Photo: Does this starter look infected?

[dunnright00]

Made my starter Fri night, and it took off well. Now the krausen has gone down quite a bit and it has this funky-looking clumpy trub.

Take a look:

What do you think?

 

[ASantiago]

Does it smell as funky as it looks?

 

[buckeyebrewer]

Looks like Tofu...never seen a starter that looks like that. Usually it's a smooth bed of yeast. Don't really know what to think about that??? I wouldn't think an infection would sink to the bottom. Usually an infection will grow on the surface of the liquid.

 

[dunnright00]

It looks like that after I give it a swirl. It looks a little smoother when it's settled. I'll take another pic in a minute.

It does smell a little funky. Slightly sour?

 

[Runyanka]

Can you give some details on your starter? what did you make it out of, just standard DME, water, and yeast nutrient?

 

[dunnright00]

Can you give some details on your starter? what did you make it out of, just standard DME, water, and yeast nutrient?

Yep. That's it.

I've never used a clear jug before, so I've never been able to see the bottom.
I assume it usually looks just like beer, so that's why I was concerned.

 

[Clonefarmer]

Looks like clumped yeast. What yeast strain is it?

 

[Revvy]

Looks like many of the funky looking permutations of perfectly normal yeast development. What yeast is it?

It's fine.

 

[wonderbread23]

Looks like an English ale strain to me.

 

[dunnright00]

Here's the bottom again. It's hard to tell, but it looks more normal all settled, but there is still a clumpy cottage cheese look.

Side note: Why does my phone/picassa keep cuting off the bottom of my pics?

 

[dunnright00]

WLP005

I wouldn't be worried if not for the slight funky smell, and it's less than 48 hours and the krausen has already dropped.

 

[Clonefarmer]

Milky white is usually a good sign that it's healthy yeast. It may clump together or do any number of odd things depending on the yeast used.

 

[dcott]

I had a starter last weekend that looked even clumpier and milkier. Pitched it, it took off like a rocket with normal krausen, and the beer looks perfectly normal.

There are so many variables, and since yeast is alive, things can always change. I'm guessing you're good to go.

 

[dunnright00]

Cool. Like I said, my previous starters were in a brown growler, not a clear jug. So I wasn't ready for such an up-close look at this living thing!

Thanks for the replies!!

 

[Revvy]

Looks like an English ale strain to me.

That's what I was thinking.

 

[Beerrific]

WLP005

I wouldn't be worried if not for the slight funky smell, and it's less than 48 hours and the krausen has already dropped.

That looks 100% normal for english yeast. Chill it and taste the spent wort...if it is funky or sour, toss it.

 

[Revvy]

Chill it and taste the spent wort...if it is funky or sour, toss it.

Meh, I wouldn't worry about that either. Just because the beer on top of the yeast smells bad, even sour doesn't mean the yeast below is bad.

When we make a starter we are growing more yeast, we're not trying to make a good tasting tiny beer, so we usually don't hop it, or put it in a temp controlled eviroment. So the "beer" on top is not going to be in that great a condition. Often in summer our starter beers go sour, that's why some folks add a hop pellet or two to the boil. And then if we DO hop it, we're leaving it on our kitchen counter in bright sunlight and THAT'S going to skunk, and smell bad....

But unless you go the extra mile, that beer on top, which often sits in the sun, or in a hot room, and without hops is often going to smell, or even taste bad. But that tiny bit of beer won't effect the 5 gallons you are making. You can always decant the starter beer of the top and pitch it.

But I wouldn't scrap it. Half of the starters I've pitched I've never bothered to sniff, and of those I did, many smelled sour or other wise nasty, and I've still pitched them, and never had a bad beer.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Wyeast #1968 makes amazingly odd-looking globs of yeast when it's active, and they "churn" up and down the fermenter while active! It's quite a sight!

The clumps you see remind me of #1968.

M_C

 

[motobrewer]

thames valley II does that for me.

and it smells horrible.

 

[dunnright00]

Wyeast #1968 makes amazingly odd-looking globs of yeast when it's active, and they "churn" up and down the fermenter while active! It's quite a site!

