Pellicle ID

[yard_bird]

Went to bottle my American amber today to find this floating on top. Bucket is only a batch old and I almost never have infected batches. Is it possible to ID which bacteria caused this based on looks alone? In the future could I just dose with K-meta before bottling to halt this in its tracks?

For what it’s worth, gravity sample tastes as expected.

Much appreciated.

 

[JohnSand]

I've seen similar infections, but I don't know which bug caused it. I would watch for bottle bombs, chill and drink as soon as possible.

 

[Zambezi Special]

I had something similar looking. Fermented down to 1.000
But quite drinkable. Good foam.

Obviously I cleaned, sanitised, disinfected the heck out of all equipment, but still baffled that the taste is quite good. Not sour, not dry....

 

[yard_bird]

Thanks for the replies. Turns out there was a broccoli floret in my bucket tap (how??). Dismantled everything and soaked in a bucket of star San for a couple hours and scrubbed.

Bottled about half the batch as that’s the most that will fit in my fridge at a time.

 

[brewbama]

Do you have a two year old running around? While you’re at it: Better check the CD player for a half eaten sandwich.

 

[Kickass]

Turns out there was a broccoli floret in my bucket tap

Going for the dry broccoli’ing flavor benefits, huh?

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks for the replies. Turns out there was a broccoli floret in my bucket tap (how??). Dismantled everything and soaked in a bucket of star San for a couple hours and scrubbed.

Bottled about half the batch as that’s the most that will fit in my fridge at a time.

That's pretty awesome. Just when you think you've heard it all...

 

[yard_bird]

Thought I'd provide an update: The beer is surprisingly normal as far as American ambers go, though there is a little bit of yeast spiciness as it warms. Mostly a good balance of malt and hops with something that I would confuse as noble hop spiciness if I didn't know I used 100% cascade. If I'm being fair, it's less noticeable than the infected batch of commercial beer I recently purchased steeply discounted, which is a win for me.

This surprised me a little at first because I expected these bottles to be overcarbed (I guess more time will tell) and very bretty/etc. However, I started a new bottling process where I add potassium metabisulfite at bottling to preserve freshness. I wonder if this helped curb the growth of the unwelcome microbes.

Overall I'm glad I only bottled half since I'm not thrilled how it turned out, but something I'll keep in mind if I get infected batches in the future. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that.