How long before you give up on a starter?

Hey everyone,

I just ordered some supplies on the internet including a tube of White Labs German Lager Yeast (WLP830, I think). Do to an error on someone's part (either at RebelBrewer.com or at FedEx) my stuff ended up being in the mail for about 2 weeks during this miserable heatwave which has been going on in NY/NJ. Worse still, I only got one icepack instead of the full cooler.

Anyway, upon getting my stuff last night I figured I would try the yeast out anyway (I mean what the H, right?). I made up a half-gallon starter and added the yeast. Normally I would expect a starter to take off within a few hours, but as of this morning I had nothing going on at all.

My question is this, how long should I wait before I give up on the starter? 2 days, a week?

A second question, if I boil the starter solution and reuse it to start another batch of yeast would I run the risk of contamination or creating any off-flavors or anything like that?

I'd give it a couple of days before I would get concerned. I personnaly would't try to "re-use" the wort but, would make a new batch if your gonna start over.

assuming the yeast haven't eaten any of the sugars in the starter wort you can boil it and reuse it on a new starter. like with a batch of beer some times it takes longer for a starter to take off then normal. the heat coupled with the time may of seriously damaged the yeast. it may take longer for it to get going than normal. i would wait 2-3 days before i even thought of checking the SG of the starter to see it it went down. if its going down then the yeast are alive and working just slowly.