Forgot to sanitize my erlenmeyer flask!
- Thread starter JDFlow
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
BrewinHooligan
Well-Known Member
Infections usually take a while to take hold and show themselves. If you have more yeast handy I would suggest starting over. If a batch of sour beer intrigues you, ride it out and see what happens, it is possible that you will be fine but it is taking chances.
considering the number of infections and their varying manifestation it's hard to tell. it might start to smell sour, or a pellicle could form if it's not on a stir plate or it might not show up until after you bottle. do you have more washed yeast? make another starter if you are worried, keep the old one under surveillance just to see what happens, i predict it's fine.
Making my first starter from washed yeast and forgot to sanitize my erlenmeyer flask. Should I dump it and start over or let it go? How can you tell if a starter is infected?
Sanitation during the initial stage of propagation is really important - I would toss it and start over with a new one, especially since it's your first starter from a batch of washed yeast. You want to make sure that your process is working right.
Keithww
Well-Known Member
Did you boil the DME in the flask? If you did that would sanitize it.
beergolf
Well-Known Member
I thought of that, but I'm not convinced that boiling DME heats up the Erlenmeyer flask enough to sanitize it thoroughly. When I make starters, I sanitize the entire flask prior to adding the wort. Maybe I'm paranoid, but starters are one of the places where I get really anal about sanitation.
boiling in the flask sterilizes it which is even better than sanitizing it.
Didn't boil in the flask but I have more yeast. Might be short on dme though. I'm going to redo it. If the starter wort is a little weak I don't think it'll hurt anything as long as the yeast can get going, right?
I don't imagine so - just want your starter wort to be about 1.020 to 1.040. To do that, you'd want 10 g of DME and then filled to 1 L with H2O. Should get you there.
How much DME were you planning on using?
Yeah, but it may not sanitize the surfaces of the glass which are further away from the burner. Wort boils at about 202 F at my location, but there is no guarantee that the walls of the container, particularly the lip, reach that temperature.
bambrew
Active Member
Ya go ahead and touch the lip after your done boiling in there. I think the steam has taken care of heating it up. Ouch.
ReverseApacheMaster
Well-Known Member
You could reboil the wort, sanitize the flask, then add the cooled wort back in.
Keithww
Well-Known Member
In a different life I use to sterilize used biological samples, we used steam to kill really nasty stuff. Yeah, it was really hot and under pressure, but all that touched the biological agents was steam. 10 minutes of 200+ steam should sanitize the inside of the flask.
Keithww
Well-Known Member
If the flask was not clean, then the wort with the yeast will be contaminated. I am pretty freaky about keeping my kitchen clean, and that has carried over to my brewing. Heat is your friend when killing bugs.
I used the same standard 1L + 100g dme. Probably have around 70-80g left. Should be alright I guess.
Dude,
Relax.................... you're wound too tight.
Next, let your kitchen go a week or two.
Maybe so, but I'd hate to get thru a brew day just to pitch contaminated yeast.
