Pellicle Photo Collection

Soured blonde coming along nicely.

Funk weapon 3 carboy dregs that I'm trying to prop up in a mason jar

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I'm a bit confused by all of the photos in which the tops of kegs and buckets are opened widely. If I'm not mistaken, opening the containers in such a way can potentially introduce enough oxygen to create significant sour.

I understand that many want to taste that sourness, so some oxygen is good. But are people constantly opening their fermentors? I have 4 sours aging right now, and none have more than a couple spots were I see pellicle. With the extreme pellicle growth in these photos, I'm guessing these beers are going to be quite sour.

Am I missing something? Should I be opening my fermentors occasionally and intentionally introducing oxygen? I am using glass carboys right now, so unless I pop the top, not much oxygen is going to be introduced.

FWIW - when i first made my sours, i was also using glass carboys. I even purged with co2 prior to transferring, and hadn't removed the airlock for well over 6 months. they both had large pellicles. According to MtF, very little is truly known about pellicle formation, or even how oxygen truly plays into the formation. I've heard that some sours may not even show signs of a pellicle, but indeed have the bugs/yeast strains responsible for "making" pellicles.

hlmbrwng said:

I'm a bit confused by all of the photos in which the tops of kegs and buckets are opened widely. If I'm not mistaken, opening the containers in such a way can potentially introduce enough oxygen to create significant sour.

I understand that many want to taste that sourness, so some oxygen is good. But are people constantly opening their fermentors? I have 4 sours aging right now, and none have more than a couple spots were I see pellicle. With the extreme pellicle growth in these photos, I'm guessing these beers are going to be quite sour.

Am I missing something? Should I be opening my fermentors occasionally and intentionally introducing oxygen? I am using glass carboys right now, so unless I pop the top, not much oxygen is going to be introduced.

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Pellicle growth or formation or appearance is not going to dictate how sour a beer is. It's just a formation that is protecting the underlying beer. Some look crazy. Some don't. Some sours don't get them. I have carboys that are full- have some that are half full; they are all making Award winning sours. I love these forums but lots of people overthink things just relax, let them ride and you will know when they are done or when they need to be fruited or blended.

To add a little more about pellicle formation.

I have a nearly 3 year old sour that's been blended, I think 4 times now. It's been in plastic for most of the time(so sue me). I've had times where it's formed a big thick white pellicle, other times it's just the wispy bubbles, other times nothing at all. Essentially the same beer, it's been 50/50 blends each time of old/new beer.

Split the old beer in half and added fresh unsoured beer and I don't always get a pellicle, and it's unbelievably sour all the time. Being in plastic one would think it'd always have a huge pellicle.

it's not very homebrew but screw it, two brett pellicles from my 600L conicals, i opened the (top) manways for the first time to do various additions. both are brett blends, the first is yeast bay amalgamation added after primary fermentation (7 months on) and the second is 7th generation of a house blend of many strains as primary fermenters after about 2 months.
pellicle!

Captured this off of a flower in my yard. Just pitched some of it into a 1 gallon unhopped wort to see how it sours. Will finish off fermentation with US-05 and age for a few months.

Berliner Weisse that didn't sour to my liking, so I threw in some jolly pumpkin and rare barrel dregs. It's much better now.

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^ i am horrified, and yet somehow intrigued.

crane said:

Berliner Weisse that didn't sour to my liking, so I threw in some jolly pumpkin and rare barrel dregs. It's much better now.

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And here is what's left after transferring

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That's nasty! (Cleveland Brown GIF wouldn't load...)

Here are some side-shots of Pellicles on two Lambics I currently have on fruit. Both have been on the fruit for about 9 weeks, and probably get bottled in the next week or two. Both Batches are 5 gallons of well aged, blended base lambic, that had to be split into two carboys to accomodate the fruit.

9 pounds of raspberries for one batch, and 21 pounds of Blueberries for the other...

crane said:

And here is what's left after transferring

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I couldn't bring myself to drink anything that this monster was swimming in!

I knew there was a reason I don't care for sours. After seeing these pictures, I "really know why" now!

crane said:

Berliner Weisse that didn't sour to my liking, so I threw in some jolly pumpkin and rare barrel dregs. It's much better now.

