Smelly Starter

[DoctorMick]

Made the first step of a starter on Saturday with the intention of using it stepping it up tonight for use in a 6% porter tomorrow. Made the 1.5l starter wort this evening but when I came to smell the first starter it had a definite bad smell to it. The yeast was a wyeast london ale and had been sat in the fridge since January so not too disappointed, the worst part is I've not got to use a WLP001 California ale yeast that's in the fridge but because I've only made a 1.5l starter I'm not going to be able to overbuild it so I've lost 2 yeasts today. I've had 3 uses out of each so I can't be too disappointed.

Obviously I could make a bigger starter wort tonight but I really can't be bothered. :whistle:

 

[DoctorMick]

Realised this morning that I needed the California Ale yeast for my next brew...will it be safe enough to harvest the yeast from the porter the night before the next brew (a red ale), cold crash and then decant most of the spent wort? I've never harvested from a dark and reused on something lighter.

 

[Simonh82]

Yes, it will be fine. The amount of dark beer carried over will be very small and won't impact the next beer. Many people harvest yeast successfully from previous brews. The overbuilding starters method seems to be fairly new.