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Looks like a lacto infection infected the yeast raft floaters, thus the color of tan rather than the usual white.

That is basically what I had last night transferred into the secondary and it looks pretty good today. Do you think that I will have an issue?
 
Maybe. Infections show up on the surface, but are all through the beer. Racking from under the part you see on top & bottling seems to minimize the effects in my opinion.
 
Astringency can come from high PH of the mash, or tannins from the grain husks from over-sparging or perhaps squeezing the grain bag too much.
 
Thank you for the feedback guys. I haven't really gotten this type of smell before, but I've
never done this high a gravity beer either.

I'll just RDWHAHB and let ya know how it goes in a few weeks.
 
Thank you. I hope so- I'll know in about a month, I suppose. The smell is just a bit much. I have had a decent background with chemistry lab work so I may have gotten over confident on the first beer.
 
Well, brewing is part science/chemistry. But the rest is art. Keep trying & learning. We all go through it, so there's nothing left to it but to do it.:mug:
 
Looks like you were infected with the homebrew bug. And maybe some hop cones. Hope it turns out well. good beer can make some godawful smells when the yeast is doing its thing.
 
Really hope not. I'll let it ride another week and see if it changes. If it doesn't get worse, I'm thinking it'll be fine


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So I say and watched that robust porter for about 20 minutes one day while it formed enough CO2 to blow one bubble out of the airlock. So I'm guessing that adding that coconut could have potentially supplied some sugar to let that yeast start eating again.

Side note, I've had it cold crashing at ~35 degrees F since it went in secondary.

I'm hoping that wild smell it's lettin off is the combo of really high ABV and the cascade hops doing their thing on top.
 
Went to keg the hibiscus saison and found this. Those are bubbles. No green or white mold. Doesn't exactly smell off. Wife says its a little bitter to her but its actually fine tasting to me. We've done sours in the past and keep equipment seperate. No airlock. Blowoff tube from the start and never opened it during fermentation. We've done this recipe three times before.

I'm going to go ahead and keg it unless someone says this will kill me.

View attachment 1417380603828.jpg
 
Went to keg the hibiscus saison and found this. Those are bubbles. No green or white mold. Doesn't exactly smell off. Wife says its a little bitter to her but its actually fine tasting to me. We've done sours in the past and keep equipment seperate. No airlock. Blowoff tube from the start and never opened it during fermentation. We've done this recipe three times before.

I'm going to go ahead and keg it unless someone says this will kill me.

You got something. I am not sure what. And dont worry, nothing pathogenic (that can injure you) can survive in beer. Just be sure to clean the heck out of any kegging equipment that comes into contact with it.
 
One year ago, I brewed some lambic (with turbid mash) and aged it in a 59 gal wine barrel. Took out the beer (except for maybe 10 gal) a week ago to age on top of fruit. BTW, the year-old lambic is delicious! Anyways, brewed up some more to top off the barrel (it was left at 10 gal for a few hours and took two days to fill back up again -- 35 gal that day and 13 gal the next day). I did not aerate other than letting it crash into the barrel. I noticed no airlock activity for about a week and decided to check on it today. Here are the pics. Any ideas on what this is? I am also not sure if I should plan to get some additional yeast (particularly with some saccharomyces) to get strong fermentation started. The original yeast was some Wyeast WLP655 (Belgian sour mix).

IMG_20141201_120310.jpg


IMG_20141201_120339.jpg
 
One year ago, I brewed some lambic (with turbid mash) and aged it in a 59 gal wine barrel. Took out the beer (except for maybe 10 gal) a week ago to age on top of fruit. BTW, the year-old lambic is delicious! Anyways, brewed up some more to top off the barrel (it was left at 10 gal for a few hours and took two days to fill back up again -- 35 gal that day and 13 gal the next day). I did not aerate other than letting it crash into the barrel. I noticed no airlock activity for about a week and decided to check on it today. Here are the pics. Any ideas on what this is? I am also not sure if I should plan to get some additional yeast (particularly with some saccharomyces) to get strong fermentation started. The original yeast was some Wyeast WLP655 (Belgian sour mix).

See now when people post "infection" pictures, they should check this **** first. I would let that mother****er ride and see what you get.
 
