Pellicle Photo Collection

[Quaker]

A pellicle is formed by brettanomyces, not lacto, and they don't spring up on the first day of fermentation. Looks typical of a berlinerweisse fermentation to me.

Disagree. I had a pellicle on a Berliner Weiss innoculated using yogurt, not grain.

 

[badlee]

How did you go about that quaker?

 

[Quaker]

I mashed as normal, raised it with a bit of boiling water to mash out, then let it cool to below 120F in my cooler with plastic wrap on the surface of the mash. Then added a tub of yogurt labelled with lactobacillus bulgaricus. It would drop to about 100F after 8 hrs then I'd add a little boiling water to raise it back up. After 3 days, I lautered and sparged and continued through a boil as a normal beer, except only 15min boil. The yogurt also had a streptococcus strain which added some ropey black culture in with the white webby lacto pellicle.

 

[BryanThompson]

Have you tasted it yet Quaker? I regularly ferment pickles and peppers using the liquid from the top of greek yogurt and they all get powdery pellicles.

 

[Quaker]

Powdery is a much, much better description. I made it back in May. The 4 plain bottles I kept of it were great. But I put the bulk of it on sour cherries for several weeks. The result of which didn't suit my tastes. I think the whole fruit added too much tannins to it. Once a gallon was gone from the keg, I topped it off with a 100% Brett L beer. It wasn't much better. I doubt I drank a gallon before I pulled it from the fridge. It's been sitting at room temp ever since. I haven't needed the keg, so it hasn't been dumped. I last tasted it on December 2nd. It might work well to blend with a sweeter brown or red ale base and immediately chill. That may happen or it may find the drain.

 

[Quaker]

I forgot to mention the lacto was inadvertently carried over to the fermentation. I had done a short 15minute boil. I'm guessing I "contaminated" it with a spoon used to stir and aerate it. I fermented in my kettle. That's where the pellicle formed, not in the mash.

 

[dcHokie]

Who wants to take a stab at this thing?!

 

[bottlebomber]

Who wants to take a stab at this thing?!

Looks like bread. What is it?

 

[dcHokie]

Looks like bread. What is it?

No clue. It was a leftover jar of wort that I added some sour dregs and a few grains to, then covered it with a cloth and left it alone for a couple weeks. Its thick like a moldy popover.

 

[passedpawn]

No clue. It was a leftover jar of wort that I added some sour dregs and a few grains to, then covered it with a cloth and left it alone for a couple weeks. Its thick like a moldy popover.

wild yeast and lacto then. Drink some and let us know

 

[TNGabe]

Who wants to take a stab at this thing?!

How's it smell?

 

[dcHokie]

wild yeast and lacto then. Drink some and let us know

How's it smell?

Smells gnarly like most early sour/funky stuff. There are tiny fermentation bubbles, so I'll let it ride and give 'er a taste at some point.

 

[sheepdawgg]

Black mold equals bad mood. You should skim?

 

[bottlebomber]

Black mold equals bad mood. You should skim?

It doesn't look like black mold to me, more just black scum from dark wort atop a cap of bread dough.

 

[sheepdawgg]

That makes more sense than what I posted last night after a few beers... Whoops :/

 

[smokinghole]

This is my most recent saison that is a blend of Dupont bottle yeast, WY3724, WY3726, WL565, WL Trois, and a strain of lacto I isolated out of another culture that is hop tolerant. Well I think it's a lacto strain. I didn't get this kind of pellicle on the first beer I had the contamination but maybe this is a mix of the brett and lacto making this pellicle.

Here is another saison I brewed back in August. I fermented it solely with lambic/gueuze bottle sediment I saved up from the last two years. I just did a direct pitch of maybe 2oz of thick resuspended slurry. There's the normal suspects in here. Cantillion, Lindeman's Cuvee Renee, some 3F, Hanssens, and anything else I felt fit the lambic/gueuze profile when I was drinking at home and had my mason jar handy.

 

[jtejedor]

Here is a couple of shots (sorry they are not the greatest only got my cell to take pics). This is the tart of darkness recipe but I pitched ECY20 bug county that has a whole lotta different critters in it. The first pic was 3 days after pitching and the next ones are a day or two after that. The last one is not even that close up.

 

[pohldogg]

Got a few more. The first is a hibiscus ginger saison with jolly pumpkin dregs. The second is a pale ale with Brett trois. The third is a golden with Brett c.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Damnit, guys. I've got 7 sour/funk beers going right now and NONE of them have had a pellicle worth showing so far (some are approaching a year old now). The closest one is just a thin white film. Oh well, the pellicle is just part of the fun - at least they're tasting great so far.

 

[hvrtaxi]

NB Grand Cru partial mash. After a year and a month this is what it looked like:

Pulling the lid off the fermenter was like pulling a saddle of a horse....awesome. Taste was light and lemony sour.

 

[passedpawn]

Pulling the lid off the fermenter was like pulling a saddle of a horse....awesome. Taste was light and lemony sour.

Sounds like you were tasting the shampoo.

 

[hvrtaxi]

Sounds like you were tasting the shampoo.

Full bodied beer, full bodied hair...that basement tub is a true miracle!

 

[mors]

Pellicles on my 2 Consecration clones.

 

[passedpawn]

Pellicles on my 2 Consecration clones.

Funny, I made a clone a couple of years ago that looked just like those. Last night, I opened a bottle and 4 of those currants ended up in my glass. I have no idea how the heck they could have made it through the bottling wand. Weird.

 

[mors]

yeah the currants have been floating on the top for like 5 months... the one on the left most of them did drop a couple weeks ago...the right...most are still floating...

 

[smokinghole]

Here's my saison after another week. It's down to 1.002 at this point so I'm going to get ready for bottling. I'd like to get the fermentor empty so I can use the same bacteria in a new dubbel recipe that I initially made unintentionally sour. Now my friend and I want to make a buttload of the sour dubbel. I added dry hops to this saison today and will be cold crashing it at the middle of the week. I will bottle and prime for like 3 volumes allowing the brett and whatever to bring up the rear.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Here's my saison after another week. It's down to 1.002 at this point so I'm going to get ready for bottling. I'd like to get the fermentor empty so I can use the same bacteria in a new dubbel recipe that I initially made unintentionally sour. Now my friend and I want to make a buttload of the sour dubbel. I added dry hops to this saison today and will be cold crashing it at the middle of the week. I will bottle and prime for like 3 volumes allowing the brett and whatever to bring up the rear.

It's so....beautiful!

 

[sheepdawgg]

Here's my saison after another week. It's down to 1.002 at this point so I'm going to get ready for bottling. I'd like to get the fermentor empty so I can use the same bacteria in a new dubbel recipe that I initially made unintentionally sour. Now my friend and I want to make a buttload of the sour dubbel. I added dry hops to this saison today and will be cold crashing it at the middle of the week. I will bottle and prime for like 3 volumes allowing the brett and whatever to bring up the rear.

It's perfection

 

[mcnewcp]

Here is my flanders red at about 4 months. It's pitched with the Roe blend and some RR dregs.

 

[mcnewcp]

That one didn't seem to work so have another.