cdburg
Well-Known Member
I have some questions for anyone who's harvested yeast before. I'm a bit paranoid that I may have some bad starter liquid or foreign yeast, and I'm hoping someone can share some experiences.
I thought I'd try to save myself some time and money by harvesting my yeast from the last batch to reuse for this batch. I followed Wyeast's steps to wash the yeast, and ended up with some yeast in a sterile mason jar. I wasn't exactly sure how much to keep, so I didn't end up with too much. I figured I'd make a starter to get enough yeast to have a strong pitching amount. I took about 1.5 lbs LME I had laying around, boiled it in a gallon of water and ended up with 8 pints of 1.053 sg starter.
After keeping the yeast in the fridge for a few weeks, I took it out and let it warm to room temperature. I then combined the yeast and one of the pints of starter in a growner (sanitized) and added a sanitized airlock to the top of the growler. It took a while to get going, probably because there wasn't that much yeast. It seems to be going decently now though.
My concern is around the way all of this smells. I'm a bit paranoid that I may have had some foreign yeast in the bottle or otherwise contaminated the starter. I've never smelled a cooled wort without any hops. It smells almost like a mildly sour milk. Is that normal? I guess I thought it would smell sweeter. It may also be because of the lack of hops in the starter, but the growler itself, where the yeast is going, smells strongly of yeast. That's expected since I am growing yeast, but I don't smell the starter at all. It just smells like hydrated baking yeast.
Am I thinking too much? I just don't want to waste a batch of beer with bad yeast. I'm thinking I might just buy another tube and try again next time.
I thought I'd try to save myself some time and money by harvesting my yeast from the last batch to reuse for this batch. I followed Wyeast's steps to wash the yeast, and ended up with some yeast in a sterile mason jar. I wasn't exactly sure how much to keep, so I didn't end up with too much. I figured I'd make a starter to get enough yeast to have a strong pitching amount. I took about 1.5 lbs LME I had laying around, boiled it in a gallon of water and ended up with 8 pints of 1.053 sg starter.
After keeping the yeast in the fridge for a few weeks, I took it out and let it warm to room temperature. I then combined the yeast and one of the pints of starter in a growner (sanitized) and added a sanitized airlock to the top of the growler. It took a while to get going, probably because there wasn't that much yeast. It seems to be going decently now though.
My concern is around the way all of this smells. I'm a bit paranoid that I may have had some foreign yeast in the bottle or otherwise contaminated the starter. I've never smelled a cooled wort without any hops. It smells almost like a mildly sour milk. Is that normal? I guess I thought it would smell sweeter. It may also be because of the lack of hops in the starter, but the growler itself, where the yeast is going, smells strongly of yeast. That's expected since I am growing yeast, but I don't smell the starter at all. It just smells like hydrated baking yeast.
Am I thinking too much? I just don't want to waste a batch of beer with bad yeast. I'm thinking I might just buy another tube and try again next time.
