Beer Forum

I was trying to reharvest some yeast tonight and the bottle of Orval I chose turned out to be totally flat. Should I be worried about this? The beer tastes fine, as far as I can tell. Orval being a little strange tasting anyway (sourness), I'm having a hard time deciding whether I got a bad bottle, plus it's been a while since I've tasted this beer. Should I go ahead with my culture? Taste it along the way? Throw it out?

Orval should be bubbly as hell, so I would be a little worried. Just sayin'.

Bellmer wrote:Orval should be bubbly as hell, so I would be a little worried. Just sayin'.

Yeah that's what I was expecting. I've never heard of lack of carbonation to be an indication of infection though. If anything, I've heard it to be the other way around.

whats the date on the bottle?

whenever taking yeast from a bottle, get the freshest possible bottle you can. Also, if you are building up yeast from a bottle, give yourself 2 weeks of building it up before you pitch it into the wort.

Could have been a leaky cap. Orval should have a champagne-like spritziness.


Mylo

Probably a leaky cap. If the beer tastes fine then check the date on the bottle. If it were me I would try to culture it and then see how the yeast behaves. If it is super sluggish then I would toss it and try again from several bottles.