Forgot to Sanitize Flask

So I just got about 500 ml of yeast slurry from the local brewpub and made up a 5000 ml starter. Rinsed the clean flask with water and dumped in the cooled 1.048 starter wort then the yeast slurry. I sanitized the funnel but not the flask and stir bar inside the flask. Am I Screwed?
Should I dump and buy more yeast? $15 is better than screwing a whole batch I guess... What are the signs of infection that I would be able to see? I'm guessing it will smell funky in a day or two if I have a problem?

There is bacteria in there. Whether or not it will cause a problem is hard to say. A major risk of pitching a potentially contaminated starter, one that may not smell/look bad at first, is the bacteria will have a chance to outgrow the yeast once pitched into fresh wort.

If your starter looks/smells/tastes bad, it is obviously a no-go. If it doesn't, you decide if you will risk it or not. I always default to pitching the best yeast possible. If you are going to the trouble of making 5 gallons of delicious wort, why risk ruining everything with your pitch.

To be very general though, it is probably fine. There is probably enough yeast, and probably very few bacteria, and it will probably make fine beer. But, I like the details, and it is ususally the difference between good beer and great beer.

Well it didn't smell funky at all so I pitched it. I have never used Nottingham before and it was smelling like some nice banana characteristics like a hefe so that was interesting. Looking forward to seeing how this 1.075 rye Barleywine does with it.

Thanks for the help

Isn't Nottingham dry yeast? For reasons I can't explain, I know that it is not necessary to make a starter for dry yeast.

We obviously can't say for sure whether or not it will be a problem, but I hope it works out. Nothing to do but wait and see.

dk21 said:

Isn't Nottingham dry yeast? For reasons I can't explain, I know that it is not necessary to make a starter for dry yeast. We obviously can't say for sure whether or not it will be a problem, but I hope it works out. Nothing to do but wait and see.

Click to expand...

The Nottingham was from the local brew pub, about 200 ml of yeast cake in a glass jar. But yeah it's usual form of purchase is dry but this is a repitch.