My First Sour!! *sarcasm*

[GeoffreyKerns]

So I made a 1.5L starter on 12/6 for my first batch (OG of 1.038). Covered with a piece of sanitized foil and let the magic happen. I saw a good amount of very fine bubbles after just about 6 hours that subsided after about 30 hours. I tossed the starter into the fridge at this point and left it overnight.

This afternoon, I decanted a bit of the liquid off and took a hydrometer reading... 1.018... Wonderful.

So here is where the problem comes in... I took a whif and got a pretty strong acetic acid smell. Taste was pretty much the same as the smell.

Bacterial contamination, right? I just wanted to make sure that Im not overreacting by wanting to send this starter down the drain and just buy 2 vials of yeast for brew day on Saturday.

At least I apparently screwed up the sanitation on a starter and not my whole first batch. Come Saturday, Im treating this place like an operating room.

 

[JonK331]

If you sanitized everything that came into contact with the starter I highly doubt it is contaminated. starters usually smell sour.

 

[GeoffreyKerns]

If you sanitized everything that came into contact with the starter I highly doubt it is contaminated. starters usually smell sour.

I did clean and sanitize everything that the starter came into contact with. Just never read or heard anywhere that starters usually smell sour.

Thank you so much for the information; good thing I didn't toss it down the sink.

 

[CGengo]

starters usually smell sour.

Agreed, they smell terrible. BTW...really no need for a starter for a 1.038 OG beer, at least not if you're using a fresh Wyeast smackpack or a packet of dry yeast - that's not a real strong beer. I know the books say its needed but I don't find it to be true until you get over 1.060ish.

 

[passedpawn]

Starters usually smell/taste bad. I chill, decant, and pour off the beer before I pitch the yeast.

 

[wyzazz]

Drink it sissy! Chug, chug, chug,chug!

 

[bsdx]

I'd taste it to see if it tastes awful or not. I had one batch of beer go sour and I suspect it might have started with the yeast starter and wished I had kept better notes on what I did to the starters I've made. I may have done something I shouldn't have. I'm not concerned about the beer but I would like to learn something from the experience.

 

[GeoffreyKerns]

Agreed, they smell terrible. BTW...really no need for a starter for a 1.038 OG beer, at least not if you're using a fresh Wyeast smackpack or a packet of dry yeast - that's not a real strong beer. I know the books say its needed but I don't find it to be true until you get over 1.060ish.

The starter was 1.038, the beer is just over 1.060

And, wyzazz, I did drink it... Drank the hell outta it. I'm not the kinda guy to waste alcohol :rockin: