Ugly white stuff.

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DustjunkieScott

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I got back from a trip to Baja to this in my fermentor. 10 gallons in a plastic conical. My 20th or so batch, third all-grain. Irish red. It's been in there 18 days.

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Looks like the surface of some planet.....

I'd still taste it to see, Pez.
 
let it ride for a few months, you might get lucky and have a good wild brew. i have a 100% brettanomyces brux pale ale going right now.
 
The centre of it looks like its been left for too long, but the rest looks mad, wait it out and something awesome might eventuate
 
It smells good, and it finished well. I will taste it before I chuck it.

Especially if you have a conical, you should be able to rack from underneath the infection and have a decent beer (provided it tastes and smells good now!)
Even if it's a little soured, I'd think most Irish Red's would have enough malt character to balance it out.
 
let it ride for a few months, you might get lucky and have a good wild brew. i have a 100% brettanomyces brux pale ale going right now.

+1, don't dump it! Let it go at least a month before you pull a sample. If it tastes bad, give it another month and see what happens. Since it's infected anyway, add some dreggs from some commercial sours (since you're in Cali, I'd suggest Russian River sours). That'll introduce additional bugs and you could end up with an awesome wild brew. Oh, and buy a new bucket because you won't want to use that one again for anything but sours.
 
Ok. I won't dump it yet. I was about to just now and came back. Should I leave in the fermentor or put her in a keg for a month or more?

It tasted a bit sour but not heinous.
 
if you can you afford to leave it in the conical do so, the pellicle serves a purpose to the bugs living beneath it.
 
Sweet, I'll leave it for now. I've got 20 gallons in kegs, 5 more in another Carboy fermenting and an empty Carboy for a Porter that I dry hop with Amarillo. The conical is for the proven beers that all my friends like.

I'm pretty sure the bug found its way there through a Kerr jar that I used to store yeast. I boiled it but it still had a salsa smell from its previous use.
 
Ok. I won't dump it yet. I was about to just now and came back. Should I leave in the fermentor or put her in a keg for a month or more?

It tasted a bit sour but not heinous.

I'd plan on letting it age at least six months or more. Sometimes the pellicle will drop on it's own when the beer is "finished"
 
So I was brewing a Pale Ale last night, had the BBQ going, a few friends over and my buddy asked to taste it. He did, then I did, a few others did and it's really not bad at all. It's got an ever so slight sour smell but is very smooth and tasty. It's still in the fermentor, but I think I'm gonna chuck the middle, under the pellicle in a keg, carb it up and drink it.
 
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