Is my starter infected? Photos, tasting descriptions ect.

Let me first say, I'm not freaking out. I have us 04, 05 and notty on hand for just such a situation.

I just finished up brewing and my starter that has been in my fridge since thursday looks like this

http://tinypic.com/r/2v1uvs5/6

I tasted a sample and it tastes vinegary. It smells very acidic.


Im leaning towards not using this, but I am slightly concerned about under pitching into my DIPA(o.g. 1.09ish) with 04 or notty...since my starter is wlp002.

So, do you think this is an infection, and should i pitch 04 or notty.

Or audible and make a starter tonight, I have more WLP002 and pitch in the morning at high krausen.

That looks like normal byproducts of fermentation. The photo doesn't look abnormal. I'd be concerned about the vinegar taste though.

Xpertskir said:

Let me first say, I'm not freaking out. I have us 04, 05 and notty on hand for just such a situation.

I just finished up brewing and my starter that has been in my fridge since thursday looks like this

http://tinypic.com/r/2v1uvs5/6

I tasted a sample and it tastes vinegary. It smells very acidic.

Im leaning towards not using this, but I am slightly concerned about under pitching into my DIPA(o.g. 1.09ish) with 04 or notty...since my starter is wlp002.

So, do you think this is an infection, and should i pitch 04 or notty.

Or audible and make a starter tonight, I have more WLP002 and pitch in the morning at high krausen.

Click to expand...

Honestly to me it looks like a lot of krausen debris from a starter that blew its lid but if you say it tastes like vinegar an smells acidic I wouldn't use it. Those are not characteristics of a healthy starter.

Ok, it just does not taste or smell right. Nothing can be gained from using this, I dont even know why I asked you guys to tell me something I already knew. Now, what should I pitch? Should I pitch the re-hydrated 04 and 05 packets to get enough cells. Or the 04 and notty? Or 2 nottys? Im hesitant to just pitch one packet or wait until morning for another wlp002 starter, especially considering its a propagation of the same batch that is currently infected.

Trust your gut. Go with the dry packets this time.

If everything is sanitized properly, you can leave the wort sit while you build another starter from the 002, but if you have the dry yeast on hand, why wait?

2 packs of dry yeast straight into the wort and you'll be skraight. i went on probrewer.com to see what those guys do with dry yeast, most dump it in dry so i do too and it works great.

Once I decanted, I saw visual signs of infection on the compressed yeast. Once I dumped the flask and recovered the stir bar I realized what happened. There was a scratch on the stir bar from the last time I cleaned the flask when I accidentally dumped it into the disposal, god knows what it picked up in there. That stirbar is now trash. On a brighter note I am going to find out what happens when you blend US 05 and 04. I ended up pitching both packets dry just in case I was able to figure out a way to screw up rehydrating yeast.

To top the evening off I dropped my thermometer into the carboy when trying to make sure my wort was at pitching temp. Then I found out that someone, actually not me, left one of our gas burners on and not lit for about 5 hours. All around an impressively stupid evening.

A scratch on the stirbar, even from a scuzzy garbage disposal won't cause infection if you boil it or sanitize it first. Lord knows I've seen some nasty stuff in my bottles that I nabbed from friends and they never caused a problem after sanitizing and cleaning. Don't throw out your stir bar because of a scratch.