yeast cultured from bottle question

[chrisheartsbeer]

Hi,

I've just had a brew day that involved pitching yeast cultured from a bottle of Schneider Hopfenweisse. There was a fair amount of activity in the starter when I pitched and I was scrupulously clean with prep of bottle and starter. But, there was a distinct smell of TCP coming from the jar. I've had to ditch a brew before because of tcp smells and it was a case of slow starting then. The question is: is the smell just simply because of a slow start with yeast and chlorinated water and will it carry over into my brew (which I used campden tablets in)

[seymour]

That's probably a very hard question to answer any other way than "wait and see, hope for the best." In the future, just take care with all the same sanitation/dechlorination steps in the early yeast starter steps as you do for the full-size batch, so that you have a better overall idea of what you're dealing with...

[jmc]

That's probably a very hard question to answer any other way than "wait and see, hope for the best." In the future, just take care with all the same sanitation/dechlorination steps in the early yeast starter steps as you do for the full-size batch, so that you have a better overall idea of what you're dealing with...

+1 to Seymour's comment. Hard to tell yet.

I've recently done a brew using yeast harvested from 2 bottles of the more common
Schneider Weisse Unser Original


I'm very happy with that so hopefully yours will be OK.

What size was your starter?

[boingy]

If you find a way to rewind the clock, don't pitch yeast that smells off!
Ok, I realise that's not amazingly helpful.
The fact is that what's done is done. You've put the work in so now you just have to give it chance to do what it's going to do. Pray to the beer gods....

[seymour]

And to "bring it full circle", my last batch was fermented with yeast which jmc mailed me, after liberating it from a store-bought mini-cask. He warned me it smelled cidery and sour. By the time it got to me, I agreed it might smell a little suspicious, but I was way too excited to turn back. So, I pitched it and against all odds, it produced delicious beer. Spicy in a good way, almost like a Trappist strain, surely due to yeast stress from extreme under-pitching, but not at all sour/infected. Hopefully yours will be fine, too.

Excellent choice of yeast culture, by the way. In this interview, the Scheider brewmaster Herr Drexler elaborated about their yeast, “Ours is a single-strain house yeast based on the common Weihenstephan 68 variety. I should stress that the standard Weihenstephan 68 produces not only phenols but also plenty of esters, while our own variation of that yeast emphasizes phenol over ester production, which is one reason why most other Bavarian wheat beers taste slightly fruitier-esterier and less clovey-phenolic than our Schneider beers.”

[Dr. Dextrin]

When I capture a new yeast, I generally try it out in a small sample of a brew in a demijohn (and ferment the rest with a yeast I know is good). This lets me bottle and mature the end product to see what it tastes like without committing a whole batch.

Often a new yeast can smell and taste unfamiliar (or even rather evil) at some point yet still produce a good beer at the end. It's hard to be sure and you need to wait and see how it turns out. Also, the wrong fermentation conditions, especially temperature, can produce off tastes that make you think the yeast is bad, but when fermented correctly (if you ever discover the correct way!) it performs OK. All part of the fun.

[chrisheartsbeer]

Hi,

I'm pretty confident it will be fine. there was definite thin layer of Krausen on the fv this morning. It didn't smell bad at all.

I used about 500 mls of starter. But, I sort of screwed up, because I pitched the dregs of one bottle into a boiled solution of light dme, rather than start it off with a small amount of wort. I guess that it is probably pretty stressed yeast.

Eek. Really don't want to have to do this one again.

Seymour: re the phenols thing: thanks for that, that has taken a bit of the worry out of it.


Thanks for answers though... will let you know how it looks / smells later.

Chris

[chrisheartsbeer]

Hi,

I'm pretty confident it will be fine. there was definite thin layer of Krausen on the fv this morning. It didn't smell bad at all.

I used about 500 mls of starter. But, I sort of screwed up, because I pitched the dregs of one bottle into a boiled solution of light dme, rather than start it off with a small amount of wort. I guess that it is probably pretty stressed yeast.

Eek. Really don't want to have to do this one again.

Seymour: re the phenols thing: thanks for that, that has taken a bit of the worry out of it.


Thanks for answers though... will let you know how it looks / smells later.

Chris

[mozza]

I tried the kolch yeast and one would think it was off throughout fermentation. It absolutely stank out the house with sulphur. But it's produced a lovely blonde/kolch