Infection Risk?

Hi.

I've been lurking around for the last few days, as this looks like one of the most active homebrew forums. I'm sorry for my first post on here being a questing, but i hope to contribute more when i get on with my brewing.

So, here it goes:
I've recently bought myself some equipment for a home brewery, and went ahead with my first yeast starter (for my first ever brew) just now. Even though i know it is very important to keep germs from entering the wort, i somehow forgot that for a few minutes today.

When i took the pot off the heat, i immediately put it in a sink of cold water, without the lid on, letting it sit there (with a sanitized thermometer), until it was down to about 130°F. I then woke up, and poured it over to my erlenmeyer flask. The flask is now closed up with a sanitized piece of foil.

Should i be worried about this starter?

It is probably fine. There is a slight risk of infection, very slight. If everything else was sanitized then I am betting the updraft from the hot starter kept any nasties out of it.

I'd go as far as saying it's so slight a chance it's pretty much zero. I leave my starters open on a stir plate and have never had an infection, and I always cool uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes. You're fine.

I'm relatively new as well, but I do think you'll be fine. Infections can happen obviously, but from all the reading I've done, it's from a lack of proper sanitization than anything else, be it a spigot or tube that wasn't properly washed out, or a scratched fermentation bucket.

Infections can happen through air exposure (from what I understand, some sour beers are made that way?), but it needs to be more significant than the short time you left yours open to the air. Its always possible something undesirable got in there, just highly unlikely.

Thanks for calming me down guys!

There was another detail i didn't mention in the opening post. When i pitched the yeast, i slightly knocked the (unsanitized) container to the inside of the flask. I guess i should forget that one too

Still, i think awareness of the risks is important, however small they are. Better safe then sorry.

Cheers!

I wouldn't be worried about that either. That vial had nearly 100 billion cells in it, those will surely outcompete anything that may or may not have gotten in there.

kvitvik said:

Thanks for calming me down guys!

There was another detail i didn't mention in the opening post. When i pitched the yeast, i slightly knocked the (unsanitized) container to the inside of the flask. I guess i should forget that one too

Still, i think awareness of the risks is important, however small they are. Better safe then sorry.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Awareness of the risks is what it's all about. By being aware, we can minimize all the possible risks of infection. My first brew day went well, but bottling day was a disaster for me. I swear everything that could have gone wrong did, and I was see I'd have infected and oxygenated beer. Turned out to be pretty damn good in the end!

Know what to try and avoid and learn from your mistakes.

Just wait till you had to cool your wort down to pitching temp ;-) you'll be leaving your whole batch exposed for 15-30mins 0.0.

I brew with hose water outside on windy days leaving my kettle open while using my wortchiller and have been totally fine....

Where you live and your home environment makes a huge difference. I live in dry ass CO and would have a hard time getting an infection to grow on my equipment if tried. Biggest source of contamination you should worry about is ANY malted grain (or grain dust) coming into contact with your wort post boil.... Stuff is almost guaranteed to give you a lacto infection. Tasty if you like sours!