I saved some dregs from a lager I brewed last fall in a sanitized growler. Been in the fridge for at least 9 mos. I made a starter last night and pitched the sediment. Today there’s a nice krausen on top and it smells like yeast- not cidery or anything else concerning. I was kinda surprised how quickly this got going and that makes me concerned about its purity. Is there a reliable way to be reasonably sure I’m ok with this yeast before I pitch it into 10 gallons of helles next weekend? I’m not brewing for another 10 days so I’ve got plenty of time to build a nice big starter. Thanks.
The only way I know is to taste the starter beer. If it was a stirred starter it will be really tangy but that should be the only weird flavor. I personally would not risk a 10g batch of beer, but there are plenty here who would have no problem pitching that yeast. :cheers:
The yeast is a White labs German lager. I only used it for one batch. I went ahead and made another step-up starter this evening and tasted the beer(?) from the starter I made last week before I pitched. I didn’t detect anything funky. No bad odors either. I think I’ll keep going. Finger and toes crossed…
