Wild Brett? What the heck is going on?

So some history:
This was a sour mash I did that ended up coming out weird. I sour mash with grains so it's more than lacto on it, but this was the one that was so acidic it hurt when you swallow. It also was pretty...well...weird tasting, and the grains had all sunk in the sour mash when usually they are bloated and near the top.

I decided to rack it on a yeast cake immediately after I transferred my previous berliner to the secondary. The previous one tasted great after the sour mash, was collected and boiled and then fermented for a week. No pellicle, but it did have a weird looking krausen. It's tasting great, clean sour, whole 9 yards.

Sooo I rack this one onto that yeast cake, no activity I can see for 2 days. I saw screw it and let the temp ramp up, holds around 72F for the rest of the time. I decided to check on it this morning and...well...


Also, I just have sanitized foil over this carboy. Might have something to do with this.....

Anyways, is this some wild brett or something? Can I transfer it to a secondary without infecting my siphon, or will I have to use something stronger than star san to get it out of the siphon? Should I just forget about it for a month?

I really need my primary this weekend, I have a batch souring that I need to collect. So this is going into the secondary, I'll buy a new siphon instead of ingredients if I have to. Any advice/feedback/old cheese is greatly appreciated. I'm a complete newbie on dealing with a pellicle.

 

Yeah this is the batch in the primary, it's only been a week. It's a glass carboy actually but that could work as a bottling bucket since I use a siphon to bottle anyways.
How long should I let it go? I'm real curious now about the taste now, think I'll pull a sample when I get home.
Ugh...all these unexpected expenses...Catador Club may have to be missed again. =/

 

You know, I only make berliners. Maybe I should just roll with it, transfer this to to secondary and pitch my new batch right onto that sucker... Seems like playing with fire but maybe the risk will pay off.
I'm basically weighing 3 options at this point:
1. Racking it to secondary, then racking the sour mash I have going now right onto the pellice and cake.
2. Racking it to secondary, PBW and Starsan carboy, then finishing sour mash i have going now in a hopefully clean carboy, but not worrying too much about possibility of some leftover bugs.
3. Putting it in the corner, tasting it periodically, buying another carboy.

If I decide to let it sit in the corner I should get an airlock for it instead of just foil. Hell the foil could be the reason bugs got in post boil.
I'm going to taste it but I'm fairly certain it won't tell me much at this point. Option two would be the cheapest, option 3 would pay off long term cuz I could use another carboy, option one sounds really fun for some reason haha.

 

Alright just took a sample.
Hydrometer is reading 1.035, down from 1.040. Sacc must not have liked this wort, I'd reckon the ph is too low because god damn the sour mash was painful to swallow it was so acidic.
The acidity in the swallow has mellowed to where it no longer hurts but it's still high. The taste itself is very tart, a lot of funky cheese i'd say. Has a slightly medicinal aftertaste. It's definitely improved, I couldn't finish a glass of the sour mash if I tried but this I could get through, though it's not the most pleasant experience.

So I'll be getting a new carboy and airlock tomorrow to sequester this one in the corner for a while. I wonder if the gravity will continue to drop. I think this has potential to improve but am not going to risk my new batch in this carboy.

 

You know what, I'm gonna throw some brett in this too. Might as well see what happens. My thinking is the low ph killed that sacc but the brett should be able to handle it. Their might be brett in it already but I really have no way of knowing, sure can't taste it.

I peaked at the sour mash I have going now and it looks normal again so I should have another standard berliner ready in a couple weeks, and tomorrow I bottle Heavier Flow.

 

Interesting...wonder if I should get a vial anyways. I figured brett in a primary would ferment much faster than only .05 drop after a week.

 

Well I decided to just let it go, got fermenting bucket and some airlocks, popped an airlock on this weird batch and it's going to sit in the corner until it learns to behave. Didn't bother spending 9 bucks on a vial of brett, I'll just see what happens.
Good news is my raspberry berliner gets bottled today and it's looking fantastic.

 

So...crap...something is happening to my sour mashes now. This last one had the same issue this funky ass pellicle one did, to a lesser degree though. I could definitely taste more lacto, but it has the same sharpness the weird one did, and the same funky middle, but more lacto up front like the good ones.
I pitched US-05 into it saturday, rehydrated, no activity yet but it usually takes longer to kick off due to low ph. If it doesn't kick off soon I'm going to get a ph tolerant strain and try that out....but damn I don't know what is causing my sour mashes to change. I almost got it back to the desired outcome of the first 3 but....

I have a couple theories:
1. Sour mashing too long. Due to the schedule these are sour mashing for 6 days now, where before it was more like 4 and a half.
2. Grains I use harboring new bacteria. I've used the same grains for every one, have a bag in the cupboard of unmilled 2 row, I sanitize my hand when I grab them but this could be the cause of the undesirable bugs.
3. Airborn infection. The mash lid is off when I'm cooling it to 120 in the sink.

I have the ingredients to sour mash again....If I did it tonight it would test the timeframe theory. I can cool it with the lid on as well to minimize an airborn infection possibility. If I did this and it still got the weird bugs then I could safely assume it's the grains themself and get some new ones to use. I just want to get the original lacto clean sour I was getting, though this new bug isn't completely undesirable it may be lowering the ph too much...also something a shorter sour mash may eliminate.

Anyways, just spelling out my thoughts really. Good news is my raspberry is tasting fantastic so I've got 44 bottles of deliciousness at least. Hopefully this pellicle one will continue to ferment, and the latest batch will have the US-05 kick it off. Really debating sour mashing tonight...cutting off an entire day could make a significant difference I think.

 

In my pot. I put saran wrap directly on the mash, then put the pot lid on and cover the whole thing with saran wrap and make sure it's around the edges. Then I cover the entire lid with aluminum foil to keep the light out, prop the pot up with my heat lamp shining on one side, rotate it daily when i wake up in the morning.

This exact method worked 2 sour mashes ago, though it was only 4 and a half days sour mash instead of 6...typing this out makes me believe that the weird bugs were always in there but takes longer to get going and if I sour mash tonight the same way it will be what I am looking for saturday morning.

The desirable sour mash looks like this:

The undesirable one dropped the grains down to the bottom. Should have snapped a picture. The one Saturday looked half way in between these, with some grains floating and white bubbles, but other parts sunken.

 

New bag every time. It's just a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from Home Depot.
I just leave it in my starsan bucket while my water heats to strike temp and then put it around the sides of the pot when the temp is ready and dump my grains into the water.

 

Draped over, it has an elastic band so it wraps around the pot. Maybe this is the contamination point...