starter smells like vinegar

[GrogNerd]

date on WLP007 says 2/7/14

yeast was a little darker than I've seen before and clumped in a weird way. just thought it was the strain; never used 007 before

pitched it into a 1.030 starter on Tuesday and this morning went to decant and WHOA! smelled like vinegar

smelled OK (at least not like vinegar) when I opened the vial. and the vial seemed to not have been opened before

luckily I have an extra pack of US-05 I can use. not going to turn out like I planned, but what else to do?

 

[cluckk]

I would wonder about your sanitation while making the starter. Is it possible your container or the area was not properly sanitized?

 

[GrogNerd]

here's a pic of the vial

color looks OK here because of the flash, but you can see the clumping

 

[Neopol]

clumps are normal to 007, spinning on a stir plate this yeast looks like cottage cheese until the cluster sites break apart.. Vinegar that's not a good way to start, see many of those little pesky fruit-flies/fungus gnats around, acetobacter(however its spelled) are carried by these buggers and acetic acid = vinegar..

Two days thats seems pretty darn fast for infection, unless the bacteria was in the flask from start; sure its not that CO2 escaping off? and this yeast itself smells nasty. Maybe decant and step it up again and see if the same issue arises but the problem should be faster if the bad bacteria outnumber the yeast.

 

[GrogNerd]

holy necro thread, Batman!

guess I have to update on the results of this batch...

was supposed to be an imperial pumpkin ale, but between a bad hydrometer reading causing me to add some DME & the step feeding, it turned into a pumpkin barleywine.

gravity went from 1.118 OG to 1.018 FG, 83% attenuation & 13.3% ABV

not a very good beer, but drinkable. was a good balance of beer & spice & not very boozy at all. & no hint of vinegar

still have a couple bottles of it, 7 years on. may have to try it again. backyard needs mowing, think 13.3% is too much for a "lawnmower beer" ?