Gross bubly white skin on top, low gravity reading - anything to be worried about?

[ericd]

Hi opened up my peach beer (pre fruit addition) to take a taste/hydrometer reading and it had this really nasty looking bubly white skin on top. The hydrometer reading was low too - under 1.01 (OG was a little above 1.05) and it was really sour, but it could be from the herbal tea I used to flavor it (full of rose hips).

Lacto infection or am I just worrying too much?

 

[dp69_2001]

sounds like an infection to me.

 

[z987k]

probably mold. It's safe to drink... question is, does it taste ok?

 

[ericd]

probably mold. It's safe to drink... question is, does it taste ok?

Well I did drink half my hydrometer sample thinking it wasn't too bad and I'm still around. I thought mold was not safe to drink under any circumstances? I don't see any poofs growing in my fermenter so maybe not? You think it's probably just lacto?

 

[z987k]

nothing that can harm you can grow in beer, that's the beauty of beer.

Unless it's sour, I doubt it's lacto.

 

[ericd]

Ok thanks for the advice, luckily it's a fruit beer so it will still taste ok with the sour. I guess that's I get for trying to use a paint bucket as a fermenter

 

[mynamestanner]

Did the bucket have white paint in it? If so, i bet i know whats on top of your beer, haha

 

[sonetlumiere85]

What yeast did you use? If you used Wyeast's lambic blend, it's supposed to be sour - it comes with lacto, pedio, and other strains that usually form pellicle on the top of the liquid. I'm dealing with mine right now, and it is delightfully sour. If you really want to stop it, look into some of the chemicals wine makers use to prevent refermentation. Although I would wait until after you rack it onto your peaches.

 

[ericd]

No, lol, it was new from the hardware store, so I hope not. Looked clean to me.

Used california ale yeast.

I was thinking it could be soy lecithin from the herbal tea used as a carrier for the flavorings. It looked like little white crystals in the dry tea.

 

[ohiodad]

I'm interested to know what this is too.. I've brewed around 100 batches over my career and interestingly enough about my last 4 batches have developed in the secondary a white film on top with a small amount of bubbles in them. Now not one of these beers has tasted bad and I've bottled every one of them and have drank my way 3/4 of a way through the batch of rauchweizen that originally developed the problem. I can't for the life of me figure out where it came from and I'm very meticulous about my sanitation. I have seen lacto infections though and this definitely isn't one. I can only think maybe it is a slight bit of brett or something. I sure wish I could figure out where it is coming from as I've replaced all of my tubing and I use star san for sanitation...

 

[phissionkorps]

One thing I've been wondering is why when people say a beer is infected or sour, they automatically think of lacto and only lacto. Why does no one ever mention Acetobacter as a possible culprit? Depending on the beer you have and the stages its in, conditions for Acetobacter can be just right. Acetobacter are also used to sour some Belgians, and IIRC its also airborne, so why lacto and only lacto?

 

[ericd]

Good question, lacto is more common i guess and so you hear about it more, so that's what you assume. Acetic acid is a pretty apparent smell/flavor as well I'd be easy to know if/when you have it, i guess.