Berliner Pellicle

[bizoneill]

Started off with a 75hr sour mash and the beer fermented down from 1.043 to 1.020 with a target of 1.013 with German Ale 1007. Now I have a pellicle that has formed and not sure where to go from here... I thought I killed the lacto and all bugs in the boil. Only thing I can think of is I used the same hose while tranferring both the sour mash and wort from the boil kettle... I asked someone this weekend and they said the pellicle looks like there is brett in there now... I'm stuck... LOL!

Check it out!

 

[CadillacAndy]

You can't really tell anything by the pellicle. I've seen brett look waxy, I've seen lacto look waxy. I've seen them both look floury and dusty, so don't put too much credit in that. If you used the same hose odds are that's the issue.

 

[bizoneill]

So should I just let it go and set it away?

 

[CadillacAndy]

How does it taste and what is the gravity at now? Do you keg or bottle?

 

[bizoneill]

Still sitting at 1.020 and is pretty sour. I planned to bottle/keg 2.5 gal.

 

[CadillacAndy]

How are you checking the gravity? Hydrometer or refractometer?

 

[bizoneill]

refractometer

 

[CadillacAndy]

Okay - that's what I suspected. Once alcohol is present your refractometer is basically worthless for determining gravity. There are formulas you can use but I've never found an accurate one. You're better off using a hydrometer. Your actual gravity is probably like 1.005 or so (according to this site - http://www.northernbrewer.com/refractometer-calculator/). So it sounds like fermentation is pretty much done. If you are able to keg it and keep it cold that will drastically slow down whatever has contaminated your beer. You'll want to make sure you thoroughly clean and sanitize the keg after your done though. I personally would soak everything in bleach after I kicked the keg.

 

[bizoneill]

Thanks! I'll check with a Hydrometer and let you know what i get!

 

[bizoneill]

1.009

 

[bizoneill]

1.010 after calabration. Damn man I had no idea the refractometer could be so off! Thanks! This was probably done weeks ago!

 

[CadillacAndy]

Happy to help. Fire away if you have more questions.

 

[bizoneill]

Actually I was thinking about splitting this up and doing half with fruit (blackberries). And I'm now thinking about bottling all of it. Only because I have 1 keg and don't want to play with fire... I've heard all different amounts but what do you think about for 2.5 gal? I was thinking 2.5 lbs. Also with this ending up at 1.010 I'm assuming my ABV is much lower then I though now... How would i find that out?

 

[bizoneill]

Scratch the ABV part forgot I changed yeasts in brewers friend! Final gravity should have been 1.011 so I was pretty close... came in around 4.23%

 

[CadillacAndy]

Without knowing what kind of contamination you have, bottling could be a little risky, especially if there are still gravity points for the bacteria/wild yeast to eat. I recommended kegging because you could release the pressure or force carb and keep the whole thing cold while drinking it.

As far as fruit goes, 1lb/gallon is a good starting point. I usually freeze and thaw all of my fruit so the ice crystals break the cell walls making the sugars/flavors more available.

 

[bizoneill]

Thanks for the heads up! I'll keg half now and throw half on some fruit and when that's done I'll move that to keg as well.

 

[bizoneill]

Well this is what i got now with adding the blackberries.

 

[bizoneill]

By the way this beer ended up sitting for about a year. The un-fruited version went through every stage of baby diaper to sour apple so after a year it was smelling and tasting better but still not great. I thought of what to do with it and was going to just dump it. I then tasted the other half that had been sitting with the blackberries and this version was much more mellow. So I came up with a plan to just blend the 2 together and see what happens since i was just going to dump them. I blended both together and then racked onto 8lbs of strawberries and pitched brett C along with it. I thought adding some more fruit would help mask any off flavors along with the addition of brett c to eat off that nasty butyric acid. Anyway i think it came out ok for now. There's definitely strawberry in the nose and taste but i'm still getting a little of the butyric acid. The plan is to age most of my bottles to see if the brett will eat anymore of that off if not no big deal its still a good beer but would be a great one with out the little bit of butyric acid. Take a look at the finished product below!

Cheers!
Bobby

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Looks just like my Berliner Mead pellicle!