What went wrong?

[lifeofdanger]

Arr me Coider drinkers, o'ive got a poser for ye.
(drops West County accent)

I've been stuck into making Cider for some time, and just upgraded
to white plastic 30 gallon barrels with the red spin on lids.

I'm seeing something I've not seen before: its not a classic acetobacter head, but a kind of slightly oily looking gray film on the top of my secondary.
When I swipe it, it leaves white bubbles under it. Darnedest thing.

Anyone seen this? Cheers, LOD

 

[lifeofdanger]

Broken Image is at: http://imgur.com/a/LUOfc

 

[buMbLeB]

I'm mostly replying because of the accent. But also, I've seen something vaguely similar, when I tried making pomegranate wine. I boiled the juice before fermenting, and the result was that I set the pectin causing jelly skin bubbles to form from the CO2. It turned out fine and was delicious: link to post here.

Might not be the same thing at all, and I'm not very experienced, but thought I'd share it just in case.

 

[TandemTails]

Looks like a pellicle of some sort. Maybe you got some wild bacteria in there at some point? You can check out a bunch of other pellicles in the Lambic & Wild Brewing subforum: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=174033

Most people will probably just say taste it and if it tastes fine, let it ride.

 

[lifeofdanger]

Tandem, that's a great link. (many thanks, much lookings). I hit it w/ Metabi before and after primary, so I doubted it's a Yeast related issue,
but after seeing the dusty/cloudy bubbles that is exactly the look. Hmm. I will exercise my patience and not Turbo and re-rack it.
It's slightly sharp, but I'm using some very weird apples from an experimental orchard planted 60 years ago, so?

 

[dmtaylor]

Sounds like a pellicle. Fear the worst, but fortunately, it does take time for anything to come of it. If you can rack the cider and add sorbate and sulfite, you might be able to stave off the infection long enough to drink and enjoy most if not all of the batch. Good luck.