How should healthy washed yeast actually taste?

[Erroneous]

With my last batch I washed some pacman yeast. Unfortunately it hadn't finished fermenting so popped the top on my jars (glad the jars didn't break). As I was dumping it out I gave it a taste since I've seen before that you can taste it to see if it healthy.

Well at the time I thought it was quite sour but looking back I'm sure that it was just excessive CO2. But how should it taste? Just "yeasty with no off flavors"? Is there something I could compare it to like say a fresh vial of yeast?

 

[jfr1111]

Ever tasted an hydrometer sample that is still murky with yeast ? They tend to taste harsh, tart and have a lot of green apple in them. Now picture yourself drinking the same thing, except a stronger since there's no beer. You're better off sniffing for anything weird after decanting or looking at the yeast color to determine if its good or not.

Smells like beer ? It's fine.

Smells like a tincture of nail polish and horse **** ? Throw it away.

There's no way to make completly sure if it is viable/pure/healthy without resorting to microscopes/slants, but a good estimate can be made by smelling.

 

[pericles]

Like catfood. That's largely what it's made of.

 

[Erroneous]

Like catfood. That's largely what it's made of.

Dry or wet? They taste quite different.

 

[SwampassJ]

Dry or wet? They taste quite different.