WLP590 French Saison - Pellicle?

[MartinOC]

I'm doing my first Saison & had it at 22C for a couple of weeks - all good.

Bumped it to 24C a few days ago to make sure it's well & truly finished. Up until now, it's looked clean as a whistle & smells the gubbins

Today, I had a quick look, with the intention of adding Styrian Goldings as dry-hops, only to discover it's suddenly developed a pure white pellicle - overnight!!

I scraped the crap off & added the hops, 'cos it doesn't smell acetic or otherwise "off" in any way (not even Bretty).

I've been at this game for a long time, but never seen anything like this before.

I can't take a photo, as I left my camera at work today.

Any insights from the cognoscenti of such strains? Is this normal???

 

[Curly79]

Dunno? But you really should get yourself a phone that can take photos. [emoji6]. Country bumpkin.

 

[Mardoo]

One must keep track of one's identities, mustn't one?

 

[hirschb]

Can't tell without a photo, but you likely have a brett infection. There is also no way to determine the strain of brett/lacto visually based on the pellicle morphology. Some sacch strains can create a pellicle in the right conditions, but it's not common (a butt-load of O2 is needed) and shouldn't happen overnight. Brett often works well in saisons, so I'd let the beer ferment out (at least a couple of months), have a taste, and bottle if good.
Now, to the criticism.......
1) Brett infection likely means poor sanitation. I'd work on that.
2) Why are you opening the airlock? This is letting in oxygen, which is not good for your beer. If you are using a carboy, you can look in without opening. If using a bucket, why would you open it before adding dry hops? Yeah, you can sniff it, but the benefit of smelling your beer during fermentation is far outweighed by the negative effects of oxygen. You also may have let in the brett when you opened the bucket/carboy.
3) Do not break up a pellicle! Pellicles are a barrier to oxygen and should be kept as intact as possible.
4) I hope you took a gravity reading when you added the dry hops. Bottling brett beers can be dicey, and the best method is to bottle when the gravity has stabilized for 2 weeks- 1 month. Given that this beer has already been exposed to O2 repeatedly, I'd just let it sit for another 2-3 months before bottling, and not bother with additional gravity sampling (and more O2 exposure).

 

[manticle]

Pretty sure he was opening in order to add the dry hops; certainly that's what I inferred from his post.

 

[MartinOC]

One must keep track of one's identities, mustn't one?

Yes, one must - especially after a few bevvies! Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback/insight, hirschb. Like I said, I've been at this a long time, but never used this strain before & didn't know if it was to be expected. Certainly not overnight!

I think I'll transfer this to a 50L glass carboy under airlock (I don't use airlocks in primary) & let it go for awhile & see what happens.

Cheers.