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Hi, I just kegged a batch of bitter and it had a strange smell and slightly sour taste. Quite sure it got contaminated somewhere between the primary and keg. I pitched with ringwood which was slow to swell and took 24 hours before there was a good krausen. Unaware of possible contamination I cultured and reused the yeast twice since the bitter... Is there hope for my last two batches and my yeast culture? - Joe

I'm not sure how you cultured it but you may want to look into washing it with Chlorine Dioxide. If you have a wild yeast infection though I don't think that'll do much.

Thanks,

I had a glass of the bitter today and it is contaminated - red wine vinegar/sour taste. I racked the brown I made this weekend with the same yeast and it is right on. My guess is a wild yeast contamination got ahead of my ringwood in the bitter, and now the culture I have is a mix of mostly ringwood and a bit of the wild yeast. My taste buds aren't good enough to detect the wild yeast in the brown ale so I think my culture is okay for future use. Thanks for the response. - Joe