Is my starter infected?

[Kai]

Hi.

I've got a starter going made of Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast. It was accidentally exposed to open air in a carpeted room for a while (eg 2hr). Its smell has changed from a nice doughy smell, which is what I like, to a severe funky rotten egg smell.

Should I play it safe and pitch some US-05? Or should I risk my expensive IPA recipe and pitch the sketchy starter?

I'm mashing in very soon. What does your gut tell you?

EDIT: apologies for another panicked "infection?" thread.

 

[Sea]

If it smells really funky, I wouldn't risk it personally.

 

[Kai]

Well, I don't want to ditch it if severe sulfur production is normal for this yeast. Using S-05, I'm going to lose that awesome British yeast character.

 

[Beerrific]

Starters can give off some really bad smells. How does it look? Other than smell is there anything else that would make you feel it is infected (bad process, etc.)?

 

[Kai]

I can't see how it looks. It's in a brown bottle. The process was not overly problematic - boiled up some water, sugar, and yeast nutrient, cooled it off, pitched the yeast from inflated smack pack. To oxygenate it, my roommate took the lid off and shook it every couple of minutes for about an hour. It could have gotten infected then, but it smelled ok afterwards. It wasn't until his afternoon that we noticed the funky smell. What do you think?

 

[mr x]

Hey Kai. Did you use sugar for your starter? I wouldn't do that. Maybe go with the 05 or some Nottingham this time.

How did the Brewing Collective meeting go?

 

[Kai]

I totally told her not to use table sugar. You know how she is, though.

Brewing Collective meeting went well. We're going to apply for funding to pick up some shared equipment - turkey fryers, grain mill, etc. Also got some good reaction to group brews, brewing tutorials, guest speakers, all that jazz.

Either way, we rehydrated and pitched a packet of S-04 that was kicking around for just this kind of situation. I didn't want to risk it - we haven't brewed in ages and I didn't want to spoil a batch.

I'll email you when we know what the next KBC event will be.

 

[Kai]

You know how she is, though.

or rather, you do now.

 

[mr x]

I totally told her not to use table sugar. You know how she is, though.

Brewing Collective meeting went well. We're going to apply for funding to pick up some shared equipment - turkey fryers, grain mill, etc. Also got some good reaction to group brews, brewing tutorials, guest speakers, all that jazz.

Either way, we rehydrated and pitched a packet of S-04 that was kicking around for just this kind of situation. I didn't want to risk it - we haven't brewed in ages and I didn't want to spoil a batch.

I'll email you when we know what the next KBC event will be.

Very good. I've got a fair bit of equipment if anyone's ever interested in seeing how I do it. I use a steam heated MLT, 3 roller Crankandstein, and a lot of other odds and ends (stirplates, pH meters, CFC and plate chillers, Watlow controllers, etc). Let me know when your next event is. And if anybody wants to try the crusher or would like to know anything else, let me know.

And tell your room mate to get a Mason jar full of hopped LME and keep it on hand for making starters. I'm not sure about Quinpool, but I know you can get it in Burnside.