Someone said this is a pellicle

This is an Oatmeal Stout I've had in the secondary for 2 weeks or so with a brew belt on to bring it to temp. Pellicle pics that I've seen have mold like mounds on them and this looks like an oily slick. It smells Great like a stout should and tastes ok but with a little bite. Sorry for my Newb terms but this is the first I've run into this. I've read many people suggest Bottling or kegging and letting it sit for about a year. I have no problem with that. Also, will I be able to rid the fermenter of this infection for future use without concern of re-contamination? I've always been very good at keeping things sterile apparently until now.

Looks like lacto to me. Hard to say for sure from just a small picture though. Have you sampled it? Is it sour? And you should have no issue sanitizing that. I take it that it is glass?

It doesn't " look" like a pellicle though. I had the same happen to my last two stouts? Did u use lactose or maltodextrin?

liquiditynerd said:

Did u use lactose or maltodextrin?

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Curious as to why you asked this?

Looks infected to me, sorry.

Halbrust said:

Curious as to why you asked this?

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Kinda trouble shooting. I only had this happen when I used lactose. It never soured but looked freaky. I nearly had a heart attack when I got back from A week away to find something that looked very similar. I since put it into a cask and the sample tasted phenomenal. So.... I was trying to ascertain his ingredient list. Oat, milk, etc...

liquiditynerd said:

Kinda trouble shooting. I only had this happen when I used lactose. It never soured but looked freaky. I nearly had a heart attack when I got back from A week away to find something that looked very similar. I since put it into a cask and the sample tasted phenomenal. So.... I was trying to ascertain his ingredient list. Oat, milk, etc...

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Interesting. I've had a film like this on a non-sour batch just once, and it was a milk stout.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/lactose-film-376390/
This is why I asked.
It's still in the primary fermenter, so I can't speak to sourness.

Halbrust said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/lactose-film-376390/
This is why I asked.
It's still in the primary fermenter, so I can't speak to sourness.

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That's exactly the time I was away for Xmas in upstate NY. When I got back South it had warmed up and that's exactly what I found. I had been collecting lacto, pedio, and Brett cultures so I figured I must've screwed up. It is about to be bottled today or tomorrow after spending a month in a balcones whiskey cask.

Sorry I missed your post, I guess the three of us are trying to figure out the same problem at the same time.

liquiditynerd said:

It doesn't " look" like a pellicle though. I had the same happen to my last two stouts? Did u use lactose or maltodextrin?

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Here's the ingredient list.

SPECIALTY GRAIN
- 2.5 lbs Maris Otter
- 0.5 lbs Black Malt
- 0.5 lbs English Dark Crystal
- 0.5 lbs flaked oats
FERMENTABLES
- 3.15 lbs Dark malt syrup
- 1 lb Briess Dark dry malt extract
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
- 2 oz US Fuggle (60 min)
YEAST
- DRY YEAST (DEFAULT): Safale S-04 Ale Yeast.

It's a NB recipe kit.

liquiditynerd said:

It doesn't " look" like a pellicle though. I had the same happen to my last two stouts? Did u use lactose or maltodextrin?

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Here's a better Picture from the top.

Aww. That's starting to look like it now. Have you gone through the pellicle pix yet? Mine looked similar but wasn't infected, at least if it was it didn't taste or smell it. When I compared it to the awesome pellicle pix thread I was a little relieved. It never had a krausen, just that ugly bubble film.

I took a couple pictures with 40x magnification with as steady of a hand as I could with my Droid Razr. Sorry for the lack of clarity and lighting. As someone that's completely new to this I'm just stumbling forward. In the pic I can see several rounder microbes which I assume is the healthy yeast? and a bunch of the longer tubular shaped microbes I'm thinking may be Lactos? I forgot my kid had a microscope so I hope this helps.

I don't mind riding it out for a sour beer. I think that would be interesting but would It hurt to re-pitch yeast? I used US-05 on this batch which I washed the yeast. My FG should be at 1.011 and its at 1.027 and holding.

I checked the yeast I took from the primary and It was clean. Since I have a choice to wait it out or dump it, I decided to rack it into a bottling bucket and cleaned the carboy and transferred it back. The beer smells great but does have a bit of a sour aftertaste. I figured if I was going to let it sit longer, I'd take it off the trub and I then repitched hydrated us-05 which is what I used from the start. The gravity has been sitting at 1.027 and since repitching, it has started bubbling again.

Question is, how long should I let it sit in the carboy? or should I put it in a keg to store it for 8 months to a year?

Repitching might help, if it is infected only because the sacc would out live any lacto or pedio. But that should already be there. I like your attitude on stickin it out. Way to go but for my best bet, it turns out fine. Let us know