Bottle dregs saison

[smugslug]

This is my first post in the wild beers category as I'm making my first wild beer.

I brewed a 6 gallon batch of saison in the beginning of December, split it between two carboys, added the same brewer's yeast to both but with one of two different starters I'd made up just from bottle dregs. As a very unscientific experiment I'd tried half a dozen wild beers and made one starter from the more sour dregs and another from the less sour.

My original plan was to leave them for a month and then rack them off their yeast cakes into smaller carboys with less exposed surface area. But I ended up leaving them more than a month and now there's a thin white pellicle on both. I guess the good news is that I had good starters but now I'm not sure what to do next.

Should I:

A. Leave them until the pellicle breaks down despite the large surface exposed to air?
B. Rack them to my smaller carboys as planned?
C. Since the pellicle looks identical, were my starters cross contaminated? Therefor should I just rack both into the same larger carboy? (I only have two small ones for split batch experiments.)

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Chris

 

[sweetcell]

B. Rack them to my smaller carboys as planned?

this is what i would do. opinions will vary, but my main concern with aging a sour is limiting exposure to oxygen. the bugs will create a new pellicle if they need one in the new, smaller containers.

C. Since the pellicle looks identical, were my starters cross contaminated? Therefor should I just rack both into the same larger carboy? (I only have two small ones for split batch experiments.)

the fact that the pellicles look the same doesn't mean much. you pitched bugs and got a pellicle (AKA an expected outcome) - but you're worried about cross-contamination? relax and have a homebrew. your beers will be fine.

you could rack them together if you want, but seems to me you'll learn more, and have 2 different beers, if you keep them separate.

 

[fermentology]

Leave them and be patient.

 

[smugslug]

As far as I understand doesn't the pellicle keep oxygen out (as long as it's intact)? If I rack now won't I lose the bugs making up the pellicle? Thinking maybe I should wait till the pellicles drop and then rack to smaller containers. There should be enough brett in there to tackle any off flavours caused by dying saison yeast. I think

 

[sweetcell]

As far as I understand doesn't the pellicle keep oxygen out (as long as it's intact)?

yes, and if broken the bugs will re-create/fix it.

If I rack now won't I lose the bugs making up the pellicle?

nope, they are everywhere in the beer. only those at the surface banded together to create the pellicle. there are plenty more volunteers elsewhere in the beer.

here's a good read on what a pellicle is: https://matthumbard.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/beer-microbiology-what-is-a-pellicle/

Thinking maybe I should wait till the pellicles drop and then rack to smaller containers.

the pellicle may never drop. don't worry about breaking it, just follow your intended plan. it'll re-form.

 

[smugslug]

Thanks for the info!