Yeast starter smells like fish

I dont know if yeast starter is the appropriate term, but here is the situation. I boiled some water and DME, sanitized all equipment and once the bit of wort cooled down I dumped the bottom bit the yeast from Sierra Nevada Pale Ale into it. A few days later I poured out all but the yeast and added some more wort and a few days after this I ended up with a pretty decent amount a yeast considering how little I started with.

The thing smells like fish though. I have no intention of using this, it was just an experiment to see if I could do it. I know fermentation can result in nasty smells that are normal, but fish doesn't seem normal at all. There are no visible signs of infection. So what is going on.

Hmmm that is weird, I know that SN filters their beer and then adds more at bottling for bottle conditioning. I don't know if they add the same yeast or not. Someone on here has to of harvested SN yeast and tried brewing with it. Maybe do a search? I have never had a yeast that smells like fish.

I find it better not to sniff my starters, or my fermenters, lest I forget that beermaking is often a stinky and ugly thing, and 99% of the time, perfectly normal.

People have posted all sorts of panic threads about various smells in their starters (including bacon) and they've all turned fine.

A lot of times they simply smell sour, especially in the summer. SOme folks add a hop pellet in the boil in the preservative.

Bottom line, stuff sometimes smells in this game, and usually when we smell it, that means it's being pushed out by co2, and NOT ending up in what we're making. Think of rhino farts, or sulphur from lager yeast....the stuff goes away.

I wouldn't worry about it.

I'll bow to revvy's considerable experience due to mine. but if i smelt fish in a starter, I'd have dumped it

How much starter wort did you pitch the yeast into? My guess is that the small quantity of viable yeast that remains in the bottom of a Sierra Nevada bottle is not going to be enough to thrive and dominate in a normal size starter. Inevitably some small amounts of contaminants (wild yeast, bacteria) will be in your starter wort as its a sanitary process not a sterile one. Those contaminants will most likely out-compete the very small amount of viable yeast you pitched.

Is it possible what you thought was yeast in the starter was actually hot/cold break?

Also, of all possible options, why on earth would you want to culture Sierra Nevada yeast? You do realize its the "Chico" strain right? One of the most popular and accessible brewers yeasts around (WLP 001, Wyeast 1056, SafAle-05)?

I used 1/2 cup of dry malt extract and about 16 oz. of water. I wasnt using harvesting the yeast for future use, I harvested it because I wanted to try it just to do it and Sierra Nevada happened to be the first bottle conditioned beer I opened after deciding that.

The yeast has reporduced enough at this point that I am positive it is yeast and not hot/cold break.