I’m not sure - my acetic jar doesn’t have anything on top that has looked remotely like a brett pellicle at any point. It actually looks kind of oily on top with a thin brittle film, nothing furry. There is no visible gelatinous mother. I started the jar with raw vinegar from the store though, not with something sold as a “mother culture”. And since it is a wine vinegar jar, the difference in media alone could cause a difference in appearance. That is the only thing I have with straight acetobacter, everything else with acetobacter is a blend.
But my original point was that if you were going to base your analysis on the clarity due to the CaCO3 buffering the acid production and the media clearing, better leave out the sugar.
I filled a champagne bottle with half the infected beer and half a portion of grapefruit mead that turned out not-so-great. The results were surprisingly great beer. I carbed it to about 5 volumes. The mold (or whatever) has stopped doing whatever it was doing, and the gravity has been stable at 1.006 (I think, but I’ll doublecheck when I bottle the rest).
Glad to hear its salvageable in some form or fashion. I made grapefruit wine once, I liked it but nobody else did. Come to think of it my first batch got an infection and I kind of liked the funk and fruit.
My wife said it’s one of the best beers I’ve made. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult. She did drink it really quickly, so I guess compliment?
I’ve not been able to get rid of my “mold” or whatever from that one plastic bucket, so I’ve been using it exclusively for my sour/funky beers. The pellicle recently formed on a no-boil Berliner Weisse, which is interesting since the pH is currently 3.1. I had assumed that would be too low for the mold, but I guess if StarSan won’t kill it, it’s probably low-pH tolerant. If it’s gonna stick around, I think I should give my new pet mold a name. Any suggestions?
