What's growing on my beer

[Kblandfo]

Brewed a very basic extract cascade pale ale. Fermented with US05 inside a 15 gal SS keg (my usuall FV). Was brewed begging of nov. And the picture was taken Nov. 28.

Gravity was at 1011 which is to be expected. The taste was very plain with no sour notes. Because of the taste I ended up dry hopping as planned and I plan on legging it tonight if she still tastes fine.

Would still like to know what is growing.

Thanks y'all!

 

[Terek]

deffinetlly an infection. A lot of people try and do this. I say if it tastes fine, go for it. Its a pretty heavy infection, i cant believe you cannot taste anything

 

[DemonsRun]

I'd say its a pellicle. but that is a generic response Identifying what bacterial infection is creating it might be harder. Here is a nice description from Milk the Funk. http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Pellicle

Also souring can take a while, if you keg you may end up drinking all of it before you notice strong off notes.

 

[IndyBlueprints]

Since you are kegging (force carbonating instead of corn sugar carbonation), I would add 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite to inhibit further growth. I've done this on a batch before (and a couple of wines) successfully.

 

[Kblandfo]

Thanks for those quick replies. I'll add that potassium metasulfite to the keg. I have 10 g so I'll be taking off 1 g and I'll hide it in a corner and try it in a few months to see how it tastes.

 

[IslandLizard]

It may sour more over time, so if you want to slow that down, keg and store as cold as possible. Lactobacillus is very sensitive to hop oils, so it's unlikely to have a sole lacto infection in a pale ale.

Saturday at our Homebrew Guild's holiday party I had an (unintentionally) soured milk stout. It was among the very best beers I had there. Very cleanly soured, all pure lacto, and just perfectly balanced, not too sour (yet). The brewer said he has 25 gallons of it, probably due to leftover lactobacillus from a gose he had in those fermentors previously. Definitely a happy accident.

 

[Kblandfo]

kegged the beer, add the potassium metabisulfite to most of the beer but kept about 1 gallon in a small glass carboy with airlock to sit and age just to see what happens!

Thanks again

 

[Kblandfo]

Update, this keg is now empty.

Thanks to a couple of Xmas parties I was able to finish this keg of beer really quick. The sourness really never took over, I think I could taste something off but not 100%.

Thanks all