Surprise Pellicle?

[TobyBenjamin]

Hey HBT! Over a few years of brewing, I've learned to contain my infection scares, but I've never seen this and I wanted a second opinion.

Some potentially relevant variables to the recipe: This beer was fermented with German Bock Lager yeast. Oak chips were boiled for 10 minutes and added to the carboy during primary. I boiled half a pound of spruce twigs and tips in 16 ounces of water, which I then filtered out and boiled down to 4 oz (so I assume it boiled long enough to sanitize), chilled, and added the syrup to secondary.

Two days ago, I moved my beer from secondary in a keg into a glass carboy for one last rest before bottling and so I could see the beer, as I couldn't visually inspect it in the keg. The glass carboy (6.5g) has a LOT of head space, but I assumed it wouldn't be a big deal for just a day or two.

I woke up to this today:

At first I thought this was some kind of mold or bacteria, but I've seen infections and this looks like something else completely. Some searching leads me to believe it's a wild yeast pellicle, which was not expected since I've never used Brett with any of my vessels or other equipment.

Any thoughts on what this could be? and just as important (if not more), is this safe to bottle and drink?

Thanks in advance!

 

[day_trippr]

That is a laboratory-grade pellicle. Just beautiful.
No idea what the hell it is or if it will kill you and everyone around you eventually, but it sure is pretty...

Cheers!

 

[CadillacAndy]

It's a pellicle for sure and is a sign of contamination. It's all but impossible to tell if it's Brett, lacto, pedio, etc just by the pellicle, but it's most likely safe to drink. I would never tell you 100%, but typically nothing that can hurt you can grow in beer.

I probably wouldn't bottle it because the contamination will cause the beer to continue to attenuate and give off co2 which could cause bottle bombs. You could keg and keep it cold if that's an option.

There were so many possibly points where contamination occurred in the process it's hard to give suggestions.

 

[TobyBenjamin]

So beautiful I felt bad moving the carboy back to the fermentation room - glad I got that picture beforehand.

I don't have a kegging setup, so I'm stuck with bottles. I'm going to let it ride until the winter, give it a taste, and bottle if all goes well.

Funny thing is, I've been arguing with myself for weeks over which of my 3 carboys to dedicate to trying my first sour (and all subsequent sours). Guess the yeast made that call for me.

 

[CadillacAndy]

If you're going to go that route, I'd probably recommend grabbing a commercial culture - Wyeast Roeselare or Lambic would be good choices. Most of the time accidental contamination isn't the greatest. One of my beers started out this same way and ended up winning a runner up best of show in a 300 beer competition.

 

[TobyBenjamin]

I've seen a lot of threads mentioning supplementing the wild ferm with a commercial culture, but I'm not sure I understand why this helps. Is it just a matter of how efficiently the beer will ferment? Do you think it's necessary or just helpful?

I'm very curious to see what this wild stuff does to my brew on its own. Does it sound like an okay idea to leave this for a few months, try a sample, and either (1) bottle, or (2) if necessary, add a commercial strain to finish/clean it out?

Thanks for the tips and for sharing your experience. Hopefully this batch turns out as successfully as yours did!

 

[CadillacAndy]

The idea with the commercial culture is to introduce proven bacteria and wild yeast. Since this is a random contamination you really do not know what you're getting. It could be great but it could be vile and using a proven culture will reduce the chance of getting something that's not worth drinking.

If you're curios to see how the wild contamination tastes you can always pull of a portion and set it aside in a gallon jug and hit the rest with the commercial blend.

Ultimately it's your beer, so do whatever you'd like. Just as long as you report back on how things progress. Good luck with it! Cheers!

 

[Hello]

I have the same issue and mine is lacto. It tastes good though. I'm letting it ride for 3 months before I decide whether to let it ride a year or so, or blend it with another wheat to my taste. The only thing I intend to do is pitch dregs from Boulevard's Smokestack Series Saison Brett. I'll do dregs from a single bottle and probably do it again later. Adding some Brett isn't a bad idea. I was given some great advice from a brewer who has done sours and letting it ride felt like a great idea. He never mentioned adding bugs. I did ask and there was no real agreement there.

This accident may turn out epic. That's my hope. I hope that for you too.

 

[TobyBenjamin]

The gallon jug idea is a best of both worlds solution, so I'll probably go that route. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks!

Sounds like there are more than a few cases of accident-turned-excellence. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you tastier.

 

[TobyBenjamin]

** Deleted: double post **

 

[skw]

I had something that looked exactly like that on one of my beers once. I have no idea what infection it was, other than the beer it made was delicious.