Yeast -- toss in or toss out?

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DCBrewer

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So, I have a situation I could use some opinions on. I started a small starter with yeast from slurry that I planned to step up to a larger starter for brewing tomorrow. I kept it in a mason jar with foil on top on the stir plate for 18 hours, removed it last night and put in the fridge, and planned to make my bigger starter tonight. Came down this morning thinking I need to tell SWMBO not to throw it out. SWMBO hadn't thrown it out, but had removed the foil and put a mason jar lid on it. The lid certainly had been through the dish washer but had been sitting in a drawer and SWMBO didn't sanitize her hands before grabbing it and putting it on the jar.

Would you go ahead and use it for a bigger starter and pitch it in a batch tomorrow or would you throw it out? My only other option would be to take slurry from two other mason jars, both small amounts, and try and create a big enough starter tonight to use tomorrow. I think this would result in underpitching though hard to say by how much. My LHBS is too far to visit for yeast purchase before tomorrow.

The yeast is CA Ale WLP001. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
 
I would guess that they yeast were vigorous enough to keep anything out for the short (?) time between the foil being removed and the lid being sealed (especially since it was on a stir plate).

If it were me, I'd step it up and use it.
 
I would use it without giving it a second thought. I'll bet that you have a better chance of contamination by breathing close to the yeast.
 
Make your larger starter and see what happens. If the 'proto-beer' off that tastes OK I'd use it with no worries.
 
You forgot a preposition. I'd toss it in (the larger starter), toss it out (the decanted liquid), toss it in again (the larger starter into the wort), then I'd toss it off - but I'm single, so you might have better options. Sorry - I should have tagged this one with a bad joke warning. Seriously, I'd use it - I'm (almost), sure it's fine.
 
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