Leftover Mash Wort In Bucket / Something is Growing

[ultravista]

I brewed a Pliny the Younger last Friday and left about 1 gallon of wort runoff in a bucket and sealed the lid.

Today I opened the bucket and found a thick jelly like membrane sitting on the top. Not much of a smell other than the sweet smell of the 1.050 wort. Not moldy.

The wort underneath the mass is still a little sweet and does not taste acidic or have a weird taste.

What is this thing? I presume a natural fermentation of sorts.

I presume the bucket is a loss, never to be used again for brewing? Or can I soak it in a bleach concentration to nuke whatever is left behind?

 

[shoengine]

Let it go, see what you get!

 

[ultravista]

Yeah, but what is it? It is almost like a vinegar mother, rubbery.

 

[shoengine]

Do you get fruit flies? They carry around acetobacter apparently.

 

[An Ankoù]

I brewed a Pliny the Younger last Friday and left about 1 gallon of wort runoff in a bucket and sealed the lid.

Today I opened the bucket and found a thick jelly like membrane sitting on the top. Not much of a smell other than the sweet smell of the 1.050 wort. Not moldy.

The wort underneath the mass is still a little sweet and does not taste acidic or have a weird taste.

What is this thing? I presume a natural fermentation of sorts.

I presume the bucket is a loss, never to be used again for brewing? Or can I soak it in a bleach concentration to nuke whatever is left behind?

It looks just like yeast to me. It's hardly a membrane, you could probably walk on it. I use a few yeasts that leave a head like that. I've used Verdant IPA and drawn off perfectly clear beer from underneath a yeast head an inch thick.
No good reason not to use your bucket again, Just clean it properly.

What yeast did you use?

 

[ultravista]

I used US 05 in the fermenter. In the bucket - nothing.

It is not yeasty at all - nothing like I've seen before. It is a mass and if it were thicker, I bet I could pick it up whole out of the bucket.

 

[Kickass]

Looks like krausen.

Let it roll, then share your tasting notes!

 

[Tony B]

Grab a chunk and make a sourdough starter.

 

[hottpeper13]

That's what my sourdough starter looks like when I refresh it. Scoop that into a bowl and add some flour and water in equal weights.