Butterfingers

[Nick4228]

Ok, so i was making a yeast starter tonight... Boiled it, cooled it, then when I was pitching the yeast (wlp090)... I accidentally dropped the whole White Labs vial (the physical vial) into the flask... So my question is what are the odds i contaminated the whole thing and what should I look/smell/taste for when it comes time to pitch it to determine if its contaminated?

Thanks all!

 

[Snicks]

For one vial I'd suck it up as a loss and just get another. I would rather waste a vial than a vile and batch of wort.

To answer your specific question though, the odds of some sort of contamination are very high, but the odds of them being significant enough to ruin your beer aren't quite as much.

Smell for vinegar or general grossness. However I'm not sure if a starter will sit long enough to make these off odors come through.

 

[maffewl]

Someone correct me here if I'm off base, but if this were me, I'd probably throw it in the fridge to try to chill it in a hurry to let the yeast settle to the bottom. Then I would decant it and try to get back what yeast I could and build another starter from that. If you chill it in a hurry, I would think your possible contamination wouldn't be able to multiply in a cold temperature and when you do your next starter, the SD Supers would dominate. All you have to lose in this scenario is another starter amount of DME.

 

[samc]

I'd say the odds are you will have a perfectly fine starter. Don't forget you are pitching a lot of healthy (hopefully) yeast into a small amount of wort. It should overwhelm whatever disgusting critters where hanging around on your vial. Then again aren't you supposed to hit the vial with some sanitizer before use? Shame on you!

 

[jtejedor]

Word.always sanitize the outside of the vial.

 

[Nick4228]

Were it wyeast, I'd sanitize the package, but with with white labs, everything is under the cap and usually no yeast touches the package...

 

[DannPM]

Odds you added unwanted bacteria to your brew? 100%... Odds it will flourish enough to become apparent to even the most discriminating taster? 0.03%

 

[Nick4228]

Odds you added unwanted bacteria to your brew? 100%... Odds it will flourish enough to become apparent to even the most discriminating taster? 0.03%

That's how I was feeling too