2nd Stepped Yeast Starter Overflowing

So...first time stepping up a yeast starter. I probably filled this a little too much, but i tried to get all the wort i could into it. put it on the stirplate, apparently it's so strong it doesn't care that it's getting stirred. It started to overflow, and the attached image is what i cam up with in a pinch to help.



So with all this moving and changing the foil out for this setup, am I going to be okay using this yeast, or should i dump it? not much came out of the top, i caught it early, it started foaming out probably about 20 minutes after i threw it on stirplate.

whats your thoughts?

It's hard to know for sure, but from what I see you should be fine. If it smells right, and tastes right, then chances are everything is okay.

What would be bad smells to "look" for? I swapped from foil to this and was spraying everything with star san. Fingers crossed I guess.

I guess I won't know til I put it in fridge?

I am keeping the stir plate running and the blow off on. I think when I put it in the fridge I'll move back to the foil.

Fermcap helps immensely with this. With that much activity I would think the starter is pushing out so much CO2 and is so active that it should not have gotten contaminated.

Another question what should i expect the cell reproduction to be like? It's foaming, but I still got the stirplate going. I assume there is some sort of vortex...or at least the dimple (which I think is all that is really needed), can't see because of foam.

I can see bubbles rising kind of waving as they are rising...so seems like it's spinning.

According to yeast calc, at this stage, i should get what I need without anything and just leaving it sit there.

guess i'll be investing in a bigger flask or some sort of flat glass jar.

If it doesn't smell like beer or bread you might have something else in there. Generally if you have something bad it there it will smell really nasty. But of course there are exceptions to every rule. It looks like a good strong fermentation. I would probably go with it.

Yea, smells great. So thinking I'm going with it. Going to put it in fridge now so I can decant and brew tomorrow.

I do have a second packet of the same yeast, should I just pitch that to be safe, you think?

Use this calculator to help figure out what you might expect out of your starter.

http://www.yeastcalc.com/

I think you might benefit from RDWHAHB. It sounds like everything is going great, you just have too much liquid in too small a container. Because of the shape of the erlenmeyer flask, it's just going where it has to go... up. Play with that calculator some, it will help you figure out what size starter to use to get the desired results. If the yeast still smells good and there's no funk, I think you are ok. It doesn't seem like you really lost anything significant to the blow over.

i smacked a wyeast pack...can i refrigerate if i don't need it? will it be good to use later?