Hill Farmstead Yeast, use or dump?

[YOpassDAmike]

I collected the bottle dregs from 2 bottles of hill farmstead anna (bottled on 2/25/16) with the intent to build the yeast up for a 5 gallon batch of a homebrew saison. I initially made a 1000ml yeast starter and then made a 2000ml yeast starter to gradually build up the yeast. The 2000ml took a few days before fermentation started. After fermentation of the 2000ml yeast had completed and prior to decanting it, it had a fruity smell with a touch of brett; however, after decanting the yeast starter, I got a very strong vinegar smell from the liquid I poured out.

Regardless, I took the yeast slurry and pitched it into a 1 gallon extract batch of a saison to further build up the yeast colony, I will provide the 1 gallon batch details down below in a picture. Fermentation of the 1 gallon extract also took a few days to show signs of fermentation (fermentation temp 68-70 degrees). I brewed the 1 gallon extract batch 3 weeks ago and finally took a sample today. The sample I collected did not have a vinegar smell or taste; however, the smell was somewhat pleasent (faint sour smell but all hill farmstead saison seem to have a slight sour smell or tart taste) but the taste of the beer was fairly bitter (even though IBU <20) with no tartness or complexity. The beer is hazy, and similar to how the 2000ml yeast starter was, it seems that the yeast is staying in suspension (picture included). Do you think that bitter taste I was getting was from excess yeast in suspension? I am hesitant to use this yeast in a 5 gallon batch in fear that I will have fermentation issues or off flavors with this yeast, resulting in a very bad 5 gallon batch of homebrew. My plan was to secondary the 5 gallon batch onto some blackberries and blueberries, but with fruit being fairly expensive I want a good base saison. Would you guys use or dump this yeast? I already have the grain crushed for the 5 gallon batch.

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[microbusbrewery]

So I have to admit, I don't know much about Hill Farmstead's farmhouse culture since unfortunately it doesn't really make its way out to Utah, but it sounds like it could very likely contain brett and some wild bugs like lactobacillus. Brett can produce acetic acid when there's an ample supply of oxygen. Likewise, some heterofermentative strains of lactobacillus will produce acetic acid under certain conditions. The other culprit is usually acetobacter, but that wouldn't be from the dregs (or else you'd hear a ton of people complaining about vinegar character in their Hill Farmstead beers). If you're pretty confident in your sanitation process including keeping fruit flies at bay from your starter, you can probably rule out acetobacter. If you oxygenated the starter really well, I would suspect that's probably linked to the vinegar character you detected. If it were me, I would not dump the yeast. That said, you also have to be willing to lose a batch if it turns acetic. I'd also skip the normal oxygenation routine (I never oxygenate my sours when using lactobacillus post-boil).

 

[docreight]

It is rumored that a while back HF started bottling with a champagne yeast. I have been wondering how the introduction of this type of yeast at bottling would effect the character of what would be able to be grown from bottle dregs. So far most recent attempts i have stumbled across have seemed to produce lackluster results..
In short. I suspect the yeast they now use to bottle is the majority of what you grew up.

 

[isomerization]

The fact that the microbes (whatever they may be) are staying in suspension post fermentation would lead me to speculate that it isn't a Sacc strain of yeast.

Did you take a gravity reading? How about before and after pH readings?

You probably should go ahead and bottle this (if gravity is stable) and see how it tastes before scaling up.