I had my first infected beer, a wort-in-a-bag kit beer from The Brewhouse. Coincidentally this is the 13th beer I've made from these kits. This one is a 'Munich Dark Lager' which I believe to be a Dunkel.
I have been washing my yeast and storing it in the fridge as per the yeast washing guide on here. I made 9 kits so far with washed yeast. This beer was made with a 3rd generation Wyeast 1056 strain that I bought in October of 2010. I have had a jar or two of yeast go bad over this time, but I can tell that they smell off so I don't use them if they do.
As with all of my beers I make a 1L starter with 100g of DME boiled for 15 minutes, then pitch the 75-90ml of yeast slurry from the jar into it for a couple days. I don't remember the starter smelling sour, but I guess when you are reusing the yeast like this there might be a possibility of it slowly getting infected, and the transition being so gradual that you may not notice.
Anyway, I sanitize everything with StarSan and then I do a 3 week primary. After the three weeks I noticed the beer smelled sour, tasted sour, and had a thin skin that broke up when I racked it to bottle it. I have never seen a skin like that before on any of my beers, but I had gone this far so I was going to bottle it anyway.
It's been in the bottle over 3 weeks now, and if you look at the description for this beer it's described as having "a delicate sweet maltiness and a toasted nutty flavour" which sounds delicious. Unfortunately mine tastes like beer vinegar, and even at 3 weeks is not nearly carbonated enough, seems to be taking a long time.
I made the mexican cerveza kit after this one with the same 3rd generation yeast, I just hope that it isn't infected too. I tasted it a few days ago at bottling and it seemed ok.
I don't think this will discourage me from washing yeast, but what could I have done differently to prevent this? Is 3 generations too much? Maybe I should limit it to using yeast that was originally used for the first time up to 6 months ago then throw it all out and start over.
I have been washing my yeast and storing it in the fridge as per the yeast washing guide on here. I made 9 kits so far with washed yeast. This beer was made with a 3rd generation Wyeast 1056 strain that I bought in October of 2010. I have had a jar or two of yeast go bad over this time, but I can tell that they smell off so I don't use them if they do.
As with all of my beers I make a 1L starter with 100g of DME boiled for 15 minutes, then pitch the 75-90ml of yeast slurry from the jar into it for a couple days. I don't remember the starter smelling sour, but I guess when you are reusing the yeast like this there might be a possibility of it slowly getting infected, and the transition being so gradual that you may not notice.
Anyway, I sanitize everything with StarSan and then I do a 3 week primary. After the three weeks I noticed the beer smelled sour, tasted sour, and had a thin skin that broke up when I racked it to bottle it. I have never seen a skin like that before on any of my beers, but I had gone this far so I was going to bottle it anyway.
It's been in the bottle over 3 weeks now, and if you look at the description for this beer it's described as having "a delicate sweet maltiness and a toasted nutty flavour" which sounds delicious. Unfortunately mine tastes like beer vinegar, and even at 3 weeks is not nearly carbonated enough, seems to be taking a long time.
I made the mexican cerveza kit after this one with the same 3rd generation yeast, I just hope that it isn't infected too. I tasted it a few days ago at bottling and it seemed ok.
I don't think this will discourage me from washing yeast, but what could I have done differently to prevent this? Is 3 generations too much? Maybe I should limit it to using yeast that was originally used for the first time up to 6 months ago then throw it all out and start over.
