is harvested yeast infected?

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domdom

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I was checking on some harvested yeast (white labs kolsch) and found one of the two jars like this. puffy, opaque white foam that also looks a bit granulated. Guessing its an infection but wanted input. Other jar looks fine but i'm wondering if i can still use it for my next cream ale i'll be brewing sunday. I've harvested yeast about 4 time before. I Always boil my jars 15 min before use. This time i didnt wash the yeast, just swirled with some leftover beer and put into the sanitized jars. this is also first time i've harvested this batch after used. not sure if that made any difference.

Correction: this is actually the 4th collection of kolsch yeast. the first collection of the unwashed batch looks fine.

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I'd chuck the funky looking one. I save lots of yeast, but I've never boiled the jars, regular star-san works fine for me. Also, I fill the jars all the way up, or as full as I can, figuring the less headspace, the better. I stopped washing the yeast years ago, and just toss the whole jar into the next batch.
 
How does it smell?
I'd consider maybe using it on a small test batch - keeping it far, far away from my regular stuff, and all equipment for it.
 
Correction: this is actually the 4th collection of kolsch yeast. the first collection of the unwashed batch looks fine.

double checked and realized this was the 4th gen harvest of the kolsch i started harvesting. pitched it.

for the record, it smelled like really good sauerkraut, which i'm guessing means really bad beer. if i had the time to do a small test batch i might have kept it but have several other beers in the pipeline and limited time w/ my work schedule.
 

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