Bee in my yeast starter. How bad is this?

Made a 2 liter starter yesterday from a brand new (unopened) bag of DME. Checked this tonight and found a bee in pieces (bug not the letter) being swirled by my stir plate. We are finishing winter here and there are no bug around yet so I am 99% sure this had to have come from the DME. I was able to use a sanitized spoon to remove as much of the bee as I could see.

Should I throw the starter out? How about the DME? Should I just not worry about it and go on with the brew?

I'd have some concern for the possibility of wild yeast being introduced to your starter.
If it were me, I would ferment out as normal, but be sure to give the starter the smell and taste test afterwards.
Who knows maybe you'll end up with a totally unique tasting beer.

I've heard they don't drink much....

Did you boil the DME? If yes I would think it may seem gross but will be fine.

I have to admit that I have never tasted starter before to know what I might be looking for in this situation to know if it is OK or not.

BPhad said:

Did you boil the DME? If yes I would think it may seem gross but will be fine.

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I boiled the DME for 10-15 minutes before chilling and then pitching the yeast. I am not sure if this would be long enough.

Lucky, lucky bee...

Maybe I should call this batch "Bee Leave It or Not" Pale Ale.

How come you didn't notice the bee parts when you boiled the starter? Check through the extract bag to see if there are any more parts. Your vender is going to want to know if their DME is bad. Perhaps use a fine sifter. Did you cap the starter vessel with sanitized foil? I don't see how an insect could get into a starter unless it was left open topped.

Are you doing a starter without a top> A least put some foil over the opening.

It seems hard to believe you could boil and cool down without ever noticing the bee, I'm thinking it got in after the fact somehow.. Just my guess!

you gotta Bee careful and keep an eye on your starter wort it can be a tricky little bugger.

Your beer may not turn out to be the bee's knees.

Should get a good buzz from this brew..!

As long as the bee was sanitized, what's the harm? It might have had pollen and wild yeast on it, but if so and it went through the boil then it should be fine.

Also, sometimes the beers just name themselves.

The starter for this beer smelled something awful and very little yeast was produced by being on the stir plate for 30 hours. I looked into the remianing part of the DME bag and found multiple other bees and bee pieces near the bottom of the bag. I bought this bag from HBS in St. Paul and wanted to know if anyone thought I should contact them or should I contact the maker of the DME?

I would have loved to have seen this turn out and joked about the extra buzz it has but there was no point in brewing it if no additional yeast was being produced. I use a foam blocker at the top of my flask which prevents anything the size of a bee from getting into inside the flask.

Send it to the company with a letter about how they ruined your starter and yeast and time etc. Might get some free dme out of it, cos let's face it, there shouldn't be bees in there!

msa8967 said:

I looked into the remianing part of the DME bag and found multiple other bees and bee pieces near the bottom of the bag. I bought this bag from HBS in St. Paul and wanted to know if anyone thought I should contact them or should I contact the maker of the DME?.

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I would let them both know!

^^^
This

Dump it out. I had some small bugs in some grain i purchased. I strained them out and went on brewing. The beer turned out sour and funky smelling. Read something later that week that certain bugs carry a bacteria that causes sourness in beer. I would have thought boiling would have killed everything but..

Send it back. Throw it out.

Are you sure you bought DME, maybe it was BDME?

andy think he got BeeME

it can give you hives.

folks will be swarming for this one

I am beeside myself with the number of puns in this thread.

all kidding aside, I'm sure this will be one honey of a beer

I change my answer. That's a lot of bees.