Infected starter? Pic

Revvy said:

Just because the beer on top of the yeast smells bad, even sour doesn't mean the yeast below is bad. When we make a starter we are growing more yeast, we're not trying to make a good tasting tiny beer, so we usually don't hop it, or put it in a temp controlled eviroment. So the "beer" on top is not going to be in that great a condition. Often in summer our starter beers go sour, that's why some folks add a hop pellet or two to the boil. And then if we DO hop it, we're leaving it on our kitchen counter in bright sunlight and THAT'S going to skunk, and smell bad....

But unless you go the extra mile, that beer on top, which often sits in the sun, or in a hot room, and without hops is often going to smell, or even taste bad. But that tiny bit of beer won't effect the 5 gallons you are making. You can always decant the starter beer of the top and pitch it.

But I wouldn't scrap it. Half of the starters I've pitched I've never bothered to sniff, and of those I did, many smelled sour or other wise nasty, and I've still pitched them, and never had a bad beer.

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JayInJersey said:

I like the smell of the smackpacks...that's not wierd is it?

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Grinder12000 said:

Has anybody said it looks normal yet?

One thing I learned was that every batch's yeast looks different.

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hereforbeer said:

looks normal to me.How's it smell?

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IrregularPulse said:

Looks like a normal krausen to me.

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ReverseApacheMaster said:

Yep looks like normal krausen.

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BrookdaleBrew said:

Looks normal to me (although it's hard to tell if the stuff in the middle is chunky or if it's just wort showing through the krausen.) Did you boil the extra runnings before you pitched yeast into the starter?

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dpittard said:

I'll throw another "It's krausen" bill into the hat.

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wyzazz said:

Break material in the krausen, no worries.

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iowabrewer said:

Yep, looks good from here. Pitch it!

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Morkin said:

Your shiny bubble is most likely due to Star san or sanitizer. The rest it just break matter or yeast. Perfectly normal.

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barroomhero1234 said:

Smell it, it looks good. As all other people said

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Revvy said:

You're lucky enough that you actuaslly got to see a krausen in your starter...That's all..nothing to worry about.

I wouldn't even bother sniffing the starter, since you'll probably smell something and PANIC about that as well.

I wrote this the other day, to someone who sniffed and panicked.

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