How my quadrupel turned into an oud bruin, or Pedio in da house! (with photo!)

This week I tasted a bottle of a quadrupel I brewed 2 months ago, and was surprised to discover a slight sourness. Not bad at all, it tasted a bit like Rodenbach, or Oerbier. However, it was not supposed to be there, which makes it an infection. I suppose this is what can happen if you brew during summer. I put a drop of the dregs under the microscope and found it to be a pediococcus infection. Luckily the taste is realy nice, so I won't pour it down the drain. Sometimes an infection can turn into something good. Which is of course how oud bruin and lambic cam to this world. Below a picture of the dregs. The big blue cells are yeast, the small ones pediococcus. The yeast and bacteria are of course not blue by nature. I died them to make it better visible.

Thats cool man. Are you concerned about the infection getting worse?

Define worse... Pedio goes on for some time, so it will probably get a bit more sour. Luckily pedio doesn't produce CO2, so no risk for bottle bombs. If it gets too acidic I can always blend it with some other beer.

Doesn't pedio produce diacetyl though? Will you pitch some brett to reduce it?

Could you write a blog entry about your microscope and camera?

Very interesting. Is there a site that identifies yeasties vs. beasties so we can borrow our kid's microscopes and check it out ourselves? What do you use to dye the slide?

In other words, how can I do this at home?

944play said:

Doesn't pedio produce diacetyl though? Will you pitch some brett to reduce it?

Could you write a blog entry about your microscope and camera?

Click to expand...

Yes, pedio is reported to produce diacetyl. This is dependent on the strain though, and my house strain has so far not produced noticeable amounts of diacetyl. It could also be that my yeast has taken care of that. One bucket has not been bottled as it did not reach it FG in time (also a symptome of lactic acid infection). Maybe I'll pitch some brett in that one.

I could write a blog entry about the camera but it will not be very intresting. It's a really advanced 140,000 $ microscope with build in cameras and I don't know what more. We use it at work for fluorescence microscopy on cells and tissues. I plan on buying a microscope one day though. The job microscope is actually too advanced for the job.

Brewham said:

Very interesting. Is there a site that identifies yeasties vs. beasties so we can borrow our kid's microscopes and check it out ourselves? What do you use to dye the slide?

In other words, how can I do this at home?

Click to expand...

The picture uses a 640x magnification. To see bacteria well you need at least 400x magnification. I don't know if your kid's microscope has an oil emersion objective though. But these microscopes are available for reaonable prices. I don't know of any site that identifies yeast and bugs, except for my own blog of course
For dying I use trypan blue, just because we have it lying around at work and it stains all dead cells. As I fixate my sample using a flame, they're all dead. Although not optimal, many dyes might work. I might give it a try with household dyes, that would be interesting.

It's a really advanced 140,000 $ microscope with build in cameras and I don't know what more.[/QUOTE]

What was the total magnification used in this photo?

[edit] oops, answered above (that was quick!)