub. That's just me, but I don't like much more than trace amounts of acetic acid. Some brett will make very low levels of acetic, but higher amounts are indicative of acetobacter. Acetobacter is only active with oxygen, part of the reason long term storage in a bucket isn't ideal.
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No signs of acetobacter thankfully. Its nice and tart. Almost like a young Cascade Apricot without the Apricot. So I am going to transfer this evening to a glass carboy. Thanks for all the tips.
 
Here's my "pre-pellicle pellicle". First lacto starter and it looks awful, smells awful, and it's hopefully gonna taste awful. Pitched 16 hours ago and i have a begining pellicle.

image-1251989325.jpg
 
Here's what i have so far. No activity for the first 72 hours, then i opened it up for a taste. Nothing really present ither than hot wort so i put the airlick on. The next morning these were taken. I'm gonna boil today for a minute to kill the lacto then pitch the 05.

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Cincy17 said:
Week old pellicle on my saison with Brett brux added to finish the slow DuPont yeast fermentation.
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I did something similar and it was one of the best beers I have made to date. Give it time to age in the bottle before you drink it up. At first it was pretty terrible and after about 3 months something magical happened!
 
One of my 1st sours - Flemish Red - was overly acidic so I let it sit around in bottles for a few years. 2 weeks ago it won 1st in overall for Belgians & took Best of Show for the comp. After getting the news i popped one after prob 2-3 years of sitting and WOW. Time really makes the difference! I think it is ~4 years old & finally in its prime.

I think a pic is on page 1 of this thread actually :)
 
Here's the pellicle on my first sour after about 3 months. Based it on This Old Barrel Flanders Sour Ale recipe from Radical Brewing. The WLP655 vial exploded when I opened it. I was only able to pitch a small amount. So I also pitched the dregs from two bottles of Goose Island Sofie

IMG_1076.JPG
 
satownsend said:
Here's the pellicle on my first sour after about 3 months. Based it on This Old Barrel Flanders Sour Ale recipe from Radical Brewing. The WLP655 vial exploded when I opened it. I was only able to pitch a small amount. So I also pitched the dregs from two bottles of Goose Island Sofie
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Might get something interesting there. I think the only thing in Sofie is Brett C. So it may end up kinda pineapply.
 
My first Berliner Weiss! Made it "imperial" with an OG of 1.055. Pitch one pack of Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus and a 1 cup homemade lacto starter. Keeping it under a carboy cooler hood with a fermwrap temp controlled at 100 F. This is about 18 hours later. Awesome!

Gonna let it go for a few days, then taste-test til it's at the right level of sour. Then we'll pitch 2 packs US-05.

I was thinking of also adding some Belgian candi sugar (bout a pound) with the yeast to get the alcohol up higher. Anyone with any experience with high alcohol sours? Or does anyone know how to calculate the ABV of something like this? From what I read lacto does not produce alcohol when it eats sugar, so technically some of your drop in gravy points are not contributing to your ABV. That is why I was considering adding some sugar with the yeast, to give it another kick. Can anyone educate me on how the yeast/lacto sugar competition works?

image-206234651.jpg
 
emily47 said:
My first Berliner Weiss! Made it "imperial" with an OG of 1.055. Pitch one pack of Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus and a 1 cup homemade lacto starter. Keeping it under a carboy cooler hood with a fermwrap temp controlled at 100 F. This is about 18 hours later. Awesome!

Gonna let it go for a few days, then taste-test til it's at the right level of sour. Then we'll pitch 2 packs US-05.

I was thinking of also adding some Belgian candi sugar (bout a pound) with the yeast to get the alcohol up higher. Anyone with any experience with high alcohol sours? Or does anyone know how to calculate the ABV of something like this? From what I read lacto does not produce alcohol when it eats sugar, so technically some of your drop in gravy points are not contributing to your ABV. That is why I was considering adding some sugar with the yeast, to give it another kick. Can anyone educate me on how the yeast/lacto sugar competition works?

View attachment 144489
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Some lacto is homofermentive and makes only lactic acid and CO2. Some is heterofermentice and makes lactic acid, alcohol, and CO2. I think wyeast is the latter. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Possibly if I'm right. ;) Your homemade grain starter also has some non-lacto bugs in there doing who knows what. 2 packs of 05 is probably overkill if you are rehydrating. Even with the acidic environment your pitching into, the 05 will pretty quickly outcompete the bacteria etc. I'd personally calculate abv based on the gravity when you add the 05 and sugar if you go that route. It might be slightly higher from what you have going pre yeast, but probably not much. I'd be wary that a sugar addition in a berliner will thin out an already thin beer to the point of being watery.
 
