silvervan83
Well-Known Member
Its been 4 days and now its starting to smell sour.
"What do I do?" - Marty Chang
"What do I do?" - Marty Chang
Maerzen yeast starter smells sour
- Thread starter silvervan83
- Start date
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Starters often go sour unless you add a hop pellet or two to the wort. That's one of the roles that hops play, as a preservative.
You can decant off the majority of the beer on top and still pitch the yeast, the yeast is fine..it's just the beer on top...or if you plan on pitching in the next couple days, I would make a fresh wort and pour your yeast into that....
You can decant off the majority of the beer on top and still pitch the yeast, the yeast is fine..it's just the beer on top...or if you plan on pitching in the next couple days, I would make a fresh wort and pour your yeast into that....
Really? I've heard both Charlie Papazian and JZ weigh in on opposite sides of the "hop your starter issue". Neither sited primary literature and my impression was that Charlie (hop it) is right for kitchen sanitation, JZ (wins again) is right for laboratory technique, and neither is really duplicating what large lager brewers do commercially. Just my flawed perception?
Well I don't really care what JX or charlies says...a lot of times people like to spout with no practicall experience in the matter, even the big guns....And I have had starters go sour after a few days....Especially in the summer.
And we KNOW that hops are a preservative to keep beer from souring (ever heard of an IPA?)....so it doesn't need to be a big argument or a logic leap to go reach the conclusion that adding a hop pellet will give you a longer window before it goes sour....
You don't really need to worry if you are going to brew in 24 hours or so....but like the op, if you start a few days earlier, you might want to consider a little insurance. Like if you are bottle harvesting yeast and trying do grow a huge volume over a few days.
These Basic Brewing Videos confirm it from PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE...
