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Author Topic: my starter is green  (Read 2683 times)

Offline uisgue

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my starter is green
« on: October 19, 2010, 07:39:30 am »
I tried to make a 1 1/8 gallon starter with 1 # of DME and 2 slightly expired vials of WLP380 (Hefe). For some reason it all turned out a muddy green.  It looks like a back-yard swimming pool a month after it is shut down for the season.  I used my copper coil immersion chiller the way I always do: put it into the boil for the last 15 minutes to sanitize.  It didn't look like it had any obvious patina, at least I didn' notice anything out of the ordinary.  Could the fact that it was in a gallon+ instead of 11 gallons result in a high enough concentration of copper to turn it green (and apparently kill the starter)?
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Doug Hickey
Crescent City, CA
Symposia Brew Corps

Offline bluesman

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2010, 08:09:37 am »
That's odd.  :-\

Do you have a water report?
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Offline denny

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2010, 09:36:56 am »
That seems pretty unlikely, Doug, but I couldn't say it's impossible.  This is gonna require some thought and discussion....
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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2010, 09:37:32 am »
Post a pic.

Is the liquid green, or does the color settle out?  What does it smell like?
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Tom Schmidlin

Offline Matt B

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2010, 11:05:38 am »
My general rule of thumb for starters is that if it doesn't smell like yeast, toss it. And the green may have me worried enough that I'd toss it just because. If it smells okay, maybe even lacking some yeast character, measure the gravity to see if any fermentation has occurred?

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Offline tschmidlin

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2010, 11:17:18 am »
Yeah, I seriously doubt I'd use it.  But it would be good to figure out what happened to make sure to avoid the problem next time.
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Tom Schmidlin

Offline uisgue

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2010, 07:54:40 pm »
My water is very soft.  Maybe slightly high on the sodium being coastal.  One of the starters showed signs of activity today. After I got home from work there was just a little foam showing and some visible yeast deposits on the bottom.  The other one still is still.  I don't plan on using either one at this point.  The green scares me a bit.  I still have 2 vials of yeast to try a new set of starters.  I pick up some more DME on the way home. (...and a couple of packets of Nottingham, just in case).  The problem is that one of the vials was miss-delivered and is WLP080 instead of WLP380.  Anyone ever used Cream Ale yeast for a wheat beer?
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Doug Hickey
Crescent City, CA
Symposia Brew Corps

Offline beerocd

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2010, 07:59:04 pm »
Yeah, you get....... CREAM OF WHEAT!  ;D ;D ;D




Oh, I DO apologize for that one but it was like a pinata hanging in front of me. I just had to hit it!
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Offline Mikey

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2010, 08:21:47 pm »
Dump it.
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Offline 1vertical

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2010, 11:14:31 pm »
at this stage, not worth the risk...dump...+1
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Offline euge

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2010, 01:52:12 am »
Quote from: Brewmaster_Mikey on October 19, 2010, 08:21:47 pm
Dump it.
Quote from: 1vertical on October 21, 2010, 11:14:31 pm
at this stage, not worth the risk...dump...+1

My thoughts just from reading the title.  :o

It's probably infected. The odd infection. It happens. I had one turn black like coca-cola.
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Offline SiameseMoose

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2010, 08:17:57 am »
I have seen one green fermentation, when Dan Listermann fermented milk a few years ago. It was a bright lime green, but eventually cleared to nearly colorless. It wasn't infected, but it wasn't good either :P
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Offline uisgue

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Re: my starter is green
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2010, 03:25:00 pm »
Quote from: beerocd on October 19, 2010, 07:59:04 pm
Yeah, you get....... CREAM OF WHEAT!  ;D ;D ;D

Yeah, once I get the new starter going, I think I'll go with that.  Well kinda...


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Doug Hickey
Crescent City, CA
Symposia Brew Corps
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