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Looks like pizza dough to me

crane said:

And here is what's left after transferring

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That's pretty gnarley.
Have you ever had something like this before? Did you rack with a racking cane, was it scary??

radwizard said:

That's pretty gnarley.
Have you ever had something like this before? Did you rack with a racking cane, was it scary??

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This is the most thick and substantial pellicle I've had grow on any of my beers. I did rack with a racking cane, which worked out well. Not scary at all, it's just beer.

This is from my brett saison. I really want to bottle but this pellicle appeared a couple weeks ago.

Have you tasted it? Where is your SG? Pellicle or no, if your SG is stable over a 1-2 months, then go ahead and bottle..

BenWillcox said:

Have you tasted it? Where is your SG? Pellicle or no, if your SG is stable over a 1-2 months, then go ahead and bottle..

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After the sacc. fermentation the gravity was 1.007 (2 months ago).

I tested the gravity about a month ago and it was down to 1.003. I'm due to test it again but the pellicle just showed up a week or two ago. I feel bad breaking up such a nice pellicle that just formed.

I did taste it at each gravity sampling. It was tasting fairly funky last time. It had a lot of oak flavor, too (you can see the string holding the oak piece in the pictures)

saltymirv said:

I feel bad breaking up such a nice pellicle that just formed.

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Why?

crane said:

Why?

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Its a work of art

14 month cherry sour on bordeaux soaked Hungarian oak cubes + an apricot sour from the same batch on a different culture

Went to bottle my 17 day old roggenbier today and found this waiting for me.
Don't have a lot of experience with bacteria, but it doesn't look like any other normal fermentation I have done. Does this look like a pellicle? There's a thin definite film across the whole surface although the spots could just be bits of krauesen.
Was thinking of leaving it another week or 2 to see what happens - if the pellicle grows then it's infected and I can tuck it away for long-term ageing to see what happens. Of if it drops away I guess I bottle it in PET and see what happens?
I'm getting a bit of barnyard funk in the taste, though not much, and it doesn't taste or smell offensive at this stage.
Would welcome any thoughts on this one cheers.

Looks like you got some icebergs. I'd say it is probably infected. Either keg now if you keg, or embrace the funk. But looks as if you bottle so just embrace it cause you will have gushers. Hopefully it is a good funk, as long as it doesn't smell like nasty cheese you should be ok.

here is mine.
Saison with 3 Brett vrai
and one with Argousier

This doesn’t quite seem to be the same as some of these other photos but just pitched 3944 into a Wit last night and this is the first I’ve seen a krausen with these large bubbles on top. Can someone put my mind at ease and ensure me this is not a pellicle beginning to form?

I think that looks normal at this stage. Try to keep an eye on it in the following days.

A brett ipa, using omegas all the brett and c2c farmhouse

I get so excited when I see this thread has been updated! I hope my upcoming Brett tripel forms as nice a pellicle as those in this thread...

I went to bottle this small batch to which I added commercial frozen strawberries (thawed and smashed in the bag ) surprise. It smells like strawberry, it doesn't taste nasty or sour, nor does it taste particularly good, just lack luster. I racked from underneath to a secondary, and capped it as it was a stable SG. I'm thinking of adding some medium toast oak soaked in burbon.

Any thoughts, suggestions? This is not what I was going for, and I haven't any experience with this type of "fermentation". (I know, contamination) Next time fruit is getting treated with alcohol, if there is a next time.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

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I went to bottle this small batch to which I added commercial frozen strawberries (thawed and smashed in the bag ) surprise. It smells like strawberry, it doesn't taste nasty or sour, nor does it taste particularly good, just lack luster. I racked from underneath to a secondary, and capped it as it was a stable SG. I'm thinking of adding some medium toast oak soaked in burbon.

Any thoughts, suggestions? This is not what I was going for, and I haven't any experience with this type of "fermentation". (I know, contamination) Next time fruit is getting treated with alcohol, if there is a next time.

