White stuff on beer

When my beer was due for bottling I realized that the airlock is dry. I did not have any seal for probably a week and I noticed the white stuff on the surface of the beer. Does anyone know what is it, is the whole butch spoiled? I think I will bottle it anyway, I just cannot imagine dumping almost 6 gal. Of AG cream ale. But on the other side would it be safe to drink? Any input is highly appreciated.

looks like brett pellicle, if it tastes good let it age for a few months you may get something great!

Rack it to another sanitized fermenter. Make sure your airlock is filled and watch it for several days. You definately got infected and you should have a nice brett fermentation going. Then is time to experiment. Let it sit for a couple months in the fermenter and see what you end up with. It looks like you made a stout, many of which taste good with some brett. When I first started brewing (I'm not assuming you are a new brewer, just sharing this in case you are) I feared that I would do something wrong and poison myself. I imagined telling people I had blinded myself with homemade beer. I spoke to a brew chemist who explained that with the boil, the ph and the alcohol nothing that can harm a human can live in beer--it might taste "slap your mom awful" but won't harm you. I've learned to simply relax, have a homebrew (or in some cases a nice whiskey), and "laugh to keep from crying" when a batch doesn't turn out the way I wanted. If nothing else you will have a great story to share with the Homebrew club.

Thank you guys for your input. I am a beginner brewer, just made about 10 batches so far and I had no idea what is brett pellicle. Here is what I found out:
“Brett is an oxidative yeast. Brett forms a pellicle- a lumpy white film yeast that coats the top of the beer in fermentation. The yeast cells form chains that can float on the top of beer making use of atmospheric oxygen, thus, Brett is an oxidizing yeast. The pellicle will form in the fermenting vessel (porous or non-porous) and help guard against oxidation during the long aging / fermentation time. The pellicle also guards against acetobacteria. Leave the pellicle intact.”
So as far as it is not a mold or something hazardous like it and the beer does not taste sour. In fact it tastes great (it is just an English stile ale with 2 oz of chocolate malt, but with ABV 6.56 it probably could be called a stout). I decided to bottle it and let it be for a month. I will update on this when it’s ready.

You could very well be asking for bottle bombs by bottling that beer already. The Brett will continue to slowly chew through those long chain sugars that your yeast couldn't eat, leading to over-priming and explosions.

But my FG is 1010, I simply don’t see where this extra sugar will come for a bottle bomb.

Brett. Is super yeast. It will eat everything, im pretty sure even lactose. All those sugars the yeast crapped out on, Brett's gonna eat that. And probably some of the yeast. Let it age. Forget about it. When the pellicle goes away, taste it. But don't chuck it. You have the potential for a really good beer if you're patient. If you bottle now, all those residual sugars are gonna get eaten, as well as the sugar you added. Meaning its gonna explode. Brett. is also extremely slow. So patience is key.


- A new sour brewer. Cheers.

Just be sure to clean and sanitize the HELL out of that carboy before you put another beer into it.

As soon as I read "bottle," in the back of my mind I heard the sound of exploding glass! Brett is, as said earlier, slow and very hardy--kind of like the class bully. The brett is busily whipping your yeast's butt and taking its lunch. At 1.010 it still has plenty to eat.

Max2012 said:

Thank you guys for your input. I am a beginner brewer, just made about 10 batches so far and I had no idea what is brett pellicle. Here is what I found out:
“Brett is an oxidative yeast. Brett forms a pellicle- a lumpy white film yeast that coats the top of the beer in fermentation. The yeast cells form chains that can float on the top of beer making use of atmospheric oxygen, thus, Brett is an oxidizing yeast. The pellicle will form in the fermenting vessel (porous or non-porous) and help guard against oxidation during the long aging / fermentation time. The pellicle also guards against acetobacteria. Leave the pellicle intact.”
So as far as it is not a mold or something hazardous like it and the beer does not taste sour. In fact it tastes great (it is just an English stile ale with 2 oz of chocolate malt, but with ABV 6.56 it probably could be called a stout). I decided to bottle it and let it be for a month. I will update on this when it’s ready.

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Thanks for the science lesson. I had read many threads about brett, in both "post your infection" and "sour beer" threads. Now I know what it is. To the forum in general; If brett is a oxidixing yeast that can take the beer far lower than brewing yeast and it is slow acting, how does one know when its safe to prime and bottle? Apparently the usual "when the SG is stable for 3 days" does not work here.

I couldn't say for sure but I've heard you're looking at the 3-6 month range.

I'd do everything I could to keep as much oxygen out of there as possible.

I probably should have been waiting for a good advise, hold up and let it sit for 3 months or so. But when you have an itch in the butt to do something, everything is cleaned and sanitized; well I siphoned the beer from under the white bubbles and bottled it. It will all add to the experience. In the end if it will turn into the beer bombs I’ll send a box to the alkaida for X-mas. LOL

Good luck. IMO, its pretty risky

Make sure you put your bottles in a tote with a lid. If one bottle blows it tends to set off a chain reaction and can be very violent. I woke up one morning with half a case blown and found glass shards for a 20' radius.

What kind of yeast is in it? I've seen a couple English strains do something similar before.

bovineblitz said:

What kind of yeast is in it? I've seen a couple English strains do something similar before.

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It is Nottingham yeast. This recipe is Born to Be Mild from byo.com.