Should I use this starter?

[motobrewer]

Made a starter Thursday. Went fine, only issue was I cooled it a tad too much, down to maybe 55. 4oz dme in 1L. WLP001

didn't do anything for a good 8 hours, then it started to foam, etc. Friday was pretty active. This morning it looked like it had started to settle, but it still has a krausen layer on top. at least i hope. It also smells a bit sour.....is this krausen, or....? should I use this?? i wanted to brew, well, right now...

 

[s3n8]

Why wouldn't you?

 

[motobrewer]

it smells sour. infection?

maybe i'm paranoid, because this is a rebrew of a beer that got infected. don't want the same thing happening twice...

 

[s3n8]

If you were careful with sanitation, don't worry. Fermenting yeast produces all sorts of smells, not all of them sweet and bready.

 

[motobrewer]

well, the smell is exactly the same as my infected beer....

 

[Revvy]

Unless you added a hop pellet or two, the "starter beer" after a few days will sour.

That doesn't mean that there is an infection, nor does it mean that there is anything wrong with the yeast at the bottom of the vessel. That just means that the beer on top soured because there was no hops to protect. Hops are a put in beers to prevent that.

All you need to do is to decant the sour beer off the cake and pitch the yeast. Or if you are uber worried you can give the yeast a quick wash in distilled of pre-boiled water, but doing that you do run the risk of infecting the yeast if the water wasn't totally sterile.

So most of the time I just pour off the soured beer and add the yeast. Never had a problem.

 

[samc]

it smells sour. infection?

maybe i'm paranoid, because this is a rebrew of a beer that got infected. don't want the same thing happening twice...

Did you track down the source of that infection? Not saying it has anything to do with the starter or sourness but it is a good idea to try and come up with the reason for an infection before going at it again.

 

[motobrewer]

well, last time, i didn't use a starter. no time. so I double-pitched.

i believe it was grain dust that got me last time. i had a bucket of it lying around in the brewhouse. of course, it could have been improper sanitation.

i usually decant as well. i just didn't like the smell this one was throwin' off...

thanks guys!