Fruit Fly in my Starter!!!

[ViciousFishes]

Preparing to brew my brown ale* tomorrow for the first time since May. I built up a 3L starter from yeast washed from my last batch. I went to pull 600ml into a mason jar to save for a starter next time I brew and cold crash the rest for tomorrow's brew. That's when I noticed a fruit fly floating on the surface of the starter!

What would you do? Once cold crashed, decant the starter beer (and hopefully the fruit fly) and pitch it as planned? Or toss the lot of it and sport for a fresh vial of London Ale and start over?


* 41 pts and Gold Medal at Carolina Quarterly Brew Off - Q3 2016
https://carolinaquarterlybrewoff.wordpress.com/winners/2016-2/quarter-3-2016/

 

[JonM]

I'd start fresh with new yeast. Those little buggers can carry acetobacter so your starter has a good chance of being infected.

 

[passedpawn]

I'll just drop these here.

Yellow/white creepy crawly things in my beer!

True scary homebrew tales

 

[Dog House Brew]

Ditch it and start fresh. Been there and tried it. This is why I always rubber band a paper towel under my foil. One ruined batch was enough for me.

 

[ViciousFishes]

Ditch it and start fresh. Been there and tried it. This is why I always rubber band a paper towel under my foil. One ruined batch was enough for me.

Good idea. I'll definitely rubber band a paper towel under the foil in the starter I build tonight

 

[passedpawn]

Good idea. I'll definitely rubber band a paper towel under the foil in the starter I build tonight

How will you sanitize the paper towel?

I'm not a freak about sanitation, but if there's any place you really really need to be careful, it's when growing a starter.

 

[brick_haus]

Fished a fruit fly out of my starter and used it on my last batch. One week in the keg and still tasting great!

 

[treacheroustexan]

This makes me a little worried. I brewed a pumpkin ale over the weekend and I rehydrated two packs of us05. I noticed before I pitched a little one on the side of the measuring cup. i pulled it out (it's the only one I noticed) and pitched regularly. Didn't even think about infection..

Fingers crossed. I don't want to open my bucket for a month, but now I'm nervous.

 

[Hopper5000]

Usually rubber banding it with tin foil prevents them from getting in. Best practice would be to toss it like other said. Folks who had one in your starter and used it anyways are likely ok. Fruit flies land on rotting fruit and other things often which are covered with wild yeast and bacteria, thus usually bad if they land in your beer or starter...

 

[TasunkaWitko]

If it would have been in the fermenter, I'd say, "Don't worry, he won't drink THAT much."

In the yeast starter, however....

 

[Siberian]

Not worth it, dump it and redo.

 

[DevilNuts]

If I were being honest, I would probably pitch it with fingers crossed.

 

[55x11]

If I were being honest, I would probably pitch it with fingers crossed.

me too. I would just pitch and hope for the best. Bacteria and wild yeast is everywhere around us (and there is plenty of it in the starter regardless of the fly) - if the yeast got a healthy fast start, they can dominate and eat the sugars before wild bugs get to it.

 

[Aristotelian]

If this was an already brewed batch in the fermenter I would say ride it out and see what happens, but here you can just start over. The only thing you have lost is the time it takes to redo the starter. Toss.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Speaking from terrible experiences

Chuck it now!

We go through all the trouble we do to clean and sanitize things. I hate to see another man down over one fruit fly.

I recently posted about losing 800 billion yeast cells to a fruit fly. I'm only to happy to toss it and feel grateful that I even noticed the one.

I've come up with a solution of wrapping my tin foil covered starter in a large garbage bag and tying it tight. Starters need air correct? Putting a rubber band around tinfoil kinda defeats the purpose, may as well use an airlock?

Just a thought, I really don't know.

 

[passedpawn]

There are foam stoppers made for this exactly problem. O2 passes through no problem, but airborne microbes (and larger fauna) get the stop sign. I don't have one, so I'm not aware of how they get sanitized, but probably a quick soak in starsan would do it. They have a couple of sizes, so look before you leap.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/foam-stopper-46-60mm

 

[buckinin]

I have used the foam stopper since I started making starters. I soak it in starsan as mentioned above (give it a couple squeezes below the surface to really saturate it) and then wring it out before use. It's a nice tight fit to keep everything out (except air).

 

[tjosborne]

I can't find a foam one for 5000ml. I've been just using foil but nervous too now. Any idea where I can get a new one?

 

[oceanic_brew]

Awesome! That'll work great and will look much better than being wrapped in a garbage bag. My yeast starters aren't garbage.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

I'll just drop these here.

Yellow/white creepy crawly things in my beer!

True scary homebrew tales

That first post was mine from 7 years ago. I still remember that day quite well and can say I have never used tinfoil since then. I had a starter get out of control and blow the foam stopper off the flask over night a couple of months ago and I just dumped it. I'm not chancing a batch's worth of ingredients and a 6 hour brew day.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Ahhh, didn't think about the foam stopper blowing out. Although I've rarely had a starter foam over, it has happened.

I just completed one bay of three in my fermentation chamber. The second bay I'll be keeping around average ale temperatures, it has a complete seal and that's where I'll be doing my starters from now on.

In the book Yeast they talk about the importance of starter temp so figure it's an added bonus.

 

[passedpawn]

That first post was mine from 7 years ago. I still remember that day quite well and can say I have never used tinfoil since then. I had a starter get out of control and blow the foam stopper off the flask over night a couple of months ago and I just dumped it. I'm not chancing a batch's worth of ingredients and a 6 hour brew day.

I got a kick out of that thread and never forgot it. Thanks for that. Glad to see you're still around and brewing.

 

[ViciousFishes]

Thanks for the advice. I ended up giving my fruit fly starter a burial at sea. Picked up a fresh vial of London Ale and built up a vitality starter. Ended up splitting the 12g batch between that and London Ale III. Both fermentors are happily chugging away this morning.