Looking for information on how I might definitively determine which wild organism(s) I have managed to catch. I have a strong suspicion that it is brett, but I want to confirm it, and ideally identify it.
What I did to catch it:
- Left starter wort outside over a weekend uncovered.
- Let it sit for a week or so. Stuff grew. It smelled estery.
- Hit it with ~30 ppm chlorine dioxide. (Should knock out most stuff except yeast, I *think*.) It sat for a few days while I got busy.
- Dumped the stuff that settled out into a fresh flask of starter.
After those steps, the flask smells yeasty/estery (pretty damn nice, actually) and is now developing a bubbly, dusty white pellicle. The tiny, tiny taste I sneaked before the pellicle formed had a good phenolic edge to it and was not at all unpleasant.
A) Does it sound like I've got brett?
B) How do I find out for sure? Are there tests I can get? A lab that can check for a reasonable fee?
Once I get a chance I'm going to plate it (malt agar is all I can do right now, but if anyone knows of inexpensive sources of WLD or LCSM...)
I live a couple of miles as the crow flies from Allagash, and they have successfully made coolship beers, so it's not out of the question that I've captured something useful. I just want to find out for sure. Thanks for any advice you can give!
What I did to catch it:
- Left starter wort outside over a weekend uncovered.
- Let it sit for a week or so. Stuff grew. It smelled estery.
- Hit it with ~30 ppm chlorine dioxide. (Should knock out most stuff except yeast, I *think*.) It sat for a few days while I got busy.
- Dumped the stuff that settled out into a fresh flask of starter.
After those steps, the flask smells yeasty/estery (pretty damn nice, actually) and is now developing a bubbly, dusty white pellicle. The tiny, tiny taste I sneaked before the pellicle formed had a good phenolic edge to it and was not at all unpleasant.
A) Does it sound like I've got brett?
B) How do I find out for sure? Are there tests I can get? A lab that can check for a reasonable fee?
Once I get a chance I'm going to plate it (malt agar is all I can do right now, but if anyone knows of inexpensive sources of WLD or LCSM...)
I live a couple of miles as the crow flies from Allagash, and they have successfully made coolship beers, so it's not out of the question that I've captured something useful. I just want to find out for sure. Thanks for any advice you can give!
