Pale Ale Pellicle / Unintentional Souring

[ksharpesays]

Howdy, I went to check on one of my pale ales I am brewing on my lunch break and I discovered a pellicle in one of the carboys (thank goodness it is only one of them) - rather than dump it I am going to cover it with a paper bag and put it along side of an intentional sour brown ale I am attempting to do and let the bacteria do its thing (until March when the intentional sour brown is ready to go).

I am new to souring so I have a few questions in regards to making it as good as possible.

1. Yes there is bacteria in there, but there is no way of knowing what it is without lab testing tools (I'd assume). Should I be adding any or all of either brett/lacto/pedio to the mix to ensure some sort of stability?

2. There is a hop sock in there now, I racked to secondary 5 days ago so it is a relatively young pellicle. I don't want to leave the hop sock in there for fear of additional off flavors from the hops sitting for too long, it may be too much to pull it out. Would you recommend just trying to pull it out with a sanitized object or should I rack it into a new carboy and hope the pellicle forms again?

 

[2bluewagons]

Just a basic question, are you sure it is a pellicle? If you can upload a pic and get a 2nd opinion? Sometimes yeast does some odd-looking things, that are perfectly normal and non-infected...

 

[ksharpesays]

I'm pretty sure it's a pellicle, here are two pictures. Let me know!

 

[eastoak]

i would get the hop sock out. if you can't pull it out of the carboy i guess you will have to move the beer to another vessel. having a pellicle does not matter, it's just a reaction the the amount of O2 present and not having a pellicle does not mean the sour bugs are not doing their thing.

 

[ksharpesays]

Getting the hop sock out was a pain. The hops kept bottle-necking at the top of the carboy. I ended up having to cut it and spoon them out and then pull the sock out. But it is out and the pellicle came back, just not as prominent.

I will keep everyone posted on the progress, I will be tasting it every 6 weeks or so and hopefully bottling in February.