Possible Infection in Peach Kettle-Sour

[MrZuckerkorn]

So I decided to venture into the world of sour brewing over labor day weekend, and decided to do a kettle sour in order to keep my bottling equipment clean. I went for a Belgian sour blonde, basing my grist on the Rare Barrel lambic recipe. Mash, 15 minute boil, sour with goodbelly, 45 minute boil, and ferment with Imperial Yeast Workhorse.

Right before brewing, I ended up getting my hands on around 7 lb of local peaches, and decided to make a peach sour. I was going to pull a gallon of wort out of the kettle at flameout and pasturize the peaches at near-boiling temps before transferring everything to the carboy for primary, but I really didn't want to lose all that peach flavor during fermentation. So, I decided to wash, chop, and freeze the peaches during primary in order to slow down any bugs on the fruit. I transferred the beer to secondary along with the peaches to rest for a month. I had extra wort, so one gallon went into a smaller jug with a single fresh peach, soaked whole in starsan and then chopped and added. The 5 gallon carboy has the 6-7 lbs peaches that were vigorously washed, chopped on a sanitized board, and frozen. I put them in a drawstring sack to be able to easily remove them before racking to the bottling bucket, although I'm thinking that was probably unnecessary.

Two weeks in, I noticed what appears to be some sort of wild yeast growth or infection. At first I thought it was mold, but based on what I've read here, it likely isn't, since there is no discoloration or hairs growing on the substance. It wasn't there after the first week on the peaches. The beer smells great and has no noticeable off-taste. Here's what I'm wondering:

-What the heck is this stuff? (Sorry for the photo quality, focusing the camera through the glass was tough)

-If it is wild yeast, should I modify my plan of aging on fruit for a month before bottling? Maybe age longer and let it do it's thing? Or pull it now?

-Any warning signs to watch for going forward?

-At this point, should I resign myself to the fact that anything (besides the glass carboy and jug) that touches the beer from now on should not be used for clean beers going forward?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MrZuckerkorn]

Here a a slightly better photo I hope, taken with the lid off. The oily sheen around the clumps should be more visible.

 

[Sadu]

Subbed

 

[ca_baracus]

decided to do a kettle sour in order to keep my bottling equipment clean.

Sorry that I can’t offer any advice, but as someone who wants to try a sour in the near future, what does this statement mean? What would happen to your bottling equipment had you not done a kettle sour?

 

[TravelingLight]

Sorry that I can’t offer any advice, but as someone who wants to try a sour in the near future, what does this statement mean? What would happen to your bottling equipment had you not done a kettle sour?

In a kettle sour, after souring with lacto, the wort is boiled to kill the lacto. By killing the lacto, you eliminate the risk of live lacto contaminating your equipment (tubing, lines, etc.). If you sour with lacto, then ferment without killing the lacto, the beer still has live bacteria in it and can take hold in plastic/vinyl pieces.

 

[Nick1257]

It's probably delicious