Will it hurt to use my starter after a week?

I am ready to brew up a stout with an OG of around 1.055 or so. Naturally, I forgot to get any grain bags to hold my grains, so I had to push back my plans until I could get some. Unfortunately, the LHBS was closed when I went there Monday (01/17/2011). I made a starter using 1 smack pack on Monday. The starter is ready to go, but I don't have the stuff I need to make my brew. It has been crashing in the fridge for about 2 days now. I'm thinking about stepping it up a bit tomorrow, then putting it back in the fridge for a day or so. I am going to be out of town on Saturday, so I can't brew this weekend. To make a long story short, will my starter be okay if I use it on Monday (01/24/2011)? I just don't want to waste my starter/yeast. Thanks in advance!

I've used a starter after a month and it took right off. Just make sure you get it to room temp for a while to wake those little suckers up. RDWHAHB.

I kind of figured as much. I will just take it out of the fridge on Monday before work, then brew that night. Thanks!

Some just pitch directly out of the fridge. I did that on my recent brew and it took off after 5 hours. In fact, I had krausen coming through the airlock the next day.

I used a starter that sat at room temp for about a month on my last batch and it worked vigirously. I did add some yest nutrient just to make sure.

I recently listened to a pod cast that touched briefly on this subject. I'll get it as close as I can recall.

1. First they suggested the day before let the starter come to room temp.

2. On brew day when your putting on you strike water to heat. Make about 5 oz. of wort close to the finishing gravity of your recipe. Cool to pitching temp.

3. Decant the liquid(beer) off of your starter and add the new wort.

4.Cover with sanitized foil and swirl around every so often during brewing or place on your stir plate until it is time to pitch the whole thing on you wort.

Due to my second to none organization skill I have had to do it both ways and it did seem to work better taking the additional time to wake the yeast up.

Cheers...

Yeast is surprisingly resilient. I've read here and there that one reason for decanting the starter off is to avoid possible off flavours.