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Looks awesome! What has your timeline looked like so far? If you have one, I would move it to a better bottle or glass carboy (less permeable by oxygen) and let it age. Are you sure the gravity is stable? Brett and bacteria work slower than a standard sacc strain so to be safe, you should really verify that it doesn't move for a month. It might even drop lower than 1.000. If you are going to add oak, soaking it in wine might compliment your beer better than bourbon. Be sure to save some of that yeast cake. If you end up liking the end result, you will want to have the strain on hand so you can do it again.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

View attachment 551420
I went to bottle this small batch to which I added commercial frozen strawberries (thawed and smashed in the bag ) surprise. It smells like strawberry, it doesn't taste nasty or sour, nor does it taste particularly good, just lack luster. I racked from underneath to a secondary, and capped it as it was a stable SG. I'm thinking of adding some medium toast oak soaked in burbon.

Any thoughts, suggestions? This is not what I was going for, and I haven't any experience with this type of "fermentation". (I know, contamination) Next time fruit is getting treated with alcohol, if there is a next time.

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thoughts/suggestions:
- don't give up on fruited beers - there should be a next time
- personally, i would throw in some brett. it might help liven up the flavors, and if your "fermentation"/contamination throws any weirdness the brett might be able to clean it up. some folks like to let their "spontaneous" fermentations/contaminations ride and see what happens; i prefer to ensure that there is brett playing backup. the downside is that brett will take a few months to do its thing.
- to my taste, wood and bourbon play best with a bold beer (you don't hear of any bourbon-barrel aged pilsners...). so depending on the character of your beer, adding those cubes might not be the best way forward.

Thanks for the reply Timmy. Here's an abbreviated version of my notes.

Scotch ale second runnings 11/14

Around 2 gallons pre boil
.5 oz Czech saaz @60
.5 oz Czech saaz @15
SG 1054 +1 for fruit
Pitched "abbey yeast" from the fridge after getting it growing in a mini starter.
11/26 added 12oz thawed and crushed organic strawberries to the primary fermentor.
12/10 SG uncorrected 1020 ABV 6.88
12/27 OMG a crazy pellical has formed. It smells like strawberry, off flavor is absent, not sour.
Racked to a glass carboy and capped.

I think to play it safe I will use an airlock. No l didn't save any slurry, I'm not a big fan of sours, though at the moment this isn't sour or tart... Strawberry aroma, but that's about it, aside from a nice color. The thought of using burbon came to mind from an old 70s cocktail which I'm pretty sure was called a strawberry sting, but wine could be good too.

@sweetcell, thanks the oak idea truly is my clutching at straws to turn this around, I could even Improve it by dry hopping with something tropical perhaps, and skip the wood. I've used fruit additions in mead, cider and stout, but luckily haven't run into trouble like this previously. The frozen fruits I've used before I don't recall how I handled sanitizing. Mulberries I had picked for mead I rinsed in campden.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

I think to play it safe I will use an airlock. No l didn't save any slurry, I'm not a big fan of sours, though at the moment this isn't sour or tart... Strawberry aroma, but that's about it, aside from a nice color. The thought of using burbon came to mind from an old 70s cocktail which I'm pretty sure was called a strawberry sting, but wine could be good too.

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Good call on the airlock. At 6 weeks and 1.020, whatever got in there almost definitely has some work left to do. I like the @sweetcell idea of adding some Brett. That is probably the most I would tinker with it at this point. Stick it in a corner somewhere and forget about it for a few months. You have a pretty cool project going on and you will still have a chance to save some slurry from your carboy. It may develop some acidity but if it does, I'm guessing it will be mild in comparison to commercial sours you have had and you may end up finding out that you enjoy it.

If you haven't already, you may want to take some precautions with whatever equipment has touched this batch since you added those strawberries. Every piece of equipment I have that has touched a funky/sour beer is marked so it never sees a sacc-only beer again.

Thanks, the gravity reading is by refractometer and I use a correction program ( how the ABV is given) and yes I have " quarantined " the syphon and fermentor, etc. I don't like surprises like this, lol.

“
- to my taste, wood and bourbon play best with a bold beer (you don't hear of any bourbon-barrel aged pilsners...). so depending on the character of your beer, adding those cubes might not be the best way forward.[/QUOTE]
“



Actually i’ve had one from a brewery in Charleston, was called Smells like Rick because apparently the beer smelled like one of the locals lol I ordered a flight and enjoyed it but not back to back pint worthy imho

LOL, you know it's funky, because it Smells like Rick. Pretty funny.