Hey y’all, I recently bought some extra lids for my ferm buckets with some holes pre-drilled in them for #7 bungs. I used one for the first time a couple weeks ago when I started fermentation on an imperial porter I brewed. I used a large starter of us-05, but after a couple days, I was still stuck with no airlock activity, so I increased the temp to about 77 Fahrenheit and added some nutrient (sanitized everything properly, but still had to open her up.) I went out of town the next day, so I figured cranking up the temp a bit would do the trick along with the nutrient. I came back two days ago and checked the gravity, which was 1.022 from my original 1.067. BUT I still had no airlock activity, which tells me those kids probably suck, and I want it to be a bit lower and it was too sweet for my liking anyway, so I threw in another packet of us-05 and a little more nutrient. Checked 24 hours later (this morning) and no further fermentation has occurred. This time, however, I happened to look through the bung hole and saw a wild yeast pellicle (picture below.) I can only assume it got infected through an ill-fitting lid, as I properly sanitized the whole time and there was never any airlock activity despite obviously fermenting. So this morning I grabbed a lid that I know to be airtight, sanitized everything, threw a bung and airlock on that and let it go. My question is, should I let it go with the wild yeast? It actually smelled delicious when I was switching the lids. I don’t see any sign of mold or anything, just obvious pellicle formation. I have no patience issues, I’ll let it go for a while to ferment fully, if I determine to not pitch it.
Wild yeast pellicle on homebrew
- Thread starter Ndeffet
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- fermantation pellicle porter
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In my experience, dark ales taste horrible on the long run, when fermented with wild yeasts, so you better bottle/keg that one asap, carb it up and drink them quickly.
This yeast will very likely attenuate further in the bottle very slowly, so you want to chill them once carbed up and monitor the carbonation status frequently to avoid bottle bombs.
As to your nutrient additions, that was useless and propperly the reason for the infection. They are still in solution as the yeast only eats them in conjunction with fermentation, which was already finished when you added the nutes. So you might have ruined the taste with the nutes. In general, beer does not need additional nutrients, keep them for mead or wine making.
This yeast will very likely attenuate further in the bottle very slowly, so you want to chill them once carbed up and monitor the carbonation status frequently to avoid bottle bombs.
As to your nutrient additions, that was useless and propperly the reason for the infection. They are still in solution as the yeast only eats them in conjunction with fermentation, which was already finished when you added the nutes. So you might have ruined the taste with the nutes. In general, beer does not need additional nutrients, keep them for mead or wine making.
Doesn't hurt to try it . I hate tossing stuff. Bottle it and stay below that surface . Like @Miraculix said watch out for bottle bombs . Keep them in a big igloo until they're done carbing up .
That's some pretty cool looking pellicle !
That's some pretty cool looking pellicle !
So what happened?
