Uh oh. looks like an infection

Ingredients
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On November 1, I brewed 5 gallons of a 1.050 patersbier. The thought was, it would be starter wort for 10 gallons of a 1.080ish tripel.  I split the wort into two large glass carboy primary fermentors.

Due to the fact that I was watching football on a Sunday, I let the immersion chiller run for a bit too long, and the wort got chilled to 60°F.  I collected the wort anyway,2.5 gallons in each carboy, oxygenated, and pitched one yeast vial of WLP500 Monastery (aka Chimay) and WLP575 Belgian blenad (aka Westmalle + Chimay + Chouffe).

Over the next 24 hours, the wort warmed up to the basement temperature of 64°F.  No activity.  48 hours after pitching still no activity.  I then taped a fermentor heater strip to the outside of the 2 carboys. Temperature rose to 72°F.  At 72 hours, finally some life in the 575, but nothing in the 500.  Finally, after 96 hours, I saw activity in the 500.

However, the 500 has looked funky from the get go.I t held a krausen head for only a day, then it sank. It then formed a large (maybe 6 inches in diameter and 2-3 inches tall) bubble that lasted a half a day. I have never seen anything like that.

I thought they were just about Wednesday (November 11), then last night I noticed a thin white scum forming on surface.  Uh oh.  This morning it is thicker, and has a light tan color to it.

The 500 is on the left, the 575 on the right.

This is what it looks like, taking a picture through the carboy neck.

I thieved a hydrometer sample out of each, and tasted them.  The 575 gravity was 1.008, tasted excellent, spicy phenols with a little fruit.  The 500 gravity was 1.012, and tasted good.  A bit bland, earthy, a little fruit, no spicy phenols, no sourness.  However, it had a slight “sauerkraut” aroma to it, for lack of a better word.

I’ve decided I am not going to chance my tripel with it, and just brew a 5 gallon batch.  However, my initial intention was to blend the two starter worts back into a single keg, chill, force carb and tap it.  Looking for input on the merits of still doing this.  It seems if I keep it chilled, I could arrest any sourness from forming, and have a pretty good beer on tap.  But I am not married to the idea, and can easily just dump it.

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You could blend it with PBR…:wink:

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I was thinking more along the lines of dry hopping with Fuggles.

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well, it couldn’t make it worse…or you could just toss in some dirt!

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By dirt, you mean brett, right?

Isn’t SOP to let it sit awhile and see how it goes?  That’s what I’m doing with my Wee Heavy that developed a white film.  That tasted distinctly buttery last week.  If it isn’t clearing I’ll be pitching some B. Claussenii, hide it in the back of a closet for a few months and call it Auld Heavy.

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Hm…a film and buttery could easily be pedio infection.  That would need something else to clean it up and have a chance of saving it as a sour heavy.

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Yeah I was guessing pedio.  I actually re-pitched my top crop and warmed it up a bit in the hopes of clearing the diacetyl.  However, if that doesn’t go far enough I was under the impression that Brett would clean it up, albeit, over a much longer time.

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Yeah, it would take brett or fresh krauesen to clean it up.  Had you tasted it yet?

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That looks like a wild yeast infection. How old was the 500 vial you pitched?

I would dump the 500 batch and just use the yeast from the 575 in your tripel.  You could always harvest some of the 575 and then whip up a starter of another 500 vial to blend together for your tripel.

Thats a bummer.  That 500 can take a bit of time to get started esp. when the vial is a bit older (even on a stir plate, let alone just a straight pitch).

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Finally got around to taking another sample last night.  Buttery flavor is gone, so that’s good.  Acid is faint, but sharp, almost like taking a bite out of an onion.  Maybe a combination of acid and sulphur?

Anyway I threw together a pint starter/acclimator for the Brett. and added about a cup from the fermentor.  I’ll add another cup every couple days until it’s about 25/75 then pitch to hopefully avoid too much alcohol shock.

My biggest question is whether I should rack out from under the pedio and off the ale yeast before I pitch the brett.  I’m guessing I don’t want to leave the original yeast to autolyze for the 8-12 months I intend to forget about it.

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Are you attempting to improve the PBR?

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Hey, I actually like PBR.  At least it has some grain and hop flavors.

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