Starter from sour beer dregs has floaties

[bjhbrew]

Hey, I'm pretty new to brewing sours in general but this is my first time trying to use bottle dregs to sour a beer. I live in Canada so a lot of the sour beers that people discuss harvesting dregs from are not really available. So, when a friend brought me a bottle of Russian River Supplication I wanted to try to utilize the brett and bacteria to sour a beer. The bottle was around a year old and I only have one so I decided to make a starter following the steps on the milk the funk wiki. I started with 150 ml of 1.040 wort added directly to the dregs in the bottle and then wrapped foil over the top. I let that go for nearly a week to wake up the little critters; there was clearly activity after this time. So, I next made 1 Litre of starter wort and added this and the initial starter into a mason jar. What is strange is that I'm getting some gelatinous blobby like floaters - both in the bottle and now more so in the mason jar. It doesn't look like mold to me and doesn't really smell off. If anything it smells a little tangy and like over ripe bananas. Does anyone know what this goopy stuff is? Is it anything to be concerned with?

 

[gorlox18]

I would guess it’s a pellicle from one of the successfully cultured strains, which is a good sign

 

[sweetcell]

could be one of several things - both good (pellicle) or bad (mold or other undesirable critter). hard if not impossible to know without a lab.

i would continue forward with this starter. wait a while, then cold-crash it, and extract some of the "beer" on top. first, smell the sample if it doesn't smell bad, do a pH test and confirm that it is below 4.0. if it is, give it a taste. note: you probably won't get much brett flavor since it typically needs months to express itself (hopefully your beer will develop additional flavors with time, for now you're looking for at least a hint of acidity and no off-flavors like nail polish, vomit, etc.). if it tastes ok, then use the starter in your full batch.

 

[bjhbrew]

Well, I did end up proceeding with this beer… almost exactly 1 year ago. Which is a good reminder that I should give it a taste and see how it’s progressing. The starter had those weird floaters but it smelled pleasant and a small taste yielded light acidity and no obvious off flavors. In the end I crashed the starter and decanted the liquid straight into my waiting brew. Fingers crossed for something good.

 

[gorlox18]

LOL sorry for rezzing a year old thread I’ve been half-assing my first sour, which included absentmindedly utilizing the search function after an imbibing a few of my prior creations. I’m definitely curious now, as my (inexperienced) mind immediately went to yeast rafts or kombucha/vinegar pellicle.

 

[sweetcell]

lol, sorry, i didn't notice that this was a zombie...

In the end I crashed the starter and decanted the liquid straight into my waiting brew. Fingers crossed for something good.

did you add the liquid from the starter? or the solids/dregs? SOP is to add the solids/dregs, and pour most of the the liquid down the drain...