Starter smells like plastic....

I have made numerous started in the past and never had an issue. Yesterday, I made a starter with WLP500, Trappist Ale. Its my usual, 1600ml 1.037 starter. I boiled as normal, cooled it down to about 68 (a little lower than I wanted, but still within range).

The flask was cleaned with Oxyclean, rinsed several times, and then sanitized with Star San.

When I smelled/tasted it today, it tasted very plasticy.

I know Belgian yeasts are prone to producing phenolics, but this just seems like more that it should (this is my first time using this yeast).

Has any one else experienced this? Is this normal for this strain? I usually chill the starters and decant all the wort off so I dont think I'll have any issues transfering flavors to the fermenter. Im just concerned that I need to be extra careful with this yeast, or maybe their is something wrong with this strain.....

I've tasted something similar in one of my brews.

Does it smell like tupperware melted in the dishwasher?

I have attributed this to what, in his book Radical Brewing, Randy Mosher describes as the broken circuit board smell of dimethoxyphenol--a sign of wild yeast infection (page 75).

I don't have any experience with Belgian Yeasts but if it were me, I would dump the starter and try again rather than risking a batch of beer.

Good luck!

JT

Wild yeast.....that was my fear.

After thinking about the process more, I pitched the starter late in the evening and we cut the heat back in our house at night to keep the gas bill low. The temp drops to about 60 over night. When I woke up, it still hadn't started fermenting, which after about 10 hours, it definitely should have.

When I came home from work, it was finally chugging away, but there was no krausen on the top, whatsoever.

I guess somewhere in that long lag phase/cold time I had, the wild yeast took hold. I am planning on dumping it and making another starter. Hopefully now I can find the yeast I need locally....