Beer Forum

Can anyone describe what a good clean yeast starter smells like? I would imagine one that has been closed and maintained under anaerobic conditions will smell like green beer, but what about a starter on a stir plate?

I tried to culture up the remanents of a While labs vial using ~1:10 dilutions. Currently I have 1L of starter that has a bunch of yeast in it, but also smells pretty sour and tart, like a lambic on steroids. My hunch is that I picked up a bug somewhere and have a nice yeast/lactobacilli blend. Idea and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I don't know about your smell, but I did notice something with a smack pack that I used once. I had only one of them smell like swaet socks once. It fermented fine, but smelled like ass. All of the other smack packs have smelled like unhopped beer just like you would expect.
I'm interested to hear what comes out of this thread.

I never had that smell, but I may not have tried the yeast you are using. I just grew German Lager yeast in the upper 60s on a stir plate and it smelled like rotten eggs. I would have been worried if I would not have smelled that before in a lager yeast starter. I guess I have to grow them colder next time

Kai

To follow up. I crashed the yeast in the fridge and then poured off some liquid and tasted it. There wasn't much taste and no residual sweetness. There was a slight hint of tart. I think I need to look at it under a scope and see how much non-yeast life is present. Does anyone know how many bugs to expect in a "clean" starter? Ideally there should be only yeast, but that is not possible. If one started with say an adequate pitch of yeast that contained a 1:1,000 or 1:10,000 ratio of yeast to bugs, then would that be a big enough head start for the yeast to out-compete the undesiriables?

beer_bear wrote:I don't know about your smell, but I did notice something with a smack pack that I used once. I had only one of them smell like swaet socks once. It fermented fine, but smelled like ass. All of the other smack packs have smelled like unhopped beer just like you would expect.
I'm interested to hear what comes out of this thread.

I once knew a Irish/German/Mexican woman who has a really good smell to her. Even her ass smelled great. Try pitching a gal like her next time. I sure would like to get a hold of her smack packs again.

Sorry Ole Man, I just could not resist this one!

Beer Bear, it must have taken some guts to pitch that stinky yeast.

I am going to brew tomorrow, but I have noticed tonight that my starter of Belgian Ale yeast smells kinda strange. It has been going for 36 hours at about 70 something degrees and seems to be reproducing. I have the flask covered with tinfoil and have been shaking it a few times a day to oxygenate. I must admit, I have felt pretty sloppy, as some wort sloshed over the lip and onto the outside of the flask twice while shaking. So, I'm wondering about several things.

1) Might I be contaminated, or is this yeast a bit stinky?

2) If it is bubbling tomorrow, should I decant most of the liquid and pitch the yeast, or should I pitch onto the bed of clean Cal Ale yeast currently in my primary?

Whatever the outcome, I'm going to get myself an aquarium pump, filter, and stone, and start oxygenating the clean way. Sounds like a much cheaper alternative than an O2 tank, and just as effective, according to the no-show Sunday show (9-17-2006). I'll put the savings toward better temp control.

Junket wrote:I am going to brew tomorrow, but I have noticed tonight that my starter of Belgian Ale yeast smells kinda strange.

1) Might I be contaminated, or is this yeast a bit stinky?

2) If it is bubbling tomorrow, should I decant most of the liquid and pitch the yeast, or should I pitch onto the bed of clean Cal Ale yeast currently in my primary?

What's "stinky"? A belgian yeast will have a lot phenolics. Have you brewed with it before, and does it smell different, or is this the first time with this yeast?

I'd say decant and taste. If it tastes OK go ahead and use it, just clean the outside of the flask with sanitizer first. Remember that the CO2 is pushing stuff OUT of the starter, so your probably not infected as long as you were sanitary throughout most of the process.

If it doesn't taste good Push will take it.

Good Luck!

Rob

As far as brave about pitching the smelly yeast pack, I wouldn't go that far. I will say that it was my first smack pack and I didn't know that it should have smelled any diffent. It turned out ok and had no other problems to speak of. WTF, it's only beer.