Has anyone ever got a bad Vial of yeast?

[Westco]

I was brewing up a beer a week or so ago, I always smell the yeast I use just for kicks. I was using your typical 001 WL cal ale, which is the 2nd time I have ever used WL yeast. Wyeast company just so happens to be in the same town as me so I like to support the local guys. But i thought I would try Wl just so I can say I have. Anyways when I smelled the yeast it smelt funky. Now keep in mind It was just opened. I did not make a starter or ferment out a beer and then taste or smell funkyness.

I called a home brewer friend of mine before I started my brew day to see what he thought. He said that its very unlikely that a bad infected yeast came off the line in either Wyeast or WL. I agreed with him and used it anyways. Well I should have trusted my instincts cause the batch of beer is nasty! Now I have only been brewing for 2 years. If I have never smelled the yeast and just brewed like normal I would never blame the yeast just because of my lack of experience and that its more likely I just did not have things properly cleaned. But beings it smelled super sour and funky the second I opened it I wonder now. After 2 years of brewing I think i know how a cal ale yeast is suppose to smell like.

The only thing i can think of is that my supplier of this yeast left it out in the sun maybe. Maybe that cooked up the yeast and put off flavors in it. Either way i was just curious if others have had bad yeast? is there another explanation for this?

[ajdelange]

Alas, yes, and from that same manufacturer. I have had bad stout (1 batch), Kölsch (1 batch) and O'Fest (3 batches) using their yeasts. To be completely fair, of course, we must allow that it is possible that the tubes were subjected to mishandling somewhere between their hands and mine and it is also possible that the source of the problem was something I did but I have not had similar problems with Wyeast. Also, to be fair, I should mention that I have made good (very good) stouts and Kölsch with the same WL strains that have given me trouble and plenty of good Weizens (2 strains), Pilsners (2 strains), and ESB's as well. I never did succeed in getting the O'Fest strain to perform for me. My LHBS no longer carries WL because of similar tales from other customers.

To the Moderators: If this is not "politically correct" i.e. because WL is a sponsor or somesuch, feel free to zap it.

[DrYeast]

I've also had 2 problems with WL Irish Stout yeast bought at a local shop (can't remember the number offhand). I'm a microbiologist, and I'm sure that the contamination came from the vial (I autoclaved the starter, and ethanol coated the vial, and worked under a flame). I even took a sample from the vial the next day, and it was literally swimming with bacteria (probably a small contaminant that grew overnight, the key is that I didn't put anything into the vial). I've used WL vials from Northern Brewer, and from other local shops and had no problem, but I am a little hesitant to go with WL without a starter because of this until I'm confident in the shop. I'm sure that the vials are clean from the source, but after handling at a shop, who knows what could happen.

This is not a knock on White Labs, I've been happy with their products on other occasions. The lesson as always is, know your local shop and the quality of what they supply. I've never had a problem with Wyeast, but they didn't carry those at my local HBS, so they've only ever come from Northern Brewer or other online sources (ie fresh) and so it's not fair to draw a comparison.

As for being pc, white labs would probably want to know about the problems with their yeast sold by others. I can't imagine that they'd be too pissed about us giving an honest review. This is likely a problem with retail, not the suppliers anyway.

[bcmaui]

My last batch and the last batch a friend brewed both ended up with some type of infection (I have that medicanal band-aid aftertaste in mine) and we both used yeast from a new source for this batch. This was my first flawed batch of beer (and it sat in a temp controlled carboy for 5 weeks instead of 3-4 that I normally do) so it is possible that it is process or sanitation - but both of us making a crappy batch with the same yeast at the same time on a recipe we have done many times on two different systems does makes me suspect. I did make a starter, but did not smell or taste it before pitching. My brew water is carbon filtered to remove the chlorine.

[mediumsk]

i feel like all of this is just stirring the kettle (pun intended) for no good reason.
both of these company's make great products 99% of the time. blaming yeast companys for less than awesome beer is a cop out, there are way too many other variables that go into it.
just sayin

[Mylo]

I had two pretty bad ones this summer. One was underattenuated, super acytl aldehyde, and undrinkable (WLP001), and another exhibited the same types of problems to a lesser degree (WLP007) - at least drinkable, and I am forcing it on myself. Both vials were within one month of expiration. I got it from my LHBS. I chaulked it up to shipping from CA to AZ in summer - and my stupidity for not looking at the date until I got back home.

The other 30+ empty vials that I have kicking around in my collection yielded excellent results. Live and learn.


Mylo

[DrYeast]

blaming yeast companys for less than awesome beer is a cop out, there are way too many other variables that go into it.
just sayin

I agree with you on the whole, but I didn't pitch my starter, and I had a clean batch of beer because I used a dry pack that I had as a backup. I know that the contamination came from the vial. Whether it came from the inside of the vial (WL's fault) or the cap area where the ethanol I sprayed it down with didn't penetrate (Local shops fault) I don't know, but I suspect it was the local shop. A lot of these posts include a local shop, and I suspect that that is the universal problem.

WL has a quality control lab, and I'm sure that their product is solid when it leaves the factory, but it's all question marks as soon as someone else handles it. Maybe the ice melted and the vial was dunked into a bacteria water bath on the way to the shop, maybe dirty people loaded the vials into the cooler, there's no way to know.

My point is not to stop using one yeast company or another, but to avoid local shops that you've had bad results from, or tell them, or tell WL, it's the only way to correct the problem.

[ajdelange]

I'm not sure it is fair to blame the shop itself as the owner little control over what happens to the yeast they buy before it arrives at his door. If the aircraft carrying it (assuming that it is always shipped overnight air which is probably a stretch) winds up sitting on the apron in Las Vegas for 5 hours around noon while an EPR sensor is swapped out the product is likely to suffer. If it is being shipped by truck with dry ice and the truck is delayed for similar reasons (except trucks don't have EPR sensors AFAIK) and the CO2 is all sublimated it's the same story. I note that the reports here are of only certain strains. Unless the LHBS is storing some strains in one way and others in another that tends to take the focus away from them. Of course there are lots of thing the LHBS can do to screw up yeast so I'd say if you are getting consistently bad yeast from a shop, go elsewhere but if it is only certain strains from a certain manufacturer, switch manufacturers for those strains at least. Finally, any company can encounter QA problems which, in most cases, get fixed (if they want to stay in business). It is possible WL had one of these rough spots which may have been resolved. I would certainly be willing to give them another shot but my LHBS is not at this time (he will order it special if you want it but he doesn't stock it).