I was wondering...is there a way to visually determine pellicle identity besides applying a microscope?
There seem to be several common visual types of pellicle going around, rangin from a flat surface skin, to more alien white balloony bubbles, all the way to colourful ridges. Are they all the same organism(s) or does each mibrobe and strain have its own pellicular characteristics?
Any literature available on pellicles?
Michael Tonsmeire mentions in his American Sour Beers how several commercial sour beer brewers visually inspect the pellicles on the ageing beers in their barrels. Maybe we're only just in the stage of pragmatic empirical practice, rather than hard-boiled science...