black specs in my starter?

[Todd]

After my porter finished up I saved a bottle full of the yeast slurry. I've done this before and it has always worked well. I prepared a starter for this coming weekend and now I'm seeing a lot of little black specs, looks like coffee grounds. It is settled down with the yeast. Is this some sort of an infection?

 

[Gedvondur]

Black specks do not sound good to me.

Was there anything in the original slurry that could have been colored like that? I would have to say that if you can't figure out what those are, I would dump it out.

However, wiser heads may have different thoughts......


Gedvondur

 

[FlyGuy]

Did you wash the yeast cake from the porter before you made a starter with it? Was the porter a PM or AG batch? Perhaps you have some bits of husk in your starter, particularly from the dark roasted grains that were used in the porter.

 

[brewt00l]

Did you wash the yeast cake from the porter before you made a starter with it? Was the porter a PM or AG batch? Perhaps you have some bits of husk in your starter, particularly from the dark roasted grains that were used in the porter.

That sounds like a very likely cause

 

[DraconianHand]

Could be Beer Ticks. It is getting to be that time of year. You want to be careful about Beer Ticks because they carry LiME disease.

 

[Todd]

Did you wash the yeast cake from the porter before you made a starter with it? Was the porter a PM or AG batch? Perhaps you have some bits of husk in your starter, particularly from the dark roasted grains that were used in the porter.

Well I ended up dumping it, I just couldn't risk having it be infected.

The porter was AG and I'd like to think there was no grain parts in it but I can't be certain. I did not wash the yeast, I'm going to be sure to do that from now on. This was the first time I have not washed it and it didn't turn out well. The Porter is still good so I'm wondering if my bottle was not sanitized enough. Another thing that leads me to think infection is a few days after pitching in the starter I still had some bubbling activity which seems odd.

It was a 1 quart starter with about a cup of slurry.

As for the ticks I already treated it with frontline so I'm covered..

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've had them in 2 of my starters.

Funny I never noticed them until I made a Stir Plate. They seem to show up after 2 days of continious stirring.

The starter still tasted good so I used them. The beers are great.

Based upon that I would say use them. I did (successfully).