Heimholder
Member
Last weekend I was all set to brew my favorite double IPA recipe. Pulled my 2-quart WLP001 California Ale yeast starter out of the fridge to let it warm up. It had looked & smelled normal during its' 3-day incubation and then sat in the fridge for 2 days. I used standard sanitization practices, nothing different from previous successful starters I've done. Had a nice thick whitish layer of yeast on the bottom, transparent brownish liquid on top, looked pretty good.
Then I got bored while waiting for my water to boil and decided to taste the liquid and got a distinct vinegar taste! Gave it another smell, and it still smelled like yeast, not vinegar. I furiously googled, but could find very little info on how a starter should taste, just sight & smell. I concluded I didn't want to waste ~ $50 in ingredients, threw out the starter, and pitched a dry packet of Danstar Winstor instead (shooting foam out of the blow-off within 5 hours!)
Has anyone else tasted their starters? Should they taste like beer, or does it taste "off"? So now I'm wondering if I should taste all my starters since the sight/smell didn't clue me in at all to a potential problem. Or maybe I'll just stick with the Windsor since it's turning out to be quite the champ... Any thoughts?
Thanks
Heimholder
Then I got bored while waiting for my water to boil and decided to taste the liquid and got a distinct vinegar taste! Gave it another smell, and it still smelled like yeast, not vinegar. I furiously googled, but could find very little info on how a starter should taste, just sight & smell. I concluded I didn't want to waste ~ $50 in ingredients, threw out the starter, and pitched a dry packet of Danstar Winstor instead (shooting foam out of the blow-off within 5 hours!)
Has anyone else tasted their starters? Should they taste like beer, or does it taste "off"? So now I'm wondering if I should taste all my starters since the sight/smell didn't clue me in at all to a potential problem. Or maybe I'll just stick with the Windsor since it's turning out to be quite the champ... Any thoughts?
Thanks
Heimholder