Pellicle Photo Collection

[stubbornman]

Pellicles are cool, but as said they are just a reaction to oxygen. On my sours, every couple of months I pull a sample to check gravity to a point and to monitor flavor development. Each time the pellicle morphs (again cool).





Supplication clone "morph"

 

[janitorjerm]

Here's mine as of today. Just racked onto strawberries and raspberries.

 

[brewbobaggins]

Another shot of my Consecration clone. Changed a lot over the last few weeks. Went from alien to dusty alien.

 

[Aschecte]

Not really a photo but happy birthday to my lambic its 6 months in the Carboy as of today. Ill post my pellicle tomorrow.

 

[tonyolympia]

So proud to be posting in this thread for the first time. Here's my sour brown ale, 1.049 OG, after two weeks in primary with ECY01 and only one week in secondary. I picked up more oxygen in transfer than I would have liked, but I'm gonna roll with it.

Look! I have a pellicle.

 

[rebel80]

This the wort for my Berliner after 24 hours with lacto. Is this pretty common for a lacto pitch?

 

[Jlaw3000]

I'm a proud first timer as well, inoculated with grain and worked perfectly. Berliner weisse, racked 1 gallons onto mixed berries, might blend it all together at the end, time will tell!

 

[jtejedor]

Here is the tart of darkness clone with ecy20. Going on 4 months.

 

[Aschecte]

Here is the tart of darkness clone with ecy20. Going on 4 months.

I would love to try ECY..... Can't seem to source any locally. This sucks.

 

[29thfloor]

Blonde Lambic (Wyeast Lambic Blend) at 8 months

Saison w/ Jolly Pumpkin dregs (Bam Biere and Oro de Calabaza) at 2 months

 

[sockmerchant]

One month old oud bruin

 

[Shred]

Mmmm...

 

[takahiro]

Here is my 1 gallon experimental batch. The base beer is Belgian Golden Strong, and it was infused with rinsed bug mixture from a batch of flanders red (ECY+commercial bugs) on 3/8/2013. I just added cubes today.
I'd like to think that the thick pellicle formation is due to me opening the lid pretty frequently (smells super). Another batch in a gallon chug, infused with pure Brett B., does not have any visible pellicle... But I am not 100% sure if it's the bug mixture or the lid opening that makes difference in the pellicle formation.

Cheers

 

[sddanc]

this is a wicked source for desktop backgrounds.

 

[emjay]

Here is my 1 gallon experimental batch. The base beer is Belgian Golden Strong, and it was infused with rinsed bug mixture from a batch of flanders red (ECY+commercial bugs) on 3/8/2013. I just added cubes today.
I'd like to think that the thick pellicle formation is due to me opening the lid pretty frequently (smells super). Another batch in a gallon chug, infused with pure Brett B., does not have any visible pellicle... But I am not 100% sure if it's the bug mixture or the lid opening that makes difference in the pellicle formation.

Cheers

Pellicles require oxygen (it's actually created to form a barrier to that oxygen). Most of my sours are kept without oxygen in the headspace, so they usually don't even get pellicles. But yeah, it's almost certain that it's due to you opening it.

 

[Brulosopher]

I've got my first 2 sours going right now, about a month in is all- a split batch Flanders where I pitched Roeselare in half and WLP655 in half. No pellicles yet. But check this out:


I keep a solo cup by my taps to use for the first second or so of a pour when I haven't had that beer in a bit- for the gods, you know. Well this baby formed in about 48 hours.

 

[smokinghole]

Here's one on my most recent reuse of a hop tolerant bacteria. I dont know the type for sure and the first beer never developed a pellicle (never opened it to look though). Anyhow it has developed this beauty since the transfer. Smelling cleanly sour not bretty at all.

 

[sweetcell]

Here's one on my most recent reuse of a hop tolerant bacteria. I dont know the type for sure and the first beer never developed a pellicle (never opened it to look though). Anyhow it has developed this beauty since the transfer. Smelling cleanly sour not bretty at all.

View attachment 115951

beautiful.

what does the bacteria taste like? a classic sour, or something else?

 

[smokinghole]

Just classic sour. This was used in a saison (picture many pages back) but the hops are too prominent to really taste the lactic. I think it will get packaged at the end of the month. This was a large batch and I split it off and gave a portion 5lbs of local tart cherries. That portion due to active fermentation and a brett addition hasn't developed a pellicle at all. There's a possibility I picked something up in the fermentor but I've been 100% disassembling the 10gal kegs I use each funky ferment and cleaning the hell out of everything. If there's no ropy viscosity which there wasn't two weeks ago, then it's just the bacterium or possibly bacteria that I intended to be there. I tried to get this purified but my friend got a gram negative rod that soured my beer in an anaerobic environment. So either the acidity I got is from aceto/gluconobacter and slight oxidation, or we didn't grow the bacterium from the beer that he had a on a plate and it was something else. I might bring him a small portion of this in the fermentor to work with instead of a carbonated bottle like he tested last time.

 

[Kwix]

I joined just to post these crappy photos of my 14mo Flanders Red (Gilda):

Unfortunately I just destroyed the pellicle by moving the carboy and siphoning some to inoculate another batch. Hopefully it won't be too long before it starts getting furry again.

 

[Shred]

Just killed my pellicle racking off oak chips yesterday. I miss it

 

[beckerc07]

Not the best quality photo, it is hard to get a good one with all of the krausen stuck to the carboy. My first attempt at a lambic, now 2 months old with wyeast lambic blend, cantillon rose de gambrinus and tilquin dregs. This just popped up in the last week or so.

 

[sweetcell]

Just killed my pellicle racking off oak chips yesterday. I miss is

expose the beer to oxygen, it'll come back

 

[Shred]

It got racked into an open bucket then back into the carboy after I cleaned the oak out. I'm thinking that was probably adequate O2 exposure, but just to be safe... maybe I'll pull the airlock for a couple hours tonight

 

[TNGabe]

It got racked into an open bucket then back into the carboy after I cleaned the oak out. I'm thinking that was probably adequate O2 exposure, but just to be safe... maybe I'll pull the airlock for a couple hours tonight

You don't need or necessarily want a pellicle.

 

[Rob_B]

You don't need or necessarily want a pellicle.

True, I wouldn't go about trying to make one. But they sure are great to stare at!

 

[Shred]

Awww... but I miss it!

 

[TNGabe]

Awww... but I miss it!

Drink a sour, toss the bottom of it in some low grav wort, shake periodically, and you'll have a new friend in no time.

 

[Brulosopher]

Drink a sour, toss the bottom of it in some low grav wort, shake periodically, and you'll have a new friend in no time.

Or just leave a glass of beer out in your garage for a week or two...

 

[xtian116]

I was freaking out until I started looking at these photos. Guess mine is doing good, just never had it look like this.




Looks like something under I microscope. Didn't even zoom.