how long will starter last at room temp?

had to delay brewing till tomorrow. so i will be pitching starter at about 96 hours. starter was very active (blew off some and lost some yeast). i did not decant, starter is still at room temp. will be ok to just pitch at 96 hours? should i add dme or wort to starter?

bump

I would think it would be fine. If your worried you could always throw some more DME in worst case scenario you make more yeast.

When you realized you weren't going to pitch right away, why not just throw it in the fridge?

I don't think it'll make a difference, don't people let starters go for a few days before using?

J187 said:

When you realized you weren't going to pitch right away, why not just throw it in the fridge?

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because the starter was still very active. didnt want to shock the yeast or kill any further growth

zodiak3000 said:

because the starter was still very active. didnt want to shock the yeast or kill any further growth

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If you were about to brew with it but then delayed, I'd assume it was done. If it's not finished, then you shouldn't be worried about he clock ticking on it being at room temperature anyway... so wait til it's done then put it in the fridge. No problem with leaving it out while it's still completely active.

+1 one on all the above....put it in the fridge when it finishes and then decant the excess liquid.

it pretty much finished off today, but im brewing today so ill be pitching tonight. i assume its best to just leave it out now (not enough time to decant). since it blew off and i lost some yeast should i boil some more dme and add it to the starter to get it going again and multiply some yeast?

What kind of beer at what gravity are you putting it in and what size is the starter?

zodiak3000 said:

because the starter was still very active. didnt want to shock the yeast or kill any further growth

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fridge temps are no where near extreme for yeast to start dying of from autolysis. your viability will drop slower in the fridge than leaving it on the counter for an extra day, not by much but if you have room why not.
Plus the low temps help in the cold crash to decant the spent starter off
Sometimes ill actually cold crash when its 80% done...that way when i decant and bring back to pitching temp the yeast will have eaten most of the sugars and will not have been in a "dormant" phase for 24 hours or so. just an idea..

If you're brewing today, I would just leave it as is and pitch it as normal. It may not start quite as fast as it would have under optimal conditions, but you'll still be pitching a bunch of nice healthy yeast, you shouldn't have any problems. And unless it's a very light, delicately flavored style I wouldn't worry about affecting your flavor/gravity by pitching the whole thing--I've pitched full starters into plenty of beers and never had any problems with the result.

That would of course be a different story if you were pitching to, for example, a very light lager, and you had a very big starter. Then you might want to think about decanting. Cheers.

Starter's can last in the fridge for a while to, just make sure to pull it out several hours before so it can come up to room temperature.

J187 said:

What kind of beer at what gravity are you putting it in and what size is the starter?

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estimated OG 1.070, Red Rye IPA, almost 2L starter