Lambic question - brewed without rice hulls (oops..)

You don't need rice hulls unless you are getting stuck sparges. Wheat clumps that take up 1/2 the carboy? Could you try to post the image again?

 

That's all trub, yeast and fruit that's settled out. If you used all extract there's no grain particulate matter in your wort at all. Absolutely no need for rice hulls in extract brews.

 

Like messrock said, rice hulls are only used with all grain batches (if needed). Their purpose is to prevent a stuck sparge, which can be caused by the extra guminess of ingredients like wheat malt and rye malt. Their guminess is increased by the fact that they lack the solid husk that barley malt has. So the rice hulls effectively serve the same purpose as husk material.

 

You don't need yeast to produce trub. Trub is composed of both the cold and hot break from cooling and boiling the wort, respectively. After pitching the yeast, there will be yeast mixed in with your trub.

Sometimes when making wheat beers, the wort will look like egg drop soup from all of the coagulated protein and break material.

 

Did you do anything (like straining, or whirlpooling before racking) to keep the trub in the brew kettle from getting into the fermenter?

 

Definitely a lot of trub, but I'd let them sit for a while (6+ months). Hopefully the trub will settle and compact as it ages and you will eventually be able to rack off it and bottle.

 

I don't see a pellicle. How does this smell and taste?

Since you put in into separate carboy's for a reason I'd leave it alone.

 

surprised no one's asked you how long after pitching yeast that you racked to fruit.

 

I read that it went from kettle to the three carboys/jugs. I wouldn't think that anyone would transfer all that trub.

Looking at the pictures I wonder if the picture was taken a few days after racking or a few hours. I've never seen trub stay in such a suspended state for long.

 

yeah...lots of questions going on in here.
1. so much trub
2. was it racked off of the kettle or poured from the kettle? may want to rapidly cool your trub, then give it a counterclockwise stir for 3-4 rotations, let it settle for 30 min, then rack into your carboys. that way, you leave the trub in your kettle and not brainin' in your carboys
3. introduction of fruit - that happens 1 year after bugs chew through your lambic, not a day after racking to a carboy
4. your yeast - read over what you did and still not sure. you made a true starter or you just combined some dregs and let them go to work. if its the latter, then you should do a real starter (1.030 - 1.040 wort with bugs added for 2-3 months BEFORE you're ready to brew. and I'd make 500 - 1000 L of starter simply because I'm not sure as to how viable the bugs were in your dregs)

so what would i do with your, um, "situation"? if you really want to see where this will go (and, again, the presence of fruit is early, but I'd assume you would still get some sort of fermentation happening), then i would rack the wort from each carboy into a new carboy. you probably don't need to re-pitch yeast. that would clean up the trub grossness you have.

you having any fermentation happening at all? if your bugs have sacch, there should be some sort of action (albeit mild) happening in the first few days. if your yeast count is incredibly low (which i fear it is), it may take weeks before you see anything. and when i say "weeks", i mean 2 - 12. and when i say "anything", again, i'm assuming that there's some active sacch in there AND its fermenting at a rate that would be active enough for some air lock activity

just my 3 cents

 

so you should possibly have a viable starter. still would have given it a few more weeks so that your brett count could multiply sufficiently. also depends on the age of your consumed bottles,etc.

so yeah, a few mistakes.
are you screwed? no.
will that be sitting forever, fermenting? possibly.
i'd still rack to another carboy to get rid of that caacaa. who knows if its affecting the taste.

 

bottom line:

looks bad. you made mistakes. will still produce something. may not be tasty. may not be clear. will have to wait 12+ months for final product.

4-5 months after you move it to the new carboy(s), take a taste. i assume you'll have enough yeast to continue the fermentation at the same pace. but see how it is. or give it the smell test.