5 replies to this topic

[armagh]

I have recently found what I think is autolysis in one of my primaries. I brewed a dunkel in the end of November ,week of Thanksgiving with wyeast Bohemian Lager strain. I did smack the pack to activate but it was taking a long time to swell,better than 2 days and I dont think it ever swelled completely. I also dont believe that the yeast was very old, not more than 6 months for sure. So I made a starter, it took a day to really ramp up, but fermentation started like normal it just took a little longer. So I pitch and it and the beer ferments like normal. The fermentation had a normal lager primary around 48-50, a D-Rest at 60-65 degrees, and a long cold storage at 32-36 for a few weeks. When I racked to a corny last night the beer was clear and no issues. I saved the yeast from the bottom of the primary and rinsed the yeast with cool sterile water in order to seprate the trub and sh*t from the good yeasties. After the seperation occured i poured off the good middle layer and tossed the rest. A "rubbery" aroma is the only way to describe it, like a superpinky ball, was coming off of the glass container with the newly rinsed yeast. I was always told that its the smell of autolysis. However, Ken Lenard posted this ,https://www.brews-bros.xyz/index.php/topic/36062-have-you-ever-made-a-beer/page__hl__autolysis__fromsearch__1 ,(sorry cant get link function to work), in which he describes a vomit smell. Am I right from dumping this rubbery smelling yeast?

Click over to the Mead forum, go to the FAQs, scroll down to High Test's FAQs and read the one on autolysis, see if it helps. It can be desirable in some meads/wine, more so in Champagnes, but it might give you a better understanding if this is what you're dealing with.

[Jimmy James]

I don't think it's lysis, if you had that you'd more likely have a black goopy mess than a white or off-white yeast slurry. It sounds more like a sulfur chemical being produced by the yeast. This happens in the initial stages of fermentation with a lot of lager yeast and some ale yeasts as well. Additionally when yeast are low on particular nutrients they can produce sulfur compounds, which could be what happened here. You could try adding yeast nutrient and pitching into a fresh starter, and see if you can get it smelling better. I wouldn't pitch the smelly yeast slurry though - if you don't want to bother with a starter and nutrient I'd just dump it and get fresh yeast.

[No Party JKor]

It could be the onset of autolysis, I suppose. From your post it sounds like the yeast you used was probably pretty stressed, that's a good start for early lysis.