Does this look infected?

[Inkleg]

Well I hope so.

Death Sour 665. Named after the White Labs WLP665 yeast I'm using and my wife's job.

5 gallon batch
OG 1.050
IBUs 14

Mini mash
0.50lbs Special B
0.50lbs CaraMunich
0.50lbs Aromatic

3lbs Light DME
3lbs Wheat DME
4oz Lambic hops at 60 minutes
4oz Malto-Dextrine
Steep 8oz Flaked Oats for 5 minutes at 180* (not sure exactly why, something about long sugar chains for the bugs to eat)

Pitch on vile of White Labs WLP665
Ferment at 72-74*

Brewed this on Sunday and pitched at 2:30pm. Up until last night (almost 72 hours later) nothing. Had to give a shout out to russki to hold my hand (getting a little worried) Thanks.
Before I went to bed I noticed a few small Pellicle rafts on top. This morning I found this.

Death Sour 665.2.JPG (52.82 KiB) Viewed 1273 times

Walked the dogs and shoveled the driveway and came home to this.

Death Sour 665.JPG (54.52 KiB) Viewed 1273 times

Will update this post through out the year. This is defiantly a RDWHAHB type beer.

[Beer-lord]

Love the subject line. Have you used that as a pick up line before?

I'm not a sour guy but I'm thinking it's moving along as it should.
Happy Pellicles!

[mashani]

First pic looks like happy Lacto to me.

Sweet! Wait not... Sour!

Just wait until the pedio gets into the mix down the road. It's sometimes really freaky like some Anime tentacle creature going at yer beer.

[Inkleg]

Paul, start here. I was not a sour guy either until helped by some folks. Lindemans is also a good start to sours.
This was taken 5 minutes ago.

P1020125.JPG (56.63 KiB) Viewed 1264 times

Even the wife is fascinated about how it looks.

[Gymrat]

I sure am glad this wasn't a question about something under your kilt

[Kealia]

I sure am glad this wasn't a question about something under your kilt

I have to agree that the formations are really cool to look at. Not sure where I stand on sours, only having had a few that I didn't particularly care far.

But I'll certainly perv at yours. Your infection, I mean. I mean...*sigh*...nevermind.

[oly]

Nice. How long are you planning on letting it sit? Our club did a barrel aged sour a year ago (sort of a bastard mix of a Flanders brown and red) that we're planning on taking out in around six months or so, but I haven't been adventurous enough to brew one on my own.

[FedoraDave]

http://www.youtube.com/embed/xos2MnVxe-c"

[Ibasterd]

"Does this look infected?"
If I had a nickel for every time I've said that!

[philm00x]

that pellicle is growing fast! looks really intimidating to be honest. really cool, jeff good luck!

[russki]

That looks gnarly good! Seems that WLP665 has a higher proportion of bugs to yeast vs. Wyeast Roeselare. Neither of my sours (the initial pitch or the repitch) looked like this, they looked much more "normal". I bet you'll get some nice souring from this mix; mine never got very sour, even now at 14+ months.

Are you planning on tossing some sour dregs in too?

[Inkleg]

I'm just going to let this one go as is, so I see what this yeast/bug mix does. There was just a little (I mean very little, dusting like),bit of yeast in the bottom of the vile. After that last picture it started to look like normal krausen. I plan not to even look at it for 6 to 8 months.
I have ECY20 Bug County for my next sour and plan on pitching dregs in that one.

Thanks for helping me RDWHAHB russki.

[BeerRust]

I'm just going to let this one go as is, so I see what this yeast/bug mix does. There was just a little (I mean very little, dusting like),bit of yeast in the bottom of the vile. After that last picture it started to look like normal krausen. I plan not to even look at it for 6 to 8 months.
I have ECY20 Bug County for my next sour and plan on pitching dregs in that one.

Thanks for helping me RDWHAHB russki.

I am new to sours, and love them!

So you are going to let this sit in the fermentor for 6-8 months?
Also I read that sours 1) ferment at higher temps 2) with the yeast with bugs, 3) that once you use a fermentor to do a sour, that you can only use that fermentor for sours going forward, because the fermentor is basically infected

[haerbob3]

I sure am glad this wasn't a question about something under your kilt

I am sure he would have shown us that too!!!

[russki]

Also I read that sours 1) ferment at higher temps

Nope. 68-70F is where you want to be.

2) with the yeast with bugs

Yep. You want an assortment of bacteria and wild yeast, including Lacto, Pedio, and Brett.

3) that once you use a fermentor to do a sour, that you can only use that fermentor for sours going forward, because the fermentor is basically infected

I personally have all my sour equipment marked with a sharpie, and I do not let it touch my sacc beers. However, this only applies to plastic. Glass or stainless equipment can be cleaned and sanitized and used for sacc beers after being used for sours.

As for the timeframe - I have a 14 month old Flanders Red that I feel is still not ready for bottling... 12-18 months is a general guideline for sours.