Slight Phenol on starter

Using Wyeast Scottish Ale, I'm detecting a clove phenol on my starter. It is in the same flask as my last starter, French Saison. It was boiled for at least five minutes while preparing the starter, but I'm hesitant to pitch it. Is this just high temps affecting the Scottish yeast or do you think It's contaminated. I don't have a local HOmebrew store for the simple safe fix and I've already mashed today.

 

Addendum: for what it' worth, this is not the phenol I get from French Saison yeast and it shows no other estery French saison character.

 

I don't really have a great answer for you, but I had a starter with a bit o Phenol once, pitched it- the beer had a slight phenol character. Then I pitched on that yeast cake another batch. Phenolic OVERLOAD.

 

Are you using municipal water with chlorine or chloramines for your starters? Did you clean you flask after the last starter? Unless you can point to a flaw in your starter process you are probably okay.

 

The scottish strain can throw a faint smoky odor when fermented on the high end. Is that what you are tasting?

 

"smokey" isn't a terrible description. I haven't had a sanitation problem in years, at least not a noticeable one. I decided to pitch it. The wort just smelled like a good scotish ale and I decided that I wanted to roll it out.