Ginger beer pellicle/infection question

Hello everyone.....

I'm sure this has been asked several times before, have had some searches on the forum but wanted to start a new thread....

I recently brewed a ginger beer which I think may be starting to go infected. I brewed it about 5 weeks ago and racked to secondary after 2 weeks, where it has sat ever since. Its been hot in London (where I live) recently and I've just moved over to Star San sanitiser so I was doubley interested to see if the 4 beers I've got in secondary (at room temp) are all still happy.

I was worried to see that my ginger beer had a chalky white film on the surface. Out of 20+ all grain batches I've done I've only had 1 infection and I wasn't in the mood for another!!! I've tasted the beer, which tastes kind of normal (tasted spicy... but ginger beer is spicy afterall!!), so have decided to cold crash it in the attempt to slow anything down (if it is infected) so I can keg it and force carb it soon. It is for my wedding in 3 1/2 weeks time so it doesn't need to stick around for long!

I've been reading up on what a pellicle is (as I've never heard of it before looking tonight!) and my question is.... does this seem normal to you guys?? (Apologies for the bad pic).

Recipe was 3kg Maris Otter, 350g caramalt, 2kg root ginger (added 1kg, 500g, 500g at 60 mins, 30 mins, 10 mins instead of hop additions). No hops. I pitched (I think) S-04 which had been used & washed (successfully) twice before.

I'm going to run with it anyway but maybe someone can either say "give up now!" or "looks kinda normal to me".

Thanks in advance!!

Greg

Oh, and the chalky film was super thin but right across the beer, the picture shows it a bit broken up as I'd just taken a quick sanitised ladle sample before the photo which broke the surface film.

Yeah, that's a pellicle and not "hop resins" or whatever else people will tell you. In the brewing sanitation course I participated in, we looked at dozens of similar examples and it was made very clear to us that they were all infected with something or another. This does not mean the infection will alter the flavor much, or that you should worry much, or it should be dumped. I'd bottle it/keg it as normal and see where the flavor goes. Probably won't develop into anything bad.

Congrats on the wedding!

Thanks bierhaus! I chilled it overnight and kegged it today and did some more taste tests.... all seems good so far!

I did do a schoolboy error and overfill the corny so that the ginger beer was higher than the gas in post...... carbed it and managed to get beer in my gas lines. Idiot!!!!

Cheers, g.