Thought I might post this on here. I brewed a 4lb Pilsner, 4lb wheat and 1lb acid malt no boil beer last saturday. We heated the wort to 210F and then chilled to 100F and pitched 150ml of a lacto slurry I got from a friend. Im not real sure the lacto ever took off. I went out of town for about a week, t started smelling a bit like cream corn before I left and very much smells and tastes like that now (I just tasted it and spit it out). It started out at about 1.043. There was some very odd slimy stuff on the top of the wort when I got back and a small amount of bubbles on the top before I left. Any ideas what that might be? I just made a flickr account but cant get the pics to show up so I could use a hand with that too... I figured nothing good was happening so I built up a starter of some conan I had and pitched that last night after work. It was going along pretty ok this morning. Funny looking Krausen though...
Well Im not sure why I cant put the pics in the post but heres a link to the album. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfrobrew/sets/72157647550485218/ Where do you get the links to stick pictures from Flickr into a post? The one Flickr is offering me does not work, it looks shortened. Then the one from the main browser does not work either because it is to the album. I usually use twitter but don't feel like using that anymore for these gross pics.
Your gravity wont drop unless your lacto is heterofermentative. If you used grain, there was probably yeast on the grain as well. No boil will mean you have corn flavor/aroma.
Fermentation was moving along last night. Nothing too crazy vigorous but something at least. Has anyone ever seen slimy looking stuff like that before?
I didnt use grain, it was a pure lacto sample. Then I pitched some Conan yeast and dropped dregs in from a sour I shared with a friend last night.
Looks like a pellicle to me. It doesn't matter if it was pure culture or not. There are pure culture lacto strains that are heterofermentative, depends where you got your lacto from.
Sure I agree with that, and thats what I kind of figured was happening when I saw the bubbles. I just dont understand why there is no acidic taste or smell and why the pellicle looks so slimy. To be clear, I pitched the lacto and kept it at 105F for a little over a week. Then I pitched some conan yeast Ive been brewing with for a while and some dregs form a trinity 7 day sour. When I got home from my trip there was no real activity, just the slime, thats why I just went ahead and dropped the yeast in. I figured it was worth a shot and I had it ready.
My lacto fermentations have always been odd too. Little significant pellicle, lots of proteinaceous stuff.
I've gotten some weird looking layers of stratification doing lacto ferments, but never got any creamed corn or anything like that. I get a little bit of the creamed corn when souring with grain and that always clears right up after I pitch some Brett and Sacc. If you've already pitched a Sacc strain and it wasn't very tart when you did so, it's going to take quite a long time to sour. I pitched Sacc too early in one of my first ever Berliners and it took nearly a year and some RR bottle dregs to get to the level of tartness I was after.
Yes, eventually. Source materials will say it acidifies immediately, though I've found that sourness develops over several months. It's good you pitched a sacc yeast, though I wonder if the low wort pH will interfere with the Conan (or at least contribute to the funny fermentation). For my BW, I usually let the Lacto go for 24-48 hours before pitching yeast. In the past I've kept in secondary for several months (especially when adding Brett). If you go the Kristin England method (Brewing with Wheat), he says to bottle after primary is done (a few days), repitching lacto/sacc and letting the acidity develop in the bottle.
Fair enough, thanks. Maybe Ill move it into the house if it will take months, I'd like to get my IPA on tap...
