First time making starter...

Hi everyone, I am currently boiling my wort for a doppelbock. I made a 4L starter with Munich yeast, of which I shook quite often during the starter ferment. I tested the liquid after decanting and it tastes kind of nasty... sort of cardboardy/rubberish grossness.. I fermented it at about 63-65

Anyway, I wanted to know if this is typical of a starter given the higher temp, oxidation, etc....

This is pretty much my first time making a starter the right way, using all the procedures I found on this site. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If this is not typical, I may just pitch notty and be done, as I LOVE doppelbocks and I want this to be drinkable.

You tasted the starter? Isn't that akin to taking a big bite of trub off of the bottom?

I would expect it to taste like ass. I've not done a starter yet so I'm interested in hearing what other people have to say.

I tasted the liquid after decanting off the yeast cake from the starter... I should have said that

I do not disagree though, this may be a normal occurrence I am very curious though given I badly do not want this beer f'ed up.

I've only done a handful of starters but I believe you should have no problem drinking the decanted beer from the yeast(its nothing more than a small batch of un-hopped beer). Its not going to be GREAT, but it shouldn't taste BAD...maybe a little yeasty. I'd be wary of pitching it, if it really tastes that bad. I've read that most people will taste the decanted beer from their starter, to make sure its still good, especially when re-using old yeast.

I don't know for sure, and don't want to scare you out of using perfectly good yeast, but this has been my experience/understanding. Hopefully someone else will chime in with a more definite answer.

I know my starters are good if I taste the spent wort and I taste virtually nothing, thin watery nothing. I know that I don't want sourness or signs of infection.

It does taste bad. It's all the aeration and no hops - It's kind of sour and yeasty. You can drink it, it's just not that good.

First, don't make a starter with dry yeast. Second, wheat beer yeast in a starter isn't going to taste very good. Pitch it if you're confident about your sanitation.

FWIW I haven't yet tasted a starter that I liked.

Hmmmmm... well, I know the taste of 'yeasty' quite well - however this is more rubbery or plasticy.

You know what is weird, is that the last time I used liquid yeast, I made an ESB clone and it tasted similar - only a stronger rubbery taste. The yeast in that smack pack was quite old.

This Munich yeast pack was only 2 months old or so, but I bought it at the same place. I am starting to suspect the liquid yeasts I have been buying are improperly stored. Or a more likely story is I do not handle them properly given my inexperience. I pitched the entire starter on the ESB. It is still in the bottle and I am waiting for it to clear before trying it again to see if the rubbery taste went away.

Now I am really not keen on pitching on this cake. It did take 3 days for activity signs, but this is a lager yeast and I have heard they are typical. The smack pack did not swell much though...

Sheesh I must say 2 rubber tasting beers in a row from liquid yeasts - not sure I want to even bother with liquid yeast anymore I am really frustrated. Maybe I should stick to s-23 from now on.

wyzazz said:

First, don't make a starter with dry yeast. Second, wheat beer yeast in a starter isn't going to taste very good. Pitch it if you're confident about your sanitation.

FWIW I haven't yet tasted a starter that I liked.

Click to expand...

Gah, sorry man by Munich yeast I did not mean Danstar Munich. I mean the Munich lager strain.

Well, since I only did a 3 gallon batch - I pitched the wort onto the cake and areated like crazy. I had activity with 2 hours, and full fermentation with krausen after 12 hours.

If the off taste was just the nature of starter wort with that kind of yeast, I should be good. Time will tell

FYI in case anyone is following this thread, the Doppelbock was totally fine. It looks like oxidized starter liquid can cause those medicinal flavors after all. I have made 2 startes since but I only oxygenated at the beginning and the liquid tastes just fine. The interrmittent shaking caused oxidization which carried over into the finished beer.