Toss it or try a sour?

[stillbrewin]

I made an Edworts pale ale a couple of weeks ago. I was using a new mash ton and burner and did not have my numbers dialed in. I hit 1.061 gravity and a post boil volumn of 4 gals instead of the 5.25 I was going for. I decided not to top it off and just have less but stronger beer. Well I got an infection on it. There is a healthy pellicle starting to grow on it after 2 1/2 weeks. I am not sure what it is yet. I am planning on letting it ride for a while. Does anyone think this beer would be a good base for a sour?

 

[OntarioBeerKegs]

My personal preference. Try everything! Some of my best beers have been from my worst disasters. The downside is if you do have something nasty it is hard work to get everything cleaned up. I am always amazed how good total crap can taste two months down the road....

 

[Oldsock]

Are you sure it's a pellicle? After 2.5 weeks I usually don't have a pellicle even after pitching billions of cells of Brett/Lacto/Pedio. Might just be the krausen going through a weird phase?

 

[Calder]

Personal opinion: Garbage in = garbage out.

If you start with a bad beer, you will end up with a bad beer. You might be able to mask some of a problem, but it will always be there, and come through.

Taste it, you might have a decent beer in there. If the sacc got a decent start, not too much can infect the beer. Might be a wild yeast, but 2.5 weeks seems short for a wild yeast to build up a decent population of cells. If it tastes OK, drink it or use it for a sour. If it is nasty, dump it.

 

[pohldogg]

90% of what I brew are sours/wilds and I've never gotten a pellicle that fast so I'd give it a little more time and see if it's a legit infection. Otherwise I tend to agree with Calder on the garbage in/out thing. If it were my brewery I'd let it ride until I found myself weighing the prospects of maybe being able to salvage a batch vs. getting the fermenter back into rotation.

 

[eastoak]

i agree with GIGO but i don't think a pellicle always forms at a particular speed. i set cups of beer out as a fruit fly control in my kitchen during the summer and i've had a thick pellicle form overnight from whatever those flies carry around. i've had one sour form a pellicle and that was the starter i made from beatification dregs, the beer i fermented with that starter never formed a pellicle at all, it sat undisturbed for a couple of months.

 

[pohldogg]

Pellicles are oxygen dependent. A cup of beer left open will form really fast because there's lots of oxygen. In a fermenter there's very little oxygen so that's why folks are thinking 2 weeks seems fast.

 

[stillbrewin]

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words. This pic is from my celphone in a rather dark basement so its worth maybe a 100 words.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80526954@N05/7569848316/in/photostream

I am pretty sure this accident keeps getting better or worse on its own. I use 7.5 gal bucket fermenters for primary then I transfer to 5 gal better bottles for secondary. I dont usually open the primary and then leave the beer in it. Once I open it it goes to a bottling bucket or secondary. I noticed something different with this beer though so I decided to put the lid back on it and wait a couple days to see what was going on. 4 gals in a 7.5 gal fermenter leaves a lot of room for oxygen.

The pic does not do any justice the film on top is snow white and alien looking.

 

[stillbrewin]

Some things I forgot in last post. The wort from this beer tasted delicious when I took the OG reading. I used a smack pack of wyeast London ale I think it was 1667. The smack pack was activated the day before and it was ready to burst when I pitched it. After 36 hours my airlock was click click clicking away. The kreusen hit about 2 inches. After the kreusen fell and the airlock stopped I gave it another 5-6 days before opening the fermentor. I am pretty sure I got a really good primary fermentation.

 

[eastoak]

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words. This pic is from my celphone in a rather dark basement so its worth maybe a 100 words.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/80526954@N05/7569848316/in/photostream

I am pretty sure this accident keeps getting better or worse on its own. I use 7.5 gal bucket fermenters for primary then I transfer to 5 gal better bottles for secondary. I dont usually open the primary and then leave the beer in it. Once I open it it goes to a bottling bucket or secondary. I noticed something different with this beer though so I decided to put the lid back on it and wait a couple days to see what was going on. 4 gals in a 7.5 gal fermenter leaves a lot of room for oxygen.

The pic does not do any justice the film on top is snow white and alien looking.

that is most certainly a pellicle.

 

[stillbrewin]

So I amassuming that this is a pedio or lacto infection. Should I add some brett?