Belgian Dubbel question

[tick_daddy]

Hey all,

I racked my NB Belgian Dubbel to secondary last week after 2 weeks in primary. It's developing that thin white film on top that everyone says is mostly harmless unless it sits too long. My question is: should I bottle it now or wait the full month that NB recommends for secondary? I don't want to lose this batch!

 

[Bensiff]

Depends on what the film is...unless you didn't do anything to sanitize you are probably completely fine. Probably just some proteins sticking together, hop oils, residual yeast or something else completely benign.

 

[tick_daddy]

I sure thought we sanitized everything well. We are very cautious, in my opinion.

I've heard the white film (has some flakes of white, too) is nothing to worry about, but I've also heard there's a 50/50 chance it'll ruin the batch. My last brew was a Franziskaner Dunkel Weisse clone and the same thing happen...that batch turned out fine.

I'm just not sure if letting this film fester for 3 more weeks is a good idea. Or, if bottling 3 weeks early will really screw up the batch. I sure hope you're right and that it's nothing to worry about! I was kinda hoping you'd say that!

 

[Calder]

I've seen lots of strange films, with no issues. My experience is that if the beer is OK once fermented, there is very little, apart from blatant abuse, that will harm it.

 

[Bensiff]

Are you using Starsan...I get a film with it sometimes for whatever reason. I have never had an infected beer in 10 years, the closest was when I was fermenting 10 gallons of the same batch in two carboys. One carboy had the seal break and it got bad acetaldehyde, the other one was fine. Like Calder says, don't worry, you really almost have to try to get a beer infected.

 

[tick_daddy]

Yes, I do use StarSan...that's probably it. I'm going to leave it in secondary as it doesn't look like anything is spreading or growing eyeballs or anything. :cross:

Thanks for the advice!