Had to Toss My First Batch Last Night

Apparently I tried to stretch my Safale-05 yeast too far…too long.

I knew something was wrong right off the bat. I had a large batch of harvested yeast…probably 3rd or 4th generation. There was enough that I only had to pitch half the slurry in this last batch of house ale.

After I tossed it, I set the half empty jar down in the sink…planning on tossing it after my cleanup. When I got back to it about 2 hours later, there was a white, dusty film and lots of sudsing in the yeast. Smelled like rotten eggs and vinegar.

Well… what’s done is done so I decide to see it through.

One week in the keg the beer had a grainy off taste. I hoped it would mellow. Last night…two days after my last taste I drew a glass and the aroma bout knocked me over. Took a swig (against my better judgment) and thought I was gonna puke out my ears.

So…one five gallon keg gets dumped into the shop sink. The other keg upstairs in the Sanyo gets carried out to the curb and dumped. A river of rotten egg beer flowing down the curb.

On one hand…a bit sad. On the other, some relief that I could put the beer out of its misery.

Net – Don’t get stingy with your yeast. Don’t let it sit un-chilled for extended periods of time. Don’t pitch any yeast without 100% confidence.

BM i have to ask. why would you save 2 dollar yeast to repitch?

Is it the challange?

Bummer man! I feel your pain.

OTH, I would never waste my time propagating a dry yeast unless I racked a fermenter to a keg and put fresh wort back on in the same day. (save me time from washing & sanitizing a fermenter).

Reverend JC said:

BM i have to ask. why would you save 2 dollar yeast to repitch?

Is it the challange?

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Hehe, I was thinking the same thing. WHy save the dry yeast?

Autolysis does happen. I left a cake in a a fermenter too long once. I'd planned on making a third batch on it, but a two week delay was excessive! I made an exception to the "no bleach" rule to clean that mess up.

New rule: only pitch on a cake the same day you keg the first batch.

Why 'save' dried yeast? Sometimes brewing a small beer and then pitching a big one on the cake is the way to go. It's like a 5 gallon starter.

I've pitched slurry that got it's start as a dry pitch. I've done it when I just don't have the dry version on hand. What's the big deal? Of course you usually harvest liquid strains because they're so expensive. I've messed around with it for practice and to pitch high cell counts. However, I make a habit of really smelling it to make sure it's clean.

I harvested some WLP001 a while back into a PET bottle. I just discovered it in the back of the fridge and the bottle was so pressurized that I couldn't sqeeze it. After carefully opening, it smelled like the ass of a dead skunk. It's obviously not fit to pitch.

I do agree that there's no pressing reason to propagate dry yeast other than an exercise in sanitation and I order half a dozen packs at a time.

I recently stretched a single US-05 pouch for one 5 gallon batch and two subsequent 10 gallon batches (25g total). The yeast was basically free.

Bobby_M said:

...I recently stretched a single US-05 pouch for one 5 gallon batch and two subsequent 10 gallon batches (25g total). The yeast was basically free...

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That was the reason. Larger slurry, quicker ferment and generally it's convenient.

I just pushed the envelope this time.

weak sauce