Crazy starter

[Ridenour64]

So this is a 2 liter starter in a 5 liter flask. Yeast = Sundew, which I’m super exited for. Definitely smells strongly of fruit and tastes like fruit out of the package. Anyways, I made the starter at night and the next morning there was a decent Krausen - maybe an inch or so. I always swirl a few times a day so when I did it that morning, nothing unusual. It foamed up an inch or 2 but that always happens. I put it back where it was and left. Came back later and it went on to over flow.

My question is, the crud that’s now at the top of the flask - does that pose risk for infection? I boiled in the flask so the flask was very well sanitized. The foil was sprayed with rubbing alcohol. I rubbed the year pack with alcohol prior to opening so sanitization was good.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Nah, you should be good. As long as you sanitized everything on the front end, there's really no way for any bugs to "spontaneously" grow inside your flask.

That being said, Charlie Talley (inventor of StarSan) said in an interview on the Brew Strong podcast that alcohol is difficult to use for sanitization, because it flashes (i.e., dries) too quickly to get enough contact time to kill the bugs (unless you submerge your equipment in it). I have no experience with using rubbing alcohol as a sanitizer; I'm just passing the info along as something you may want to research farther.

 

[Ridenour64]

I did read about that but what I read said the 90% was a bad sanitizer for that reason and that 70% was superior. I’ll have to take another look to be sure. I like keeping a bottle of rubbing alcohol around just because it’s shelf stable and I can use it in a pinch. Brew days, kegging etc, I use Star San.

 

[IslandLizard]

One drop of Fermcap-S when preparing your starter wort will prevent boil overs as well as reducing foam overs in your starter vessel during propagation.

In addition, you really should use a stir plate (or shaker) to help aerate the starter for better propagation, while it drives off CO2, thus reducing excessive foaming.

Before I used a stir plate (I now have orbital shakers), many times I lost about half my starter to the countertop, always overnight when no-one was around to swirl it.

 

[Ridenour64]

A stir plate has been on my list of things to buy. I guess I’ll have to make it a priority now. Never heard of a shaker I’ll look it up.

this is a first time for me. Usually I make 1 liter starters In a 2 liter flask and haven’t had a problem.

 

[IslandLizard]

Never heard of a shaker I’ll look it up.

They're orbital shakers used in labs. Think of an upside down orbital sander at very low speed, and making bigger circles.
I was lucky to score 2 of them. They weigh about 40 pounds a piece. Each will hold 4 2-liter flasks or 1/2 gallon pickle jars at a time.