Help did i screw up my sour beer

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jtejedor

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Hello all I just brewed the tart of darkness recipe and east coast yeast bug county. In case you have never head of it, it is a blend of many of ecy sour yeasts Brett blends and Flanders quite a few different cultures. Anyhow I did not use a started the vial was from October and before pitching the yeast I injected pure oxygen as I do with my normal beers. I figured if there was any sacch in there it would use this to grow or maybe the Brett would use it to grow. I thought I would get a pretty standard fermentation for a few days then just throw her in the closet for a few months. Lag time was long about three days but the expected that. However instead of Krausen I got a thick pellicle which started out as strands and has developed into a very thick pellicle that looks like apple crumble (I will post a pic when we can). Did I make 5 gallons of vineager by adding the pure oxygen? I thought pellicle did not form until much later. Also with the pellicle I guess its fermenting but I am not really getting much movement in the beer and no air lock activity is this normal? Thanks for any help.
 
Your fine. Just rack it over to a secondary at some point for extended aging to minimize oxygen exposure. Try not to open it unless you have to.
 
I just brewed a turbid mashed lambic with the same yeast. Yeast took a few days to reach CA from the east coast (it was hot outside), went into the fridge for two weeks before brew day, and pitched with no starter. The wort received pure O2 for one minute and then airlock was attached. Like you I did not see any activity for three days after pitching, then a light krausen formed for a week. I will not be racking into secondary as I hope the brett will feed off of the autolysed yeast over the next two years, and IMO without purging everything with CO2 I believe you will introduce more O2 by racking than opening the airlock in primary. In your case the only way to verify that the sacc strain in the blend was viable is to take a gravity reading and use sensory after you check the sample. If it has not dropped I would pitch another strain of sacc asap.
 
Yeah I don't know if its sacch or Brett but something is definitely floating around in the wort now. I think its the Brett because of the thick pellicle and not much co2 is escaping. I might take a small sample and check if it has dropped any but it appears I have some activity so not too worried now.
 
I started one gallon about the same time and it is just now forming a thin layer. Slow movers is all.
 
So not sure what is going on. I checked on the beer yesterday in my closet and the pellicle is pretty much gone. Just a few pieces of it remain on the surface. There is definitely fermentation going on, the wort is now swirling around at a pretty good pace. Not really getting much co2 at all, the carboy cap is a pretty tight fit and I am not getting any bubbles out of the airlock. Not sure if the sacch kicked in or if the brett is in full swing at this point. I would assume sacch would put out more co2 though. Does brett normally take down its own pellicle this quickly?
 
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