No pellicle formed on my Berliner Weisse

[JiltedEmu]

Me and a buddy both brewed a Berliner Weisse. His was brewed on 1/1/12 and mine was brewed on 1/29/12. For his, he used wheat liquid malt extract and I went all grain. We both used Pilsner grains and WLP 677 (Lactobacillus Delbrueckii) and WLP 011 (European Ale).

The main difference is that he pitched the lacto and WLP 011 at the same time and I wanted to see how sour I could make my BW, so I made a 1L starter with the lacto and pitched it by itself, waited three days, then pitched the WLP011.

They are both fermenting in my garage and although his BW has about a 4 week head start on my BW, a pellicle hasn't yet formed over the top of my BW. Is this normal? Attached is a side by side pic of the two BW's. The one on the left is mine (without pellicle) and the normal looking BW is on the right. Drop some knowledge on me HBT! Please?

 

[SethMasterFlex]

I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether lacto grows a pellicle on it's own. I have one Berliner going that I pitched a 2 week old lacto starter in for 48 hours before adding yeast. I had vigorous CO2 formation and a little build up on top, but no pellicle in the traditional sense.

Pellicles usually grow in the presence of oxygen. Your BW jut might not have any reason to grow one. I have multiple sours/wilds going in Better Bottles that have not developed a pellicle. Just as you can't judge fermentation by airlock activity alone, you can't judge the sour/wild character by pellicle formation. No pellicle doesn't mean the lacto isn't doing it's thing.

If you don't notice any sourness developing, then you have another issue. If that's the case, my guess would be that your Lacto experienced too many temp swings being in the garage, or you added too much hops for the strain to survive.

Maybe someone with some more experience can chime in.

 

[Soma]

A Pellicle is typically formed by Brettanomyces (yeast), not Lactobaccillus (bacteria), so I wouldn't worry about it. Also, what temp are the carboys at? Lacto doesn't produce much acidity unless it's kept quite warm, much warmer than you'd typically ferment an ale.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

My lambic has been going since January and has no pellicle. I wouldn't worry about it. Pellicles form to regulate oxygen. So I'm guessing I and you both still have a nice c02 blanket on top.