What do I have?

What do I have, what do I do, and why am I happy?

I know about basically quarantining that bucket from future use.

I've got what was going to be a raspberry sweet stout that is infected. I think I want to let the infection play out and see what I get, but don't know if I should rack now or wait 6 months to a year to rack it again?

Seven days ago I transferred it from primary (no signs of infection), racked it on top of 1 lb of raspberries. The raspberries were frozen, thawed, brought to 160F for 15 minutes, then dumped in/through a grain bag that I boiled for 5 minutes with a handful of marbles to weight it down. You can see the bag in the image. I'm guessing I should pull this bag out now.

It wasn't a very roasty to begin with, and when I tasted it I got a pretty strong taste of raspberry, a bit of roast, very tart though that very well could be the raspberries.

My recipe for 3.5 gallons:

7 lb Maris Otter
8 oz carapils
8 oz chocolate malt
6 oz special b
6 oz crystal 120
2 lbs of raspberries in mash

.5 oz EKG FWH
.75 oz Target

WLP005

1 lb raspberries secondary

 

I have a similar experiment going...Mine was with an infected red that I added orange peels and crannberries to. This was 6 months or more ago. It will either be a nice sour, taste like vinegar or like what I imagine satan's anus would taste like.

Wild sours...it's a crap shoot for a LOOONG time...lol. Best of luck!

 

Looks like you might be well on your way to your first lambic. Most brewers get a culture from a lab; you're a lot braver than I am.

 

is that some sort of growth on the pellicle? never seen anything like that before.

also, it looks like you either have the world's tallest bucket or that you already racked it out of the bucket on the second shot, what's the deal there?

i'll be curious to see how this turns out.

 

The bottom left of the bucket is the grain bag I was using to hold the raspberries. It's only a 3.5 gallon batch, coupled with a lousy photographer who isn't so good at the perspective stuff.

 

I'd bet the "growth" is a muslin bag.

OP. If you have a spare carboy, let that thing sit for a long time (read at least a year) then taste it. It's going to be tart/sour. It may turn out to be a pretty interesting beer.