I am so stupid!

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
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guypettigrew
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I am so stupid!

Post by guypettigrew » Sun Jan 09, 2022 9:10 pm

Last Saturday I brewed what should have been a 5% fresh hop forward ale.

The yeast was WLP 001. It had been sitting in my 'fridge for 3 months, in a 500ml container with beer on top of it.

Today I threw the whole 5 gallons down the drain.

I made up the yeast starter from the stuff in the 'fridge, but it didn't seem right. I poured the beer off the top and it tasted really yeasty and not good. Yes, I know what you're all thinking. Eejit--should have ditched it at that point.

The starter took a while to get going and never did what starters normally do. ie , frothing up. But, after a couple of days there was clearly lots of yeast growth.

So I pitched it. The brew started off at 1.051. Stalled at 1.035, then took off again after rousing. Finished at about 1.003, never a good sign.

Dropped it into a King Keg today (how stupid can you get?) and tasted it to find out it was vile. Why didn't I try it from the FV? Easy with hindsight.

First beer I've dumped for many years. Lots of cleaning and sterilising needed. Should never have used the WLP 001. Lesson learned, I hope.

I'll be able to brew again on Thursday. Using a Wilko dried yeast I've just bought. Yes, I know, not the same as a liquid yeast, but I need beer!

Guy

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MashBag
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by MashBag » Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:03 pm

Guy

Sorry to here that. But I have to confess we all get caught out. I bottled mine!!

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IPA
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by IPA » Mon Jan 10, 2022 8:25 am

Taste taste taste.
The beer that you have stored the yeast in.
The started after it fermented
The beer when it is fermenting.
And always have some dried yeast standing by.
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

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Jocky
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by Jocky » Mon Jan 10, 2022 10:39 am

After nearly 100 batches I had the same thing last year.

Yeast that I'd harvested from commercial bottles worked well for several batches. Each batch I'd put 100ml of the slurry into a couple of sterilised (pressure cooked for 45 minutes) jars and stored in my keezer. It fermented pretty rapidly and dropped bright quickly too.

But then on the 5th batch the beer carried on fermenting longer than expected - normally it would complete in 4-5 days and be ready to keg shortly after that. This was still going after 7 days. Trying a sample it smelt like a box of plasters - very phenolic. Definitely a wild yeast infection. I should have known as when I poured off the supernatant from the starter it smelt more like a hefeweizen than what I'd expect.

I tried the second jar too, and had the same issue.

Since then I've tried growing the yeast from fresh bottles and had a similar issue, but to a much lower level of phenols that were not unpleasant, but equally tasted more like a Belgian pale ale than a British bitter.

As IPA has said, I'll be much more critical about my starters into the future.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.

guypettigrew
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by guypettigrew » Mon Jan 10, 2022 10:51 am

IPA wrote:
Mon Jan 10, 2022 8:25 am
Taste taste taste.
The beer that you have stored the yeast in.
The started after it fermented
The beer when it is fermenting.
And always have some dried yeast standing by.
I know all that but, for some reason, thought this time would be alright. Which is exactly why I'm so stupid!

The beer I poured off the top of the stored yeast was horrid, the starter didn't smell right and the fermentation was rubbish--just as Jocky described. Went on too long, finished too low.

Big clean up today and try again on Thursday with dried yeast.

Guy

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IPA
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by IPA » Mon Jan 10, 2022 7:27 pm

If it's any consolation I'm having a similar problem at the moment. I have revived a yeast, WLP ,400 dating from March 2018. The beer tasted OK. But the starter behaved in a strange way in that it seemed to be a vigorour top fermenter. So I pitched it in to Graham's De Koninck clone. I will post the result shortly.
This is only the second yeast that I have seen behave this way. The first was a yeast that Eric kindly sent me a couple of years ago.
"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." Dean Martin

1. Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming... "f*ck, what a trip

It's better to lose time with friends than to lose friends with time (Portuguese proverb)

Alone we travel faster
Together we travel further
( In an admonishing email from our golf club)

Paddington
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by Paddington » Wed Mar 09, 2022 10:57 am

I had a slightly out of date WLP 1318 which I pitched into a 1 litre starter. It never seemed to get going. I shook it, heated it up a bit, still no sign of fermentation and checking the gravity found it had hardly dropped over about 5 days. More out of interest than in expectation of ever using it I added some table sugar. It never really took off but after a couple of days there was a lot of yeast at the bottom and gravity was what I'd have expected. I still didn't trust it so on brew day I got out the dried yeast to warm up. I tried ta sample of the beer from the starter and it tasted OK so come pitch time I wavered one way or the other... tasted it again and pitched it.

It took off like a rocket and the beer(stout) is great. I've harvested some but it may be completely stressed out by now. I know I am.

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ozroger
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Re: I am so stupid!

Post by ozroger » Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:56 am

Being a tight-arse, I used to re-generate my liquid yeasts to about the 9th or 10th generation. Also partly because the nearest homebrew shop which carries liquid yeasts is nearly a two hour drive away, or, mail order (in our predominantly warm climate here).

Anyway, it all seemed to work well enough, and beers were great. Then I had some off-taste issues with one in it's 6th or 7th generation. So now, 5 generations and I call it a day. It still works out to be very economical, and I have heard some very experienced brewers say that a yeast doesn't really show it's true colours until the 2nd or 3rd generation.

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