Sanity Check

[deadmeat]

A few weeks ago I started my first sour brew.

3/23 Brewed 5gal Kolsch into 6gal carboy for krausen headspace.
OG: ~1.043
It ran a regular ferm schedule for 3 weeks.

Recipe estimates that 3.8% ABV should be final. I bet its not far off from that.

4/13 I pastuerized 4lb frozen raspberries and 1 cup white sugar with just enough water in it to make it pourable. I then racked the kolch on top of this slurry into another 6gal carboy.(little headspace from all the fruit)

I threw in a vial of WLP665

Here is where I goofed. I was so excited to get the sour going, I didn't take any gravity readings here at any time on 4/13, so I have nothing to compare subsequent readings to.

10 days later it has an ever so slight funk smell to it which is reassuring.
I've read around and general consensus is put it in a corner and forget about it for 6mo.
What worries me is that there is no pellicle forming.

Does this sound pretty normal to everyone?

 

[ARealClassAct]

My limited knowledge/experience is that pellicles will only form in the presence of oxygen. I usually only see a pellicle form after a month or so and after I have gotten impatient and opened the carboy to steal a taste, letting oxygen in.

 

[Coff]

Pellicle formation is indicative of nothing else than o2 in the headspace if the fermenter. It has nothing to do with the beer souring or not. You may or may not see a pellicle, don't worry about it at all, cool looking but means little.

Nothing here sounds out of the ordinary, like you said set it aside a wait a long time. You can package when you have a stable gravity, don't bother checking the gravity for 4-6 months.

Don't worry about the ABV now after the fruit, it's gonna be tasty that's all that matters. I never check test to see. How much sugar the fruit adds to my funky beers.