TNGabe said:
Some lacto is homofermentive and makes only lactic acid and CO2. Some is heterofermentice and makes lactic acid, alcohol, and CO2. I think wyeast is the latter. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Possibly if I'm right. ;) Your homemade grain starter also has some non-lacto bugs in there doing who knows what. 2 packs of 05 is probably overkill if you are rehydrating. Even with the acidic environment your pitching into, the 05 will pretty quickly outcompete the bacteria etc. I'd personally calculate abv based on the gravity when you add the 05 and sugar if you go that route. It might be slightly higher from what you have going pre yeast, but probably not much. I'd be wary that a sugar addition in a berliner will thin out an already thin beer to the point of being watery.
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Thanks for the answer!

Wyeast 5335 is lactobacillus delbrueckii, which is in the homofermentative group (from Wikipedia). I can't know what was in my homemade starter, but I would guess it's not producing significant amounts of alcohol, right?

I'll just calculate ABV based on the gravity at sugar + yeast addition. I'm curious, why do you say that the sugar addition will thin out the beer to the point of being watery? I plan to boil the wort again before I add the yeast, to kill off any other lacto - I was just going to add the sugar into that boil (so no extra water will be included in the sugar addition.) is that what you meant by watery or are you concerned about the general body of the beer after a sugar addition? This is my first time adding a fermentable after the initial boil, so any and all advice much appreciated.
 
emily47 said:
Thanks for the answer!

Wyeast 5335 is lactobacillus delbrueckii, which is in the homofermentative group (from Wikipedia). I can't know what was in my homemade starter, but I would guess it's not producing significant amounts of alcohol, right?

I'll just calculate ABV based on the gravity at sugar + yeast addition. I'm curious, why do you say that the sugar addition will thin out the beer to the point of being watery? I plan to boil the wort again before I add the yeast, to kill off any other lacto - I was just going to add the sugar into that boil (so no extra water will be included in the sugar addition.) is that what you meant by watery or are you concerned about the general body of the beer after a sugar addition? This is my first time adding a fermentable after the initial boil, so any and all advice much appreciated.
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Any type of sugar is almost completely fermentable and tends to dry the beer out and thin the body of the beer, making the mouthfeel less full and more watery. This is great in a big DIPA, Belgian Strong, or Barleywine but not so much in smaller beers. I use sugar a lot in my brews to create balance or to intentionally make some more dry. Is this your first time making this beer? You could split the batch and add maybe .25# of sugar to one and leave the other be and decide which one you like better from a side by side comparison. Just my 2¢
 
This is a Belgian Blond. I later inoculated with a sour mix from WL. After several months I added several lbs of macerated strawberries and raspberries. Yumm!

image-499747663.jpg
 
Wild bugs moved in. Not sure what it is. The beer is an experimental low grav. rye gruit from 2nd runnings. Tastes unlike any beer I've ever had; likely because there are no hops. Sharp, lingering tartness.

Lacto?

Rye gruit Lacto.jpg
 
sweetcell said:
i see extremely finely grated parmasan/romano cheese.

i'm sure these comments are super helpful for the OP. you're welcome.
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Maybe not, but the comments are a good indicator that you can't judge a bug by it's pellicle. I do agree with you for once. Looks like cheese to me, too.

atoyot said:
I added a pic i found for reference.
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I liked my mental image of your autocorrected pelican better.
 
Can anyone help identify this?

Also, a question: This was unintended. I did not notice a pellicle in the primary, only in the secondary as shown. It has been there about a week. Final gravity when I racked it was 1.010 on an ordinary bitter, so this isn't a high alcohol brew. When would it be safe to bottle? Is it worth keeping? I've never made a sour on purpose, but I do enjoy some sour beers.

2013-09-09_20-58-48_11.jpg


2013-09-09_20-59-36_221.jpg
 
scottsaxman said:
Can anyone help identify this?

Also, a question: This was unintended. I did not notice a pellicle in the primary, only in the secondary as shown. It has been there about a week. Final gravity when I racked it was 1.010 on an ordinary bitter, so this isn't a high alcohol brew. When would it be safe to bottle? Is it worth keeping? I've never made a sour on purpose, but I do enjoy some sour beers.
Click to expand...

Looks like heaven
 

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