Gone a bit wrong...

[drjim]

So I made a fantastic batch of Boddingtons clone bitter using WHC saturated liquid Yeast, saved the yeast cake into some carefully sterilised jam jars (newly bought for the purpose). Then I made a couple of batches using the harvested yeast.

1 It was slow to start
2 It smelt normal during ferment
3 Temps were as usual, in cupboard under stairs.
4 It looked OK when I pulled it out of the FV
5 OG was about 1.042 FG about 1.006
6 It's in my 25L jerrycan kegs and..

It's cloudy
It tastes of TCP
I have 45 odd litres of it!

I did a batch of another beer yesterday with the same yeast harvest, so I've stuck a couple of crossmyloof ale yeast packs in there this morning and hopefully they will sort it out.

I suspect there will be a load of beer going down the drain.

[Jim]

Sounds like it could be infected (though there are other sources of TCP flavour - see here: viewtopic.php?t=79678#p825354 ).

Did you make a starter first or just chuck the contents of the jar in?

[drjim]

I just chucked it in, did similar with a previous harvest and it worked fine. The batch yesterday I did a pseudo starter with some part boiled wort, so hopefully that'll make a difference.

Gutted that I have two batches of rubbish beer, not had anything go wrong like this since going all grain. I also have a batch of my Aussie lager that tastes a bit like Castlemaine XXXX rather than what I was aiming for, that's a bit cloudy too...

[McMullan]

Established yeast suppliers tend to be worth a punt, generally, as they know what they’re doing. WHC - trying to profiteer from Norwegian junk yeast - don’t strike me as having a feckin clue, tbh. That, and, to be perfectly frank, your crap procedure, what were you expecting, exactly, apart from the predictable?

That’s just me loosening up

[Jocky]

With a slow start it sounds like an infection got going before your yeast did.

[drjim]

All comments appreciated!

[drjim]

Problem resolved by use of drain. Both batches tasted odd. Hopefully the extra yeast will save the one I started yesterday and I'll hold off any more yeast harvest experiments for a while. Sadly I have loads of lagers underway, so all FV in use. Will be a few weeks without hand pulled beer. Consoling myself with a nice stout and have put some bottles from previous batches in the fridge.

It's a mixture of physics, biochemistry, microbiology and fun this brewing. All of those are experimental arts. Shame I learnt with this experiment. Previous batch made with a jar of salvaged yeast was actually the stout I am drinking now, guess I was lucky.