Yeast Starter and Infection

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WhatNotBrewer

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I'm very good with sanitation and take a lot of care in cleaning and sterilizing all of the equipment/materials I work with. I do have a question about something that happened though.

I was creating a yeast starter which I was putting into a mason jar. I fill the mason jar after cleaning it with water and microwave it until the water is boiling. I then allow water that's at least 200+ deg F sit in the jar for about 10-15 minutes to sterilize the jar - if the temperature drops below 200 I put it back in the microwave to boost it up.

Long story short as I put it the bit of wort and yeast and shook the hell out of it, I realized there was a sizable spec of something on the inside of the jar stuck to the wall. Not sure how I missed it but alas it was there. I'm trying to figure out if I should be worried about infection or not. In theory because of the temperatures of the jar and the boiling of the wort everything dangerous should be dead but I am not a microbiologist so I can't be certain!

Anyways I'm going to wait it out and see what happens, but I was curious if anyone else has had any experience with this. I suppose the only other reason I'm nervous is because I pitched the WL820 which is notoriously known for a very slow start and if something was bad in the starter wort, I'm afraid it would start going before the yeast....

Sorry for the wall of text, but looking forward to any information.

Cheers!
 
200* is enough to kill most bugs but not all. 250* is needed to kill everything. I wouldn't worry though, the only time I go to the extremes for temp is when I'm sterilizing for yeast washing. The vial should contain plenty of yeast to get your starter going without fear.
 
Thanks for the quick reply. I've been brewing for over two years now, but I'm still haunted by an early batch that got infected so I've been some what irrationally paranoid since :)
 
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