Nail polish remover aroma

[maskednegator]

Hi, did a search, but couldn't find a very good answer.
Pitched dregs from a Supplication into a mason jar starter (OG 1.040sh) on Saturday. Monday evening, there's a tremendous amount of acetone/nail polish remover/solvent smell, which I understand to be ethyl acetate.

What conditions would cause the acetobacteria to dominate? What can I do to avoid this? Can I decant the starter and pitch it into a new starter?
This isn't a difficult bottle for me to obtain, but I'd love it if this starter could be salvaged.

 

[jessup]

prob not what you wanna hear, but my vote goes to starting over from scratch.

 

[ryane]

brett can produce ethyl acetate as well, it happens when there is a lot of o2 for the bugs to use

I hate to say it as well, but I wouldnt pitch it into a beer, ethyl acetate is horrible stuff, I had a worse experience with a flanders red, I tasted it to see how it was coming along and it was awesome!, then I moved into a new house, disturbed the pellicle (apparently it was done fermenting completely) it dropped and I wasnt able to bottle for ~1week, tasted at bottling and it was an ethyl acetate bomb, the whole batch and 2yrs of time and it was a drain pour

 

[Obelisk]

Article about "Common Beer Faults" in latest version of Brew Your Own magazine (March-April). It's fusel alcohol/oil. Usually due to high ferm temp or less than healthy yeast not completing fermentation.

 

[NYCBrewGuy]

I had a similar problem with a cider that I fermented with wild yeast (cultured yeast from fruit skins from the local greenmarket that I left in some fresh cider and grew a starter of sorts). I let the cider ferment down and it was like drinking nailpolish.... figured I'd give the stuff some time to rest but it never got any better.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I found that odor (assuming it tastes like it smells I've never tasted it) comes from fermenting too warm.

 

[Jaymo]

I did an all Brett Lambicus beer (with the White Labs Brett L strain) and the first 2-3 days the nail polish remover smell coming out of the airlock was so bad that I could barely stand putting my head near the carboy to even look into it. Eventually that died down after a few days and the beer was ridiculously sour on tasting a sample. Strangely enough, 4 weeks later there was no trace of acidity in the taste and it was a very well-rounded, smooth tasting beer.

(Actually, is was almost too smooth & non-acidic, so I added 4 lbs of dried cherries, a vial of Brett B, French Oak, and blended in some Pinot Noir. Now, 4 months later the samples are tasting amazing and complex!)

 

[wetherel]

Maybe it's a Clostridium (a probiotic like lactobacillus) infection. I think it's a fairly common bacteria. It dies at a ph<4.2ish. I hate the smell, but it will go away, as it is very volatile. Maybe a few days to a week. I've had it a few times. The faster you can get your pH down (eg. by adding a small amount of acidulated malt) the better chances you have of avoiding enterobacter and clostridium smells. Interesting enough, Apte talks about 100% of the acetic acid character in traditional lambics coming from enterobacter in the first couple of weeks of fermentation. Some think it adds complexity for a better lambic. I'm still not sure. A couple of links: http://www.microbiologyprocedure.com/industrial-microbiology/acetone-butanol-fermentation.htm
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XYiLrMURRG0/Sl43JJHHRiI/AAAAAAAABvM/bXQxcgp7K-0/s1600-h/Lambic+graph.gif

 

[Retroviridae]

I doubt Clostridium. It's very oxygen sensitive, and like you mention, low pH sensitive. So that would leave only the tiniest window of time between the yeast consuming all the oxygen, but not yet dropping the pH. It probably isn't Clostridium for the same reason we don't have to worry about botulism (caused by Clostridium botulinum) from homebrew.

Clostridium perfringens is used to leaven some old fashioned bread ("salt rising bread") but wild yeast has to be inhibited by high salt and high starter temperatures before the Clostridium can take over. And Clostridium is supposed to impart cheese-like flavors to the bread, which is not like what the OP describes.

And I wouldn't characterize all clostridium as simply a "probiotic": think botulism, gas gangrene, food poisoning, tetanus, women dying after childbirth, colitis and diarrhea after antibiotics... members of this genus can be pathogens. Good thing we don't have to worry about it in our homebrew.

 

[RWurster]

I just dumped a lager that smelled like nail polish remover. It had a bad taste but not a terrible taste. This was the second time I brewed this malt liquor and I had "washed" a batch of SafLager S-23 from the same recipe that had just finished fermenting. One thing I noticed was that the fermentation stalled at FG 1.028 from a 1.078 OG and then stayed at 1.028 for 2 more weeks. The fermentation temp was high 65F but I brewed it before at 72F and the beer turned out fine. This is the only batch of beer I have had go south on me. The beer did have a bit of a white film on the top. Im not sure if it was an acetobacter infection or if the yeast died out or wild yeast or what happened. I did pitch into a very warm wort, maybe 80 degrees. Just wondering if I reuse the same equipment what the outcome will be as far as other infections if it in fact is an acetobacter infection.

Im pretty certain that whatever happened had to do with the starters I made from the washed yeast I pitched into this brew.

 

[Dland]

Just so you know, this was a 12 year old thread, anyway.

As to your current post, I'd recommend a thorough sanitation of all your fermentation equipment, take apart valves, seals, etc. The combination of high starting gravity and high temp likely resulted chemical taste. S-23 is OK, but have to admit it is my least favorite of the Fermentis lager offerings. I'd use W-34/70 for high gravity lager, especially if I had to ferment warm.

If newly pitching, throw in an extra packet of yeast if gravity much over 1.060. I've never bothered with starters and all that. Initial pitch dry works fine, as per instructions on Fermentis packet. When re using, I just leave about a quart of yeasty beer in bottom of fermentor, and add new wort for next batch, if it is going in in the next week or two. I've also had good results saving some brew/slurry in sanitized jar in fridge for a couple of weeks.

I just dumped a lager that smelled like nail polish remover. It had a bad taste but not a terrible taste. This was the second time I brewed this malt liquor and I had "washed" a batch of SafLager S-23 from the same recipe that had just finished fermenting. One thing I noticed was that the fermentation stalled at FG 1.028 from a 1.078 OG and then stayed at 1.028 for 2 more weeks. The fermentation temp was high 65F but I brewed it before at 72F and the beer turned out fine. This is the only batch of beer I have had go south on me. The beer did have a bit of a white film on the top. Im not sure if it was an acetobacter infection or if the yeast died out or wild yeast or what happened. I did pitch into a very warm wort, maybe 80 degrees. Just wondering if I reuse the same equipment what the outcome will be as far as other infections if it in fact is an acetobacter infection.

Im pretty certain that whatever happened had to do with the starters I made from the washed yeast I pitched into this brew.