Bad vial of 007? smells odd

[stevea1210]

I have never used 007 before, but have used dozens of white labs vials. This one seems diferent, and I'm concerned if it is bad.

Made my starter last night. Pulled the vial out of the fridge to warm up...it looked weird. Not the creamy yeast sludge I'm used to. It was more like curdled milk, meaning almost oily liquid, with some chunks in it. Weird. There also seemed to be more

I let it warm up as my my starter boiled. When it was pitch time, I cracked open the vial. I've had vials that were under some pressure before but when I cracked this open, it shot out pressure like a 2 liter of soda that had been shaken up.

It smells off as well. Not a sour smell, but quite fruity and bready. Different than I'm used to, not like most yeasts I've used.

The started appears to have taken off this morning, but does have the same smell as before.

So having never used 007, I wanted to post asking....do you think this is a contaminated vial or am I good to go? LHBS is open until 5 today, so I could still get a replacement today if needed....brewday is tomorrow.

 

[wonderbread23]

It's fine. WLP 007 (and most English strains) look and smell like that.

 

[Phunhog]

I don't know if you use a stir plate but 007 looks crazy when it starts to flocculate.

 

[BrewKnurd]

i had what looked like floating brains once with 007.

 

[stbnj]

Its fine, its because of how much it clumps up that it gives that curdled milk look.

 

[stevea1210]

awesome guys. Thanks for the info. Feel better now.

 

[SwampassJ]

Also WLP002 looks and behaves the same way with the chunky sludge in the vial.

 

[Leipzig]

Just opened a vial of WLP009 Australian Ale, and it too looks as the OP described. Time to brew my aussie export.

 

[SoupNazi]

Whew! I used 007 yesterday for a rauchbeer, and I was also concerned because the yeast was clumpy as curdled milk. Glad to hear that everything was ok!