The clumps you see remind me of #1968.

M_C

If I remember, isn't 1968 the Wyeast version of 005?

 

[bob1852]

Meh, I wouldn't worry about that either. Just because the beer on top of the yeast smells bad, even sour doesn't mean the yeast below is bad.

When we make a starter we are growing more yeast, we're not trying to make a good tasting tiny beer, so we usually don't hop it, or put it in a temp controlled eviroment. So the "beer" on top is not going to be in that great a condition. Often in summer our starter beers go sour, that's why some folks add a hop pellet or two to the boil. And then if we DO hop it, we're leaving it on our kitchen counter in bright sunlight and THAT'S going to skunk, and smell bad....

But unless you go the extra mile, that beer on top, which often sits in the sun, or in a hot room, and without hops is often going to smell, or even taste bad. But that tiny bit of beer won't effect the 5 gallons you are making. You can always decant the starter beer of the top and pitch it.

But I wouldn't scrap it. Half of the starters I've pitched I've never bothered to sniff, and of those I did, many smelled sour or other wise nasty, and I've still pitched them, and never had a bad beer.

Revvy speaks the truth here (again ).

I've heard people dump their starters because they smell "sour" or taste "bad." My response is, have you ever smelled or tasted your beer after ~18-24 hours of fermentation (afterall, a starter is basically ~705mL of "beer" sans hops (usually)? It shouldn't be any different than 5 gallons in a fermenter.

I have yet to find anyone that has....but I'm sure it smells "sour" and tastes "bad" - just like a starter does.

 

[Homebrewtastic]

Yeast can sometimes clump together oddly. I once had yeast flocculate on top of a fermenting batch in such an odd way that I could've sworn it was a pellicle. It looked filmy with big chunky bubbles and everything. But after two days it went away.

 

[android]

If I remember, isn't 1968 the Wyeast version of 005?

1968 is supposedly the same as 002; 005 is similar to those yeasts, but more attenuative.

i was just listening to a 'Can You Brew It' podcast today and they wanted to see how a 10 gal batch of Lagunitas Maximus turned out using 002 in one fermenter and 1968 in the other. the 002 finished 1 degree plato lower and was concluded 'not cloned' while the 1968 produced a 'cloned' version. it was interesting to hear them discuss the differences.

 

[Reelale]

This is bull****. If it's not right, why risk a batch? Get a packet of dry yeast and set your mind at ease. Might be, could be, should be, are all wishful thinking.

 

[gerbache]

I've even seen fresh vials of White Labs' various English yeasts that looked a lot like that. Some of them look pretty much like cottage cheese to me. Also, I've never been able to tell anything by smelling the yeast or the starter. It just depends so much on the strain, it's impossible to know what to expect.

My vote definitely leans to the "it's fine" side.

 

[MBasile]

That's what I was thinking.

Same here. I must have learned something over the last year.5, woohoo!

That looks like a chunky English yeast to me.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I certainly would keep a couple packets of dry yeast on standby.

But unless you completely know the characteristics of the yeast you are using, you could be throwing away a perfectly good yeast starter.

M_C

This is bull****. If it's not right, why risk a batch? Get a packet of dry yeast and set your mind at ease. Might be, could be, should be, are all wishful thinking.

 

[Indyking]

I would bet my farm, if I had one, that the starter is good.

Have you smelled an opened package of liquid yeast before? It smells like what I call "microbiology lab"; that sour putrefied smell. It's the sure sign of good and healthy yeast and starters will smell just the same, but likely stronger due to the larger number of cells. The clumping pattern is probably just something inherent to the yeast strain, perhaps exacerbated by the conditions during fermentations, like temperature, amount of O2, etc. About the krausen, remember that these tiny worts (starters) ferment pretty quickly because of the low absolute sugar content, so the krausen forms and vanishes quickly too. I have actually missed the krausen once with a very small starter but I took a FG at the end just to be sure and there was full attenuation! You’re fine mate, no worries!

 

[dunnright00]

Thanks for the replies all!

I pitched it yesterday, so lets hope it was good (I'm pretty confident now that it is), and I'll update back here with the progress.