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Krausen or Pellicle?
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:28 am
by jivex5k
Well this doesn't look normal does it? Nottingham yeast, all the bugs from the sour mash should be dead, boiled it for 20 minutes. Carboy sanitized, some grain did fall into the wort, must have been when I was squeezing the bag. Last two didn't do this, but I didn't use nottingham...probably normal right? RDWHAHB right?
Re: Krausen or Pellicle?
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:47 am
by philm00x
I've seen sour mash beers pellicle from an up to 30 min boil, so I'm thinking the start of a pellicle, but couldn't say for sure. Rdwhahb!
Re: Krausen or Pellicle?
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:01 am
by jivex5k
Damn didn't realize they could survive that kind of environment. Considering it was the largest pellicle I've seen on a sour mash it makes sense that it would survive this time. Well hopefully it will come out nice, I'm very curious about the gravity but I should just leave it alone until I'm ready to secondary it this weekend. Wonder if there was any brett on the grains...bottle bombs are suddenly a concern.
Re: Krausen or Pellicle?
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:03 pm
by mashani
That looks like Pellicle forming to me too. My only concern is how thick it is. I've only seen acetobacter pellicles get that thick (bubbles not included). If lucky it's a mix of both Krausen and Pellicle and the Krausen is what's making it look that thick.
If the pellicle starts to get firm/dense enough to interact with or remains a translucent disk shape 1/4" thick floating on top, then you might have some acetobacter in there. And that doesn't make good sour beer, it makes malt vinegar.
Re: Krausen or Pellicle?
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:46 pm
by jivex5k
Just took a sample, down to 1.024 from 1.040 after 3 days, not bad and still lots of activity in carboy.
My tasting notes right now:
Aroma: Tons of lemony lacto sourness. Lots of wheat grain sweetness.
Taste: Super tart up front, lemony like the aroma. Some musty funk in the middle, not a lot. Sweet finish, gotta be the wheat.
Mouthfeel: Thick and full. Puckering towards the end of the swallow right before the sweetness hits. I expect this to change a lot obviously.
So I'm not detecting any acetobacter at all, and it's tasting pretty similar to my last two berliners in terms of sourness. Actually, its slightly more sour...so I'm pretty optimistic about it, going to leave it alone until Saturday.