One year ago, I brewed some lambic (with turbid mash) and aged it in a 59 gal wine barrel. Took out the beer (except for maybe 10 gal) a week ago to age on top of fruit. BTW, the year-old lambic is delicious! Anyways, brewed up some more to top off the barrel (it was left at 10 gal for a few hours and took two days to fill back up again -- 35 gal that day and 13 gal the next day). I did not aerate other than letting it crash into the barrel. I noticed no airlock activity for about a week and decided to check on it today. Here are the pics. Any ideas on what this is? I am also not sure if I should plan to get some additional yeast (particularly with some saccharomyces) to get strong fermentation started. The original yeast was some Wyeast WLP655 (Belgian sour mix).

Yes, but do you know what kind of bacteria forms this pellicle?

Should I be concerned?

I find it surprising that you've had 60 gallons of Lambic going and you're not sure what a pellicle is, but anyway, the bugs in WLP655 will form a pellicle:
"WLP655: A unique blend perfect for Belgian style beers. Includes Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, and the bacterial strains Lactobacillus and Pediococcus"

The presence of a pellicle means two things in your case:
1. There is oxygen present (makes sense, since you left a bunch of empty headspace for several days)
And 2. The bugs are active (something must be active to form the pellicle, right?)

All that said, you don't have to, but you might want to pitch some fresh sacch to help with a healthy initial fermentation, since the original sacch population from the blend will have mostly died off over the course of the last year. If you don't pitch anything else, it will still ferment, but it might take longer to get going and the results will be different than the first year lambic, since the primary fermentation will be dominated by wild yeast/bacteria, without much sacch.
 
I find it surprising that you've had 60 gallons of Lambic going and you're not sure what a pellicle is, but anyway, the bugs in WLP655 will form a pellicle:
"WLP655: A unique blend perfect for Belgian style beers. Includes Brettanomyces, Saccharomyces, and the bacterial strains Lactobacillus and Pediococcus"

The presence of a pellicle means two things in your case:
1. There is oxygen present (makes sense, since you left a bunch of empty headspace for several days)
And 2. The bugs are active (something must be active to form the pellicle, right?)

All that said, you don't have to, but you might want to pitch some fresh sacch to help with a healthy initial fermentation, since the original sacch population from the blend will have mostly died off over the course of the last year. If you don't pitch anything else, it will still ferment, but it might take longer to get going and the results will be different than the first year lambic, since the primary fermentation will be dominated by wild yeast/bacteria, without much sacch.

Thanks. I know what a pellicle is. I was simply wondering if this one looked normal for that yeast strain (and not something I should be worried about). Last year, a pellicle was not formed (well, at least not at any time that I checked the barrel).
 
Thanks. I know what a pellicle is. I was simply wondering if this one looked normal for that yeast strain (and not something I should be worried about). Last year, a pellicle was not formed (well, at least not at any time that I checked the barrel).

Yep, looks good to me, beautiful even. Again, Brett won't always form a pellicle, just under the right conditions.

I'd post those pics in the Pellicle Photo Collection Sticky so others can admire it as well.
 
Just opened the top to see why my San Diego SY hasn't started fornicating. Must not be a proper seal because I just found white fuzzy bits on top of the liquid. Pretty sure it is mold because one of the white spots had blue in it.
 
Just opened the top to see why my San Diego SY hasn't started fornicating. Must not be a proper seal because I just found white fuzzy bits on top of the liquid. Pretty sure it is mold because one of the white spots had blue in it.

I'm no expert, but your beer might be f**ked.
 
I'm no expert, but your beer might be f**ked.

Not necessarily, had mold growing on one last week after dry hopping, I thought the taste would be horrible, nope it was good so I kegged it, haven't tasted since carbing, but I have hope. Now I have another batch that has an oily film on top.

Ive brewed about 30 batches and never had an infection or anything, mysteriously I switched to starsan two batches ago.. well see how this goes
 
Just opened the top to see why my San Diego SY hasn't started fornicating. Must not be a proper seal because I just found white fuzzy bits on top of the liquid. Pretty sure it is mold because one of the white spots had blue in it.


What he said, and I wouldn't blame it on the seal as mold spores don't crawl under, up and down against a current. It's much more likely that it got in there while you were cooling or aerating.
 
I dont know what this is.. I saw another post with similar looking white film and some said it looked like brett, when I racked to bottling bucket the majority of the film stuck to the side of the carboy some fell into solution, what do you guys think it is. BTW it doesnt taste bad right now, 51 bottles will be carbed and ready in 1 week..

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