Conan yeast starter

I've been harvesting some conan yeast from 2 fresh headys for the past 6 days. I stepped up the starter every other day. The last step up was the most active. So active in fact it blew off the foam stopper while I was sleeping. My question is do you think the starter is still safe to use or do I need to toss it? It would really be a shame to toss it but I don't to risk any infection. I have two cats and have no way of telling if any hair got in or if they went near it. I made sure there was no hair on the stopper and put it back on. The fan hopefully blew any nasties away from the top but that's wishful thinking. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Youre probably fine, but there is no way any of us can say for sure. I've never had the foam stopper be forced out but I have had krausen pushing on it before and the starter was fine. Give the starter a smell, maybe even taste the decanted wort if you fee the need. If it passes the smell test youre likely fine.

Only real way to know is looking at it under a microscope, or brew with it.

Thanks Coff! I smelled it about twelve hours later after it being in the fridge and it smells fine. Is it to soon to be smelling bad? Does bacteria take time to form in nasties?

It may be too soon to tell but smelling and tasting are the only tools you have so if it passes those tests I would say its fine.

This home yeast culturing, there is bound to be something wild in that culture. As long as youre confident in your sanitation procedures keep moving along as usual. If it were me I would brew with it and see what happens, I would guess youre fine but its only a guess.

I would say with the amount of co2 being produced to push out the stopper you are probably fine.