Starter smells like lambic...pitch or get new?

[Gritsak]

I'm doing my second batch tomorrow, a Flander's brown kit from AHS using Wyeast Belgian abbey ale II yeast (1762).

Made a starter a couple days ago and everything was going fine..smelled very yeasty, like a wheat beer. Lots of activity the first 24hrs, but starting last night and today it has slowed down and started to smell much more sour and lambic like. My last beer's starter (Furious clone) didn't smell like this at all.

I'm hoping it's just the yeast strain, and not some type of contamination.

I made the starter in a 2000ml flask and had a boil over when i added a pinch of yeast nutrient, but i boiled for another 5min after this, so i can't see that being a problem. I used aluminum foil over the top and it has never been taken off.

Any comments? reassurance?

 

[cscade]

Your procedure sounds clean to me (identical to what I do), so everything is probably OK. But I don't smell my starters, so I have no baseline for comparison.

Perhaps others can chime in?

EDIT: Also, if I'm understanding your timeline correctly, I'd be refrigerating the starter right now to separate the yeast and pour off most of the liquid before your pitch tomorrow.

 

[slinn]

Not sure what a lambic smells like, but my starters smell pretty nasty, almost like soured milk. I made my starter last night, put it on the stir plate to be ready for my brew Saturday. I expect it to smell pretty nasty by the time I pitch it Saturday afternoon...

 

[cscade]

Darn it, my brain is fuzzy this morning. I should have asked, are you using a stir plate? If so, your growth should be pretty much complete, and ready to chill.

I either pitch the entire starter 12-16 hours after throwing it on the the stir plate, or refrigerate, let separate, decant most of the liquid, let rise to pitching temp and pitch the slurry on brew day.

 

[Gritsak]

I don't have a stir plate, just swish it around every 30min or so. I'm actually considering boiling up a little more DME to add since i had a boilover and lost 1/2 the batch. Still have about 24hrs before i'm going to brew

 

[Gritsak]

I'm also getting larger air bubbles in this starter compared to my last....i hope i don't ruin an entire batch by using this

 

[dogbar]

You won't. Starters don't smell very good. Pitch away.

 

[Gritsak]

I wouldn't be so worried if it wasn't a combination of weird smell (which seems normal) and these bubbles that weren't present in the last starter i made.

Here is a pic to show what i'm talking about. It goes from left to right as: shaken up, sit for 1min, sit for a few min. See those bubbles that hug around the rim? Those look similar to what i've seen in some infection threads.

http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/801/901/2000450136_large.jpg

 

[cscade]

Your starter looks great. I don't see anything that looks visually like infection here. Any variety of factors can have an effect on fluid's ability to retain bubbles, and infection is certainly not foremost on that list.

RDWHAHB!

 

[dogbar]

Those are totally fine.

I've noticed differences in starters from using different kinds of DME (the wheat DME is a PITA because when you shake it up it froths like crazy) or yeast. I'd feel 100 percent confident brewing with that, unless I'd dipped my arm into it or something.

 

[Gritsak]

Thanks for the replies guys, i feel much better about it now. I haven't got the experience yet to figure out the difference between normal variation and a potential problem. Maybe one day i'll be able to relax while i'm brewing!