Weird Yeast Starter???

[Django]

I've been lurking on this forum for some time and finally signed up

So I'm having this weird starter issue. I tried to get some pacman yeast from a bottle of Rogue Shakespeare Stout by adding it to about 800 mL of canned wort. I let it go for a little over 2 days, lots of activity within the first few hours, and then crash cooled it in the fridge.

I just decanted and added another 800 mL wort to build the yeast up further. I tasted the decanted beer and it had a vinegar taste to it and a strong vinegar smell.

The strange thing is that I added the new wort and it's already going crazy after only a few minutes on the stir plate:

Does anybody have thoughts on what might be going on?

 

[botigol]

I have two thoughts:
1. Acetobacter infection
2. Unhopped, heavily aerated, low-alcohol beer tastes bad

More than likely it is the second.

 

[Django]

I was wondering about acetobacter. Can it coexist with beer yeast? It seems very healthy, but doesn't smell or taste like any starter I've ever made. The weird taste might be because it was a mix of Rogue's stout with some pale ale wort?

I hope it's option 2--definitely would be cool to have some pacman yeast.

 

[donk5]

Pacman is readily accessible through Wyeast.

 

[botigol]

Unfortunately, I don't know much about acetobacter, other than what it does.

I was thinking about the yeast too. Django, are Wyeast products not readily available near you?

 

[Django]

I can get a good range of wyeast strains, but my lhbs can't get pacman. Something about the shipping makes it cost prohibitive.

 

[Django]

Update:

Tried again with another bottle, this time the chocolate stout (it's rough going through these bottles), and used a much smaller starter. This time only 150 mL. It smells much more starter-ish, so I think I'm off to the races. Going to step it up in a day to see, then bank some in my freezer if I'm successful.

Yeah, buying a packet locally would be so much easier. Damn the shipping gods.