A38 starter smells like soy sauce?

[matt_m]

I made a starter 2ish weeks ago with Imperial A38. I wasn't paying attention and had a boil over but other than being a little dark it seemed fine. Went to use it today and it smelled funky, kind of like soy sauce. Luckily I had a 2nd pack of A38 so I just pitched it since Imperial says you don't need starters. Did I waste a starter or is this a sign of an issue?

 

[day_trippr]

Hang on a tic...Ok, I have three 400ml jars each holding 100ml of clean A38 starter yeast just a week old, as well as the last jar of my ~18 month wy1318 run from the last week in April. Both strains smell very bready and bland - literally nothing to offend the senses.

I vote "something went wrong" and would not risk using the "soy sauce".
So it's good you have a back-up. I'd use it...

Cheers!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Soy sauce is a classic off-flavour from autolysis - yeast corpses.

So I'd assume something went wrong.

 

[matt_m]

Hmm...could just be that it was in my fridge too long then.

The 2nd packet I dumped straight from the fridge is churning away and already at 33% attenuation. Maybe I should just listen to the manufacturer.