Made a mistake-- can I fix it?

I was making a yeast starter for the first time and added yeast to DME and water, but did not realize that I needed to cook the mixture before adding the yeast. I have had the mixture sitting for about 24 hours. Can I make another batch of the DME mixture and add the old batch to it. or should I just pitch the mixture in its present form?

 

I think the problem is that the mixture was not allowed to sanitize in a boil. So at this point there's not much you can do to remedy that. I'm sure the yeast don't care whether the wort was boiled or not. But you probably have other organisms growing in your starter that may infect your brew.

 

Should I throw it away and start again or can I salvage? I have a full carboy just waiting for yeast, but it will have to wait a week to order a new yeast on line if I have to start over.

 

I would start over or just boil what you have in there to sterilize it than cool and pitch a new vial of yeast.

 

It might very well be fine. And honestly I don't know which is worse pitching the unboilded starter or waiting a week for a new vial. Let your nose and tastebuds be your guide. If the starter is fermented smell and taste a bit. If it smells horrible and tastes like vomit don't use. It probably won't taste great but as long as it doesn't make you gag then it might be ok. Yeast are resilient and if it was a pretty fresh vial they probably multiplied quicker then anything else in the starter. Leaving the wort sitting for a week without yeast is pretty risky too. If you don't have access to yeast locally you probably don't have much choice.

 

I just tasted it and it tastes surprisingly good! Sweet and a little like I remember Horlicks as a child. Given the comment about it being riskly to leave the wort sitting around for a week, I will go ahead and pitch.
How will I know if the yeast has been infected-- will it fail to ferment?

 

I would pitch the starter as it is at that is far more beneficial than waiting a week for new yeast.

The beer will ferment just fine. If it does become infected, trust me you'll know. You will either see some weird looking nasty growth on the top after fermentation or it will smell nasty and taste sour. If you have any questions later, take a picture and post it so we can see what it looks like

 

If this is an expensive beer kit, I would get new yeast to make a new starter. There's no point in wasting a $30 kit for a six dollar batch of yeast

 

A pellicle will likely form if it is infected. I think it's rad that you pitched this. Mistakes make for the best experiments! Please let us know how it ferments and what it ultimately ends up like.

 

I have another spin on this ..... Pitch what you have give it 3 weeks or so and taste it. If it tastes good your yeast was fine if not than leave it for a year and welcome to the world of wild brews and sours.