Space Bubbles?

Any advice on whether this beer is a gonner, a possible hallucinogen, or normal, would be great.

I brewed a basic Paulaner Hefe clone (full extract; the easiest recipe I've made to date) and primary fermentation went great. I hit target gravity in a week and it tasted good. Then I decided to add fruit. I went to the local farmers market and got some strawberries and peaches. I washed them, put them in a blender with half a Campden tablet, and poured the mixture into the secondary. Then I racked on top of the fruit puree and attached a blow off hose. No action. None at all. After five days, I racked to a tertiary carboy to try and avoid getting fruit globs in the bottles at the end. After about three days in the carboy, I noticed a white film on the top. Then this morning, there were these huge standing bubbles. Not sure what to do. Does anyone have any advice on whether it is safe to drink?

Fermentation temp has fluctuated between 72 and 75 degrees.

Looks like a pellicle to me. I'd say you got some wild yeast / bugs from the fruit.

You might try holding onto it for many months and see how it goes. This might be your first brett/sour.

If it tastes fine to you, it is safe to drink. Just make damn sure the beer is done fermenting before you bottle. Fruit almost always creates a second fermentation.

Hope this helps.

My guess would be brett. A brett soured weizen doesn't sound half bad, so I'd let it ride, nice and cool, for 3-6 months and see how it tastes then. You could have a great beer on your hands.

RAD21 said:

I washed them, put them in a blender with half a Campden tablet, and poured the mixture into the secondary. Then I racked on top of the fruit puree and attached a blow off hose. No action. None at all.

Click to expand...

Nice infection! I see one problem is you didn't let the campden gas out of the fruit for 24 hours, so you killed your good yeast too, by racking on top of active campden.

Check your gravity, I'll bet it's high, you could repitch a new starter, or just let the bugs eat it up over time...

Judging by everyones reaction, perhaps it'll turn out ok. I guess I'll let it sit for a few months.

@Hex - I forgot to mention that I did let the Campden/fruit mixture sit in the sealed fermenting bucket for 48 hours.

Yeah, gotcha, 'sealed fermenting bucket' hence no out gas...
Next time just put a cloth over it in an open bucket.

mmmm......infection

Ah! l see. So, should it be ok if I just let it sit for a while, or should I repitch and see what happens?

I'd check the gravity. If it hasn't dropped much I'd pitch more yeast. It won't taste much like a hefe without it.

Just my opinion of course.

But it might taste like 5 gallons of belgian trippel that got to a FG of 1.060....trust me..I've done it. My first driveway dumper.

Man. I know that bugs can be awesome, but when I get around to brewing with Brett and his cousins Lacto and Pedio, I'm gonna have to put a tshirt over the carboy and avoid eye contact with it till it's done. Those pictures made my skin crawl and stomach turns.

definitely hang onto it.

might be "infected" but it's the nice beginning of a pellicle there... i'd fully expect the bubbles to go away after a month and get replaced by a sheet of white "ice" looking crap across the top.

yummy!

I've had the exact same thing, it probably won't taste sour yet, but as time passes it will get more and more sour probably to the point where it is absolutely terrible... drink it quickly (within a month or 2) and it won't get very sour, or wait...

Report your Gravity here.

Will do! I'll take it later today and report back.

Ok, gravity is at 10. Original gravity was 60, and it hit 12 in a week. So the gravity doesn't seem to have changed much since I added the fruit. I bought more yeast to pitch. Should I throw it in??

Also, I tasted it and it tastes pretty sour.

why would you pitch more yeast? to take down any fermentables in the fruit? if it's at 1.010, it sounds like the yeast in there is doing its job.

1.010? Yeast won't change anything, I'd let it ride, keep it cool and dark for a good while...