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WTF is in my wort?

Yeast & Fermentation
#1

Hey, NB Fam. I pitched Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend last Monday, Apr 25. The only activity I’ve had was the development of this weirdness which I’ve never seen before. This hourglass thing began to develop 3 days ago; first as 1 dot, then a second separate dot. Then they joined and now I have this. I have 3 Lambics going in the cellar - including another batch w/ 3278 - and none looked like this during fermentation.

I did my amateur version of a coolship wort chill by leaving the brew pot on my deck with the brew pot lid cracked about half an inch overnight

Weird Wort 2
Weird Wort 21920×1920 138 KB

. Temps were in the low 40Fs.

It doesn’t look good. Any idea what’s going on? Is this a drain pour? Thanks.

Weird Wort 1
Weird Wort 11920×1920 197 KB

#2

if it bothers you scoop it out and carry on. why are you trying to ferment at 40 deg thats kind of cold would be cold for capturing wild yeast as well.

#3

Not fermenting at 40F. Just left the hot wort out overnight to cool instead of chilling in an ice bath. I know what lacto, pedio and brett infections look like, and it’s not like this. Really odd. I’ve always read that pathogens can’t survive in beer because of alcohol, but this isn’t beer yet. There hasn’t been fermentation.

#4

oh i see. Ive cooled overnight outside never an issue. Like i said scoop it out.

1 Like
#5

Welcome to the brew forum…
I’d be scooping that brew wrecker out and hope the cultured bugs kick butt…
Sneezles61

1 Like
#6

Looks like mold.

1 Like
#7

Look its in a carboy. See if you can get it out the alian creature. And move on. Let it stand. Maybe becomes a awesome beer. You all ways can toss it down the drain

2 Likes
#8

Thanks for the replies. I decided to dump it. What I think happened: Yeast was dead. It arrived frozen. Because there was no sacch fermentation, there was no CO2 to push out the O2. This left an aerobic environment for mold to develop. I made the right call. The beer didn’t smell terrible, but it wasn’t “right.” sanitation wasn’t the problem. I made 31 batches since Jan 2021. And about 70 batches years ago in my pre-fatherhood brewing phase. NEVER, EVER had a drain pour. Was it Wyeast’s fault? Just the weather? IDK. But some molds can produce mycotoxins, despite the bad info on the interwebs, and I wasn’t going to take that chance for $60 worth of ingredients.

1 Like
#9

Sorry I came a little late to the thread. Frozen yeast aside, Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend is a mix of yeasts with 2 forms of Brett in it. It is a slow fermenter and should form a pellicle and must form one if you are to benefit from the blend. So functioning properly, you would have gotten a “moldy top” over the entire surface. But you should have seen very active fermentation first. Next time skip your coolship step. These lambic blends are carefully constructed and adding any addition wild fermenters into the mix will throw off the blend. This is what should have happened…

http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Pellicle

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