gxm

Recipes 

I went to pitch a real wort starter for a Golden Strong last night, and had planned on using some 1214 I'd washed. I hadn't realized I'd washed it 7 months ago, and when I opened up the mason jar, it smelled kinda rotty. I opened up the other jar I had, and it had a small floater that looked like mold.
In a pinch, I opened up the only other belgian yeast I have, an 8 month old jar of 3787 that smelled clean and good, so I used that instead.

I followed the same procedure for washing both, boiling the washing water and the jars, and were stored in the fridge. The 1214 did have a noticeable amount of trub, while the 3787 was all clean white yeast. I'm wondering if I was smelling autolysis from the yeast sitting on the trub?

TipsyDragon

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good call on not using the smelly or moldy starters. but, starters are supposed to be used within a day or two not after several months. the idea is that the yeast are active, healthy, and ready to go. but after 8 months they have either begun dieing and thats what your smelling or have gone dormant which defeats the purpose of a starter.

ChshreCat

Recipes 

Read the post. He was making the starter. It was his washed yeast that he's referring to.

When the yeast goes south, some folk describe it as a "fecal" smell. Definitely sounds like yours went TU on ya.

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gxm

Recipes 

My washed yeast was old, I'm not trying to use an 8 month old starter.

petep1980

Recipes 

You'll know when it goes bad. Whiff it before you pitch it. If it smells bad that's one thing, if it smells like hot apple vomit...toss it.