Does Anyone Worry About Covering Their Starter?

[Pelikan]

So I just found out yesterday that not only UV, but light in the blue-green spectrum up to 520 nm will cause beer to skunk. How true that statement is, I'm not sure, but it any case...

..do any of you worry about covering your starter flasks? I just have mine sitting on my desk, so I can watch it bubble away while I surf the net. There's no intense lighting in this room, but I don't have it covered or anything.

Supplementary question: Isn't skunking caused by some reaction with the hop substances anyway? In other words, would skunking even be an issue with the unhopped wort I'm using in the starter flask? And for that matter, could skunking occur in the 2-3 days that a starter flask is out?

Ultimately, I doubt my liter of starter would impart any nast-o flavors when one considers what a small fraction of the final brew it will form, but I have to ask.

 

[Shonuff]

I always cover mine because it def. won't hurt to cover it. Light probably won't affect your starter unless you had hops to it but I cover it anyway.

Peace of mind.

 

[flyangler18]

No hops, no skunking. I leave my starters on my kitchen counter.

 

[bull8042]

I don't cover mine, but not because of intent, but rather lack of thought. However, I do keep it in a separate room for temperature stability which also happens to be out of direct sunlight and in only periodic artificial light. I have seen no ill effects as a result thus far.

 

[Pelikan]

No hops, no skunking. I leave my starters on my kitchen counter.

I figured as much. The room I have my starter in has fairly dim artificial light, and zero natural light, so I think I'm okay.

 

[cee3]

I actually add a small amount of hops to my starter media. I've been making my starters 3 gal (12 qt jars) at a time following instructions in Dave Miller's old Complete Handbook of Home Brewing. I have not been covering them, and they sit on a shelf in my living room for the few days of their existence. No problems. I decant the starter wort off the trub and I siphon the beer off the yeast before pitching.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I always cover mine as well.

 

[john from dc]

So I just found out yesterday that not only UV, but light in the blue-green spectrum up to 520 nm will cause beer to skunk. How true that statement is, I'm not sure,

it's true...

it's the interaction between light and isomerized hop resins so if you don't put hops in your starter it won't skunk.

that being said, lots of us do stir or swirl up our starters frequently to promote yeast reproduction. this will oxidize the starter beer and is the reason a lot of us pour most of it off the top of the yeast sediment before pitching.

 

[Pelikan]

it's true...
that being said, lots of us do stir or swirl up our starters frequently to promote yeast reproduction. this will oxidize the starter beer and is the reason a lot of us pour most of it off the top of the yeast sediment before pitching.

Would it, though? I only agitate until I see visible action going on, then stop. But to my knowledge, once the airlock starts bubbling all O2 is out of there, yeah? Regardless, isn't oxidation only important regarding a beer with complex malt profiles, not to mention hops? Starter solution is more or less glorified sugar water...

...just curious for my own benefit and knowledge. Not trying to be one of those nitty forum people.

 

[john from dc]

no, curiosity is good. there's a lot of conflicting info out there (especially on oxidation) so its smart to take everything with a grain of salt.

in that spirit, i'll say that i don't have a definitive answer to your question. i personally continue to shake the crap out of my starters every time i walk by until i'm ready to use them. then i pour off the (almost certainly) oxidized beer and call it good enough.

i see the logic behind only shaking the starter during the early reproductive stages of yeast activity and i know that a lot of o2 is either consumed by the yeast or scrubbed out by the co2 created during fermentation. if a trusted source, or a bunch of well meaning anonymous sources told me that doing so is enough to protect the beer from oxidation i'd believe them.

edit: i wouldn't change my process, because it works for me. but i wouldn't have any reason to doubt them.

 

[millstone]

I always cover mine, I made a foil umbrella of sorts to keep out the daylight as well as room light.

tom

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

I make mine the night before the brew, waiting carefully until the sun has set . I am worried about all those magnetic forces from the stir plate though)

 

[giligson]

I make mine the night before the brew, waiting carefully until the sun has set . I am worried about all those magnetic forces from the stir plate though)

You're kidding right??

I cover with Aluminum foil bent crosswise to allow air to enter but keep junk from falling into the starter (as someone said - a foil umbrella)

I try to get as much air in as possible - if it were easy I would even consider bubbling oxygen in.

The starter is not really a mini beer, its a bioreactor for yeast growth.

Yes you could use sucrose or glucose in the starter rather than wort but I feel that it would mean the yeast would then have to make a metabolic shift from eating glucose to eating maltose (this entails RNA and protein synthesis steps that may slow down the fermentation at the early pitching stage) - although this is probably more superstition than proven.

 

[WBC]

If you guys have not read this then please do. It will clear up misconceptions a lot.

 

[neuron555]

I used to put foil loosely over the top of my starters, but then I noticed some fruit flies buzzing around the neck of the growler. Since I don't know what fly parts do to head retention (protein, you know), I got a large stopper and put an airlock on the growler. No flies, and no oxygen getting in, plus it's brown glass.