What kind of infection did I pick up?

[Nateo]

Brewed a Belgian-ish ale, OG 1.080, FG 1.010. Racked to secondary, added oak chips (Jack Daniels whiskey barrels chips for smoking). Boiled the oak chips for about 60 seconds, discarded boiling liquid. A couple weeks later this happened:

I've never had an infection like this before, so I'm not sure what it is. I suspect it's something that was living inside the wood, so maybe some sort of Lacto, Pedio, or Brett? Gravity is at 1.006 right now, so I know it's eating some of the residual sugars. It does have a bit of tartness, but the pH has been stable so far.

 

[landshark]

If I answer can you hook me up with a fishing trip at the springs?

If it's a Belgium, it may suppose to look like that. Appears to be a lacto, but what yeast did you pitch?

 

[Nateo]

I'll give you 10% off in my tackle store.

 

[landshark]

I'll give you 10% off in my tackle store.

Sadly, I doubt I can take you up on that, as I'm not exactly sure.

It appears to be a lacto as previous.

the bubbles forming give it the appearance of a possible Flanders, but it probably just a bug that got picked up,

Possibly after a few weeks I would imagine it will look like COLObrewer's lambic mix. I think he just pitched pellicle though.

 

[DoubleAught]

Looks like you got something in there. If I were you I'd toss some Wyeast 5526 in it with some Raspberries, give it 6-12 mos and see how funky she gets. Might be a new discovery!

 

[bottlebomber]

Looks like you got something in there. If I were you I'd toss some Wyeast 5526 in it with some Raspberries, give it 6-12 mos and see how funky she gets. Might be a new discovery!

+1. Of all the "is my beer infected" pics I've seen, that looks like an actual pellicle growth. May as well work with it. I may turn out amazing.

 

[Nateo]

Yeast was T-58, so it wasn't intentionally infected like with a Lambic blend. I've been using T-58 for years and it's never looked like that before.

I've cultured wild Lacto before, but it looked more yellowish and opaque, not clear and thin like that. I'm sure there are lots of different Lacto-bugs in the world. I'm watching it closely, and hoping it's not acetobacter.

 

[Nateo]

Gravity is stable at 1.006, pH is stable at 4.1. So, maybe it's some kind of mold?

 

[Nateo]

Pretty sure it's mold. No acidity has developed. Beer tastes fine. Whatever it is doesn't taste like anything.