Pellicle

[Khannie]

Folks, I'm plagued with pellicle's. My last three brews have had them and in different buckets, too. The first one only happened after dry hopping. The second one was on a kit. Third one I spotted forming last night on top of the yeast in my current brew.

Now I absolutely *nuclear'd* the buckets before using them on the current brew. Pure bleach, shook it up, put the bleach through the tap, watered it down and left it overnight (so about half a litre of bleach in 33L of water). Then before I put the brew in it I further sanitised it with the SWP powder sanitiser.

I was away for a week and I came home and you can see one starting to form in the centre of this picture below.



Any thoughts?

[DEMPSEY]

Are you sure that's not hop oils and yeast just floating on the top.

[Qs]

How are you transferring into the FV?

[Rossa]

That's not a pellicle . This is a pellicle.

tbh it could just be yeast and hops. Did it taste alright?

[Khannie]

Thanks for the replies.

Are you sure that's not hop oils and yeast just floating on the top.

You're right that the brown gick is just the yeast. The white stuff was waxy though and the previous ones were waxy too that's what made me think it was the start of a pellicle. I hadn't considered hop oils.

How are you transferring into the FV?

From the brew kettle? I just poured it in. I'd had the hops in a bag so there was no messing around removing them.

That's not a pellicle . This is a pellicle.

tbh it could just be yeast and hops. Did it taste alright?

Yeah, it tasted great so I bottled it last night.

I bottled the last one too even though I wasn't sure about it (it was that double IPA kit - I had an amazon voucher and it seemed as good a thing as any to spend it on). It didn't look a million miles from that picture, just much less thick. There was a full layer of white waxy substance on top. It's probably ready for a taste now so I'll give it a whirl.

I may have taken a picture of the last one. I'll have a look.

[Khannie]

Looks like it could be the start of a pellicle alright, which is either sanitation (not enough/poor), or something got into the bucket, often caused by impatient people wanting to have a peek in!

I've popped the lid to have a peek in alright, but only at the side (i.e. not taking it fully off).

[Khannie]

OK, I dug out a picture from the last one....it's not as bad as I remember. This is from the bulldog kit that I mentioned.

[Rossa]

Could be one stressing alright. Get in into cold storage if kegging and it won't be too noticeable. If bottling it may be an issue. It may also not be apparent at that small rate. Basically bottle and see how she goes.Maybe use a different sanitary regime next time or get new vessel. It could be as simple as a dodgy spoon.

[Eoin]

Looks like hop oils to me, especially when I hear about double IPA....more hops than sense

[Will_D]

Cider makers often see a pellicle forming. It is associated with oxygen ( like the air lock dried out).

Best is to remove the pellicle by either topping up the fv (Ok in the case of a carboy or better botle or DJ) or by sucktion. You can also spray the neck/surface with a strong metabisulphite solution and then get some CO2 production going again. For a cider just top up with some fresh Lidl AJ

For a beer in a FV best course of action is to bottle it with a bit of priming sugar or keg it: flush well with CO2 and then carb it up or bulk prime the corny.

Time will tell!

[Khannie]

Thanks folks. It's an IPA (the home brew company extract APA - next stop all grain).

That's good to know about the oxygen though. Also good to know that since I bottled it last night I've probably gotten away with it this time.

more hops than sense

This may be true.