Infected?

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Iceman6409

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Hello fellow brewers. Here is two pictures of an all grain pumpkin ale with some "clouds" I have never seen before. Getting ready to bottle and this is what I saw. Wort looks black I know but it really isn't. It's a nice brown color. Thoughts?

WP_20141126_002.jpg


WP_20141126_003.jpg
 
It means there's likely an infection.

A distinctly "pellicle" looking area in the first picture is just slightly north of dead center. And looking around the rest of the picture there's more evidence of infection - like towards the south-west edge.

It looks like an early lactobacillus infection. Eventually it will look something like this...
30227d1311275407-name-pellicle-img_0737.jpg


...and it can get positively extraterrestrial-looking if left to do its thing.

If you want to see an epic collection of pellicles, check out this thread...

Cheers!
 
Sanitation issue or perhaps some lacto landed on the wort as lacto is pretty commonly floating around. Congrats, if that isn't a glass fermenter you now have your first wild fermenter. If it were me I'd toss in some more bugs and see what happens.
 
Ok so it looks like I lost this one. What generally causes this?


You have not lost it, you are just going to get something that didn't expect. I would run with it. If you want to keep it short, the. You can just let the lack run for a while, tasting occasionally. Don't bottle if you are still getting a change in gravity. If you really want to see where it can go and have 6 months to a year then I would toss in a bug blend. Some lacto, Pedro and Brett. This can be bottle dregs (check out themadfermentationist.com for a list of viable bottles to pitch or just something like the roselare (sp?) blend.

To go a touch deeper lactobacillus is type bacteria the makes sauerkraut. It can ferment the sugars that we typically call unfermentable (as can pedioucaccus and Brettanomyces, Brett being a yeast not bacteria) When lacto does it you get lactic acid which drops the PH and gives you sour beer. This is how you make Berlinerweiss. If you just want sour then let the lacto go for a bit and you are good, if you want sour and funky then you want to pitch a bug blend, but as I mentioned that takes time and there are many on this forum that can provide additional and better guidance than I.
Try's.
As for how you might have picked up the infection, obviously no one here can tell you for sure, but lactobacillus lives on most grain and produce. I have just tossed a handful of malt into chilled wort to kick off Berliners and when you make sauerkraut or really any veg ferment you can just add some salt and away it will go. Point being make sure you wipe done you surfaces, of any grain dust and just practice excellent sanitization. I keep a spray bottle o star San on hand to clean the work area before and as I brew and have not had an unintended infection to date (knock on wood).


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