F'ing fruit flies

So I have been stepping up some yeasties from a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin ale and after I cold crashed it today I noticed a couple of fruit flies floating in it......I mean they look happy, or more appropriate they look like they died happy :cross:

really noob, stupid question.

Can I still use this yeast to brew? I mean I'm sure the yeast itself is fine, but are there any potential issues stemming from the fruit flies.

I have no worries about using it, but my wife thinks I'm insane.

Thanks for any thoughts, but please go gentle with me

BGH

I would NOT use that.

Review this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/yellow-white-creepy-crawly-things-my-beer-130714/ then make your decision.

Sounds like a good excuse to get another bottle of your jolly pumpkin.

Dump. Fruit flies carry acetobactor.

Glenn

Just make malt vinegar.

I think that, in reality, open-air contamination is not very much of a problem for most of us. Bugs, however, most certainly are. Dump it, drink some more delicious beer, and begin anew.

set up a fruit fly trap away from your brewing area next time. vinegar in a jar with a paper funnel catches them.

+1 dump ASAP

Thanks for all the feedback.

It is gone.....bums me out as I was planning on brewing with it soon.

I guess my loose foil tent was a little to loose.

BGH

samc said:

set up a fruit fly trap away from your brewing area next time. vinegar in a jar with a paper funnel catches them.

+1 dump ASAP

Click to expand...

I use beer and I also hang one of those sticky fly paper rolls above it in hopes to catch more. I will have to try vinegar.

BillyGHusk said:

Thanks for all the feedback.

It is gone.....bums me out as I was planning on brewing with it soon.

I guess my loose foil tent was a little to loose.

BGH

Click to expand...

Yeah, if there is a way in they will find it!

When i worked at a bar we got fruit flied.... ya know what solved the problem?? Bleach!! lots of bleach down drains. all over the place...

Fruit flies are attracted to water. So if you leave water in your sink dump some bleach down the drain...

I'm no plumber, but there's water in every sink, in the trap, right?

I hate fruit fly season, when I can't leave a glass of beer uncovered without getting one or more fruit flies in there!

Not sure what you are fermenting in, which could be a problem, but if you ferment in a jug, bucket with lid, carboy, etc. airlocks are so, so cheap and will take care of that problem and many others and the bungs (rubber stoppers) come in many sizes.

I've been having a fruit fly issue too recently. Turns out that one of my 1L flip-tops had leaked from being placed on its side in one of my cabinets. One hell of a moldy, stinking mess than wasn't very pleasant to clean up. And the source of the hordes of flies...

[On a more mysterious note, on the shelf above the leaking bottle, which was absolutely pristine, I found a exploded 500ml flip top broken at the very bottom. No mold, no mess. Only a slight discoloration of the cardboard box it was in, and the bottle itself only had the residue of the yeast.]

I did find one of the flies drunkenly walking around in a drop of beer in my kegerator drip tray too, I wish I'd had the forethought to film that. oh well.

Friggin things. I hate them and go out of my way to kill each and every one I see.
I had a starter end up with them before and had to dump it. I swear he had scuba gear on.......

passedpawn said:

I would NOT use that.

Review this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/yellow-white-creepy-crawly-things-my-beer-130714/ then make your decision.

Sounds like a good excuse to get another bottle of your jolly pumpkin.

Click to expand...

Haha I forgot all about that thread until I read "F'ing Fruit Flies" and its the first thing I thought of. Yeah no tin foil in the summertime!

And for the inquiring minds, yes I cleaned that carboy like 10 f'ing times before I even thought of using it again. Then I cleaned it some more!

Fruit flies are attracted to fermentation (yeast), that's how they find the very ripe to over-ripe fruit they like to lay their eggs in; fruit that's very ripe is starting to ferment a bit on the outside. (That's also why garden slugs like beer, though they just find the ripe fruit to eat it.)
So, a tent of cloth on top of the aluminum foil, with a rubber band, over the necks of starters or carboys is a good summer thing.

JohnMc said:

So, a tent of cloth on top of the aluminum foil, with a rubber band, over the necks of starters or carboys is a good summer thing.

Click to expand...

That's not a bad idea; I think I might start using that idea when making starters.