Yeast Starters

[matti]

Thursday Morning
I used a vial of WLP830 a little out of date and put in a sterile bottle with 50g DME and 500 ml water which I simmer and cooled
and put on a stir plate for a day, in room temperature.
Friday afternoon
I added some cooled wort to it and left it over night and pitch it this morning to my latest batch.

It tasted fine but it had a slightly phenolic smell which I didn't notice until it was all all pitched.
I comitted the cardinal sin of pitching a possibly infected yeast without a proper sniff.

Extract from Brewing lager beer. Gregory Noonan.

Quote 'The pitching yeast should be clear, white to tan, its sediment thick and rich, and its aroma pure and pleasant'. end of quote.

Well I'll just have to be more sanitary next time.
Cannot work out where it went wrong. It is not much fun when all that joy of brewing may have gone down the gurgler even before you the fermentation has really kicked in.
Time to apply some HACCP to my brewing and yeast handling.

Back to sachets for a while for me...... :mellow:

 

[newguy]

Don't worry too much. Since 830 is a Belgian strain, I'd be worried if it didn't have some phenols. I've pitched starters & smack packs of various Belgian strains that smelled much 'funkier' than the resulting beer. I haven't used 830 before, but I happen to have a vial in the fridge at the moment.

Be concerned if the starter is sour, though.

Edit: My mistake. I see now that 830 is a lager strain. Whoops. The leading 8 should have clued me to it being a lager. Since it's already pitched, let it ferment anyway and see how it turns out. You might be able to pass off the beer as something Belgian.

 

[sah]

The phenols probably came from the yeast because it was a little stressed.

This may not be a good thing but it isn't as bad as being infected.

Starters should be about growing lots of strong healthy yeast, plenty of aeration, not much CO2 saturation, not too much sugar.

Keep your fermentation temperature under control and you should be fine.

regards,
Scott

 

[matti]

The phenols probably came from the yeast because it was a little stressed.

This may not be a good thing but it isn't as bad as being infected.

Starters should be about growing lots of strong healthy yeast, plenty of aeration, not much CO2 saturation, not too much sugar.

Keep your fermentation temperature under control and you should be fine.

regards,
Scott

lets hops so SAH.
Shook it the buggery after it came off the stirrer.
I ended up with good looking slurry.
Going to keep my fingers crossed.

Or i'll be drinking phenol lager this winter

 

[kabooby]

I lost 40L of wheat beer to not tasting my yeast starters. Looked and smelt fine but tasted sour. If I had of tasted the starter instead of just smelling than I would have saved some beer.

I taste all my starters from now on

Kabooby