48 hours before pitching...sour smell

[ScottTX]

My first attempt with using a yeast starter seems like it may be doomed.

I am an extract brewer. I have done many batches and wanted to step my game up a little by harvesting yeast and using a yeast starter. Problem is that I got into my brew day routine, which generally includes pitching Whitelabs from the vial. I completely forgot that i needed to get my harvested yeast spinning on my new stir plate well before brewing day.

Long story short, I was only able to started my yeast starter while I was boiling the wort. After the boil I closed up the wort in the fermenter. My harvested yeast had been in the fridge since 1/30/14 so I wanted to be sure it was viable before pitching so I decided it was best to wait 48 hours before pitching. When i open the fermenter to pitch the yeast I got an overwhelming sour smell from wort. I pitched anyway hoping for the best.

Did I ruin this batch (Kolsch with German Ale yeast)?

Thanks!

 

[Gameface]

My first attempt with using a yeast starter seems like it may be doomed.

I am an extract brewer. I have done many batches and wanted to step my game up a little by harvesting yeast and using a yeast starter. Problem is that I got into my brew day routine, which generally includes pitching Whitelabs from the vial. I completely forgot that i needed to get my harvested yeast spinning on my new stir plate well before brewing day.

Long story short, I was only able to started my yeast starter while I was boiling the wort. After the boil I closed up the wort in the fermenter. My harvested yeast had been in the fridge since 1/30/14 so I wanted to be sure it was viable before pitching so I decided it was best to wait 48 hours before pitching. When i open the fermenter to pitch the yeast I got an overwhelming sour smell from wort. I pitched anyway hoping for the best.

Did I ruin this batch (Kolsch with German Ale yeast)?

Thanks!

After a winter hiatus on brewing I made my first batch back in Feb. I got all paranoid because my starter smelled sour and I was convinced it was an infection. I went ahead and took a chance. That beer has been on tap for over a month, no infection issues. Its way more estery than I wanted it to be, not sure why, but that's a separate issue.

 

[Falcon3]

Likely you had some wild yeast or bacteria working on the wort while your starter was going. This is the perfect reason to have a spare dry yeast laying around so if you're ready to pitch but your starter isn't, you can still make beer.

Boiling the wort doesn't kill everything and even in the transfer from kettle to fermenter, you pick a few things up. Pitching a good supply of yeast just means you're trying g to get your yeast to outrun the bad guys. Likely the batch won't turn lit anymore, but since it's harvested yeast, you could go through it and see what kind of sour you make. Just be sure not to reuse the cake on this batch as it will be contaminated.


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[Falcon3]

After a winter hiatus on brewing I made my first batch back in Feb. I got all paranoid because my starter smelled sour and I was convinced it was an infection. I went ahead and took a chance. That beer has been on tap for over a month, no infection issues. Its way more estery than I wanted it to be, not sure why, but that's a separate issue.

I'm pretty sure OP is saying the full wort smelled sour, not the starter. I've had starters smell weird, but if the wort sat for two days with no yearly workin on it, I'm sure it's got bugs, especially since OP described the smell as "overwhelming"



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[fuelish]

This is the perfect reason to have a spare dry yeast laying around so if you're ready to pitch but your starter isn't, you can still make beer.

 

[Gameface]

I'm pretty sure OP is saying the full wort smelled sour, not the starter. I've had starters smell weird, but if the wort sat for two days with no yearly workin on it, I'm sure it's got bugs, especially since OP described the smell as "overwhelming"



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Ah, I just re-read the OP and I totally failed at reading comprehension the first time.

 

[rmyurick]

Probably the easiest way to tell: taste it. (probably best to do when it's done it nearly done fermenting)

 

[ScottTX]

Seems like I just made the world's first German Sour Kolsch! Not so sure this will have the same refreshing effect after a hot summer Houston day as the crisp Kolsch I intended to make :smack:

 

[Revvy]

Unless you do no chill brewing where you rack boiling wort into a plastic jerrycan where it is instantly steralized and as it cools a vacuum is formed inside the vessel, if you don't pitch your yeast for 48 hours in a normal fermenter, you're going to have soured wort. It's that simple. That's why you're told over and over to pitch yeast immediately so the good bugs that you want multiply and take hold before all the naturally occurring "bad" bugs floating around do. You can't really avoid the fact that there's stuff floating around in the atmosphere, no matter how careful you are, and some of it doesn't behave the way we want it to.

Think about it this way, you close the lid on your bucket, or stick a stopper on a carboy and you've just pushed down air into the headspace- air with whatever is floating around. And it's a race to get healthier, stronger yeast to take over before the wild does.

Unless you've created a totally sterile vacuum environment like you can with no chill, if you don't pitch asap, you're going to get soured wort.

 

[Falcon3]

Seems like I just made the world's first German Sour Kolsch! Not so sure this will have the same refreshing effect after a hot summer Houston day as the crisp Kolsch I intended to make :smack:

Keep it, and see how it turns out, as long as you've got space for it. There's always some weirdos at homebrew meetings the love sour beers

(for the record, I'm not a fan of sour beers, but I realize some people are. The "weirdo" comment above is in jest)

 

[ScottTX]

Thanks guys...this forum is awesome. I will let you know if I keep the batch after fermentation. My next batch will be my first all-grain attempt. I hope that one goes better than this experiment.

 

[nopride]

Go ahead and pitch your yeast starter now. I don't know what your recipe is like, but if it's some combo pilsener or pale and wheat malts you might have made a stronger version of a berliner weisse. You could call it an imperial berliner weisse!

I just brewed a berliner, and a common technique is to let it sour for a few days before pitching the yeast. When they come out correctly, they will be tart but not overly sour and still very refreshing.

Would kind of aroma is it giving out? Is it vomit? Green apple? It it's not horrendous, you could still end up with a good beer.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Seems like I just made the world's first German Sour Kolsch! Not so sure this will have the same refreshing effect after a hot summer Houston day as the crisp Kolsch I intended to make :smack:

Yeah, you're probably not the pioneer you think you are.

Berlinerweiss is a light refreshing sour beer, maybe this will be too.