Do I need to wait for the pellicle to fall?

I brewed a 10 gal Goose Island Sofie clone a while back. I split a 1 liter stir plate starter of Belgian Saison I Ale (White Labs #WLP565) and let it ferment out for 3 weeks. Then I split one vial of Brett B (Wyeast Labs #3112) between the two carboys and forgot about it for another 3 weeks.

When I came back, carboy 1 had a pellicle and carboy 2 had nothing. I have little experience with brett, so I figured that one pellicle had fallen already. I left it for another week and the pellicle in carboy 1 was gone. More confident that the second pellicle had started and fallen before I looked at it, I transferred to secondary onto some bitter orange and oak. I left them for another 3 weeks.

When I came back to keg there was a pellicle on the secondary that I had transferred carboy 2 into. I tasted a sample of each at the end of each transfer. I really like the character the brett has added so far, so can I call it done or do I need to let the pellicle fall? I obviously would do my best not to get the pellicle into the keg.

They've been fermenting without any temp control at around 70F the entire time. If I do need to wait for the pellicle to fall how can I speed it up? Will cooling it off make it drop like normal yeast, or would ramping up the temp be a better idea so it could finish faster?

Stop what you're doing. Step away from the beer. Leave it alone for many more months. Yes, months. That beer is no where even remotely close to being done at 6-9 weeks. It's just getting started. You can't force funky beers, they'll do what they want. You may not even get a pellicle every time

MileHighBrewer said:

Stop what you're doing. Step away from the beer. Leave it alone for many more months. Yes, months. That beer is no where even remotely close to being done at 6-9 weeks. It's just getting started. You can't force funky beers, they'll do what they want. You may not even get a pellicle every time

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Yep, and in addition to that a pellicle is a bad indicator of just about anything other than there might be a significant amount of air getting in your fermenter. It does help to protect over exposure to air if your airlock goes dry, but that's about it. Otherwise, the "waiting for the pellicle to drop" thing is an old myth.

By the way, these "short term" pellicles seem to be just primary fermentations. Perhaps the Brett was fermenting sugars that weren't consumed by the Sacch. I get these pellicles in my sour Solera every time I top up my fermenter with fresh wort; after 7 days I get a thick, bubbly pellicle which lasts about 4 days, then it disappears entirely.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-uMhA1W-Gw[/ame]

I realize that it will take the brett several months to ferment out. But since i really like the current amount of funk and the overall flavor now, I want to keg it now. I plan on drinking this right away, but 10 gallons will last a while so I'd like as little change in the character as possible. I'm assuming I should avoid racking the pellicle into the keg, anything else I should consider?

Also,

dantheman13 said:

Yep, and in addition to that a pellicle is a bad indicator of just about anything other than there might be a significant amount of air getting in your fermenter. It does help to protect over exposure to air if your airlock goes dry, but that's about it. Otherwise, the "waiting for the pellicle to drop" thing is an old myth.

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I always thought that the pellicle was a sign that the brett was still working.

A pellicle is indicative of excess oxygen in your fermenter. The pellicle is the yeast or bugs way to protect itself.

Can you keg 5 gallons and let the other 5 ride it out for a while?

h0psnobery said:

I realize that it will take the brett several months to ferment out. But since i really like the current amount of funk and the overall flavor now, I want to keg it now. I plan on drinking this right away, but 10 gallons will last a while so I'd like as little change in the character as possible. I'm assuming I should avoid racking the pellicle into the keg, anything else I should consider?

Also,


I always thought that the pellicle was a sign that the brett was still working.

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I suppose it could be "a sign" of the Brett metabolizing stuff, but it's not a requirement for that.

If the beer tastes good though, and you don't want it to change, go for the kegging! It is your beer after all!

TychoBrahe said:

A pellicle is indicative of excess oxygen in your fermenter. The pellicle is the yeast or bugs way to protect itself.

Can you keg 5 gallons and let the other 5 ride it out for a while?

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I was planning on kegging both at the same time to save myself some work and to keep the funk at the current level since I like it where as it is. But, what fun is home brewing without a little experimentation. I'll let the one with the pellicle go a while longer and see how it tastes.

Out of curiosity, would flushing with CO2 cause the pellicle to fall?

h0psnobery said:

I was planning on kegging both at the same time to save myself some work and to keep the funk at the current level since I like it where as it is. But, what fun is home brewing without a little experimentation. I'll let the one with the pellicle go a while longer and see how it tastes.

Out of curiosity, would flushing with CO2 cause the pellicle to fall?

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If youre kegging and you like where its at now then by all means keg it up and start dranking. The recommendation to wait months is to achieve a stable gravity so you dont run the risk of bottle bombs, but youll be fine in a keg.

Youre not going to be able to "lock in" the current amount of funk, even in the keg, as Brett does some fun things while under pressure so it will likely change. But if the keg is cold it will slow that process significantly, enough so that you may not notice a change over the course of drinking it.

Dan mentioned it but the pellicle falling thing is a myth, let the tastes and gravity of your beer tell you when its done. The pellicle only tells you that there is some o2 in the headspace. You can purge with co2 but it probably wont get rid of the pellicle, it would likely hang there and then as the co2 blanket fades away youll be back to square one.

I have a 5 gal batch of bitter brewing and there's a pellicle that's been building on top for almost three months. What should I do? Its been in the secondary since October.

How does it taste? What's the current gravity?

Not sure about the gravity, I seem to have lost my notes. But it tastes great!

Does Sofie have brett in it? I thought it was a clean saison.

millsbrew said:

Does Sofie have brett in it? I thought it was a clean saison.

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Definitely has Brett in there. Brux according to a comment on the article.

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html