Trust your instinct.

[aryoung1980]

A few weeks ago I was building up my starter for a pale ale. The starter had a sour tinge to it reminding me of lacto. Since the LHBS was closed, I decided to do a Google search on soured starters to see if maybe I could be over-reacting. I read many posts, including some from well respected brewers. Everything pointed to "decant the starter and pitch" and "RDWHAHB".

Well, I decided to go with it instead of spending the few dollars on new yeast. Fast forward to tonight. One of my kegs kicked so I decided to check on my pale ale. I was optimistic that I could get it kegged tonight before I go on vacation tomorrow. I took a hydrometer sample and it was at 1.015; two points higher than expected but in range.

I cleaned my keg and beer lines followed by racking the pale ale into my keg. I went back to clean my sample jar and took a swig of the uncarbonated beer. S**t! It tasted just like the starter did two weeks earlier; funky. It actually tastes very similar to a botched Berliner Weisse I made back in April.

In hindsight I'm kicking myself for cheaping out on the new yeast. Now I need to go into full-on cleaning mode to prevent any more infections. Hopefully I didn't get any cross contamination into the Vienna lager I brewed yesterday.

Moral of the story, if you're worried about your starter being infected, toss it out and buy yourself some new yeast. It's better than dumping a whole batch. C'est la vie.

 

[JLeuck64]

Agreed... learned the very same lesson recently myself. Oh well... it still is drinkable if I cleanse my pallet with an IPA first!

 

[Cyclman]

An unhealthy starter can't make a delicious beer.

 

[zacster]

It can be hard to tell from a starter. They always smell funky to me, but I've never had a problem.

Watch you sanitation. Double clean everything, use StarSan before letting the yeast touch it, boil your water/dme/lme/grains. Sanitize the foil cover, or whatever you use. Sanitize the yeast pack and the scissors you use to cut it.

When I make a starter I cool the wort in an ice bath, but before I pour it out, I re-sanitize the outside of the pot so that the dribbles are in contact with a sanitized surface, not the ice water.

 

[MannyEdwards]

When I was totally green to liquid yeast, I went on an all-grain, liquid yeast binge. I ordered hundreds of dollars worth of grain and equipment and liquid yeast. And I opted for the free shipping. Now, I did specify ice packs, but when the boxes got here it was hot. Man, it was definitely in the mid-90s, and that stuff had been traveling for several days. Do you know those UPS trucks don't have AC? Fact.

Anyway, I wasted a couple batches before I wised up. The seller was dope and refunded everything (that was wasted) with a store credit, and now I'm using dry yeast.

I don't have anything against liquid yeast -- I'm just going to wait till December to order it.

 

[zacster]

I don't know where Buffalo Valley, TN is, but find a LHBS to get your yeast fresh. I get back from my shop in about 10 minutes and it goes straight to the fridge or is made into a starter immediately. Sometimes I smack it at the shop and let it swell in the car while I make other stops, except not in the summer.

The last batch I bought there had a date of 7/20/2015 on it, so it was very fresh from the lab as well. Don't buy yeast in advance by more than a few weeks.