Yeast or pellicle in bottle

[Stevesauer]

Hello. Been kegging all my beers. I brewed a Belgian strong ale and decided to bottle condition it. This being my first time, I'm unsure if what I'm seeing is normal. 2 weeks in and I have floaters or a film on the top of the beer. Is this yeast top fermenting like you'd see in primary, or a pellicle? The latter is possible because I have 2 Brett beers fermenting currently. Anyway, here are some pics. You be the judge. Thanks.

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[brewcat]

That doesn't look right. Did you check your gravity before bottling? Is it all the bottles?

 

[solbes]

Looks like a pellicle to me. I usually see some bubbles near the surface in a bottle and sometimes a yeast raft or two. Those do not look like yeast rafts IMO.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Pellicle, the last image sells it.

 

[m00ps]

I get pellicles in the bottles for about half of my brett or wild beers. But if thats a clean one, youd better chill the whole batch or brace yourself for spontaneous glass grenades.

I can lend you my homebrew hazmat suit if you need it

 

[Stevesauer]

That doesn't look right. Did you check your gravity before bottling? Is it all the bottles?

Checked the gravity. It was unchanged for about 3 weeks prior to bottling. I'll assume its all the bottles because each one I pulled looked the same. So I guess the Brett C found its way in? Wonderful.

 

[solbes]

Echo the comments above about chilling soon before they overcarb and explode. Will take a bit of time, but its a real possibility.

Are you sharing any plastic equipment between wild beers and non? I have dedicated plastic equipment for both. I usually bleach my glass carboys too afterward, just to be sure I killed them little buggers.

 

[Stevesauer]

Echo the comments above about chilling soon before they overcarb and explode. Will take a bit of time, but its a real possibility.

Are you sharing any plastic equipment between wild beers and non? I have dedicated plastic equipment for both. I usually bleach my glass carboys too afterward, just to be sure I killed them little buggers.

Not sharing equipment. All is separate. As far as chilling to keep from having bottle bombs, is there anything I can do to get these things carbed since chilling will prevent it? Currently the beer is not sufficiently carbed. If this is salvageable, i would like to. Belgian strong ale would do well with Brett. Just not what I was after.

 

[eastoak]

that's suspect and i'd bet it's not yeast.

 

[Stevesauer]

Pelicle then? Or something worse?

 

[passedpawn]

My berliner weisse developed similar pellicle in bottles. Nothing to worry about (don't think, anyway). Send me one!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

yeast eats sugars fast and its picky. Bret and bacteria eat sugars slowly and aren't picky. They can and do eat sugars that beer yeast can't/don't.

 

[m00ps]

Pelicle then? Or something worse?

Only thing "worse" would be mold. That is 100%, without a doubt, a pellicle. Unless you let that thing go in the fermentor for a few months to let the bugs mostly ferment out, youre going to run into problems since it will continue to ferment in the bottles

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Only thing "worse" would be mold. That is 100%, without a doubt, a pellicle. Unless you let that thing go in the fermentor for a few months to let the bugs mostly ferment out, youre going to run into problems since it will continue to ferment in the bottles

Agreed, I think OP should keep a very close eye on carbonation. OP says it's undercarbed at the moment. I'd check a bottle once or twice a week until it's carbed to at least something acceptable, then cold crash them all.

 

[Stevesauer]

Appreciate the info, guys. That's the plan moving forward then; monitor and crash when carbonation is acceptable. Not how I wanted things to turn out, but it's my only play I suppose. I'll post how they turn out in a few weeks.

 

[Stevesauer]

Did have one other question. The bottle I did taste has a very hot alcoholic character. Kind of like what you would see when tasting a sample you pulled from primary. Is this normal in bottle conditioning? Makes sense that it would occur to some extent, but this seems extreme.

 

[day_trippr]

It's not "normal" for bottle conditioned beers, so it's more likely something abnormal happened to that batch...

Cheers!

 

[Stevesauer]

It's not "normal" for bottle conditioned beers, so it's more likely something abnormal happened to that batch...

Cheers!

That's unfortunate and confusing. It wasn't like that prior to going in the bottles.

 

[Stevesauer]

Just wanted to update if anyone is still following this. I was able to move the beer to my fermentation chamber and held it at 77* for the past week and all that stuff is gone. I also get a pronounced "pfft" upon opening. I guess that was unfermented priming solution and yeast rafts? Haven't tasted yet but things seem to be moving in the right direction.

 

[Stevesauer]

So when I open the bottles I get the "pfft" noise one would expect. Its pretty pronounced. I can also see the co2 gas flowing out of the neck when i remove the cap. But the beer pours with no head and really no noticeable carbonation. I have read repeatedly that you must chill the bottles for a few days to allow the co2 to absorb into solution. Is that my problem here? Does it make THAT much of a difference? Like I said, first time bottle conditioning. Thanks.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]I have read repeatedly that you must chill the bottles for a few days to allow the co2 to absorb into solution. Is that my problem here? Does it make THAT much of a difference? Like I said, first time bottle conditioning. Thanks.

Yes, it really makes a difference...

Cheers!

 

[Stevesauer]

Yes, it really makes a difference...

Cheers!

Great! Enough to give this beer some fizz?

 

[Stevesauer]

Just wanted to provide an update/ask for advice. We are now at 2 months in the bottle. 5 weeks were spent at 78* and still not carbed sufficently. OG was 1.094 so maybe I should've re-yeasted? Anyway is that the answer? Mix up a slurry of yeast and add a few drops to each bottle then recap? Or is this just going to take longer? I've seen it on here over and over that higher gravity takes longer, but this is starting to seem excessive. Like I said before, this is my first time bottle conditioning, so I've nothing to compare it to.

 

[ullrotta]

Old thread, I know, but I'm curious. How did the beer turn out in the end?
I've had high gravity beers take ages - 3+ months - to carbonate, but once the get there, they turn out quite nicely.

 

[TwistedGray]

Old thread, I know, but I'm curious. How did the beer turn out in the end?
I've had high gravity beers take ages - 3+ months - to carbonate, but once the get there, they turn out quite nicely.

Lol, I don't think you will get an answer. "Stevesauer was last seen: Dec 8, 2016"