Don't transfer before coffee

[fourfarthing]

So this morning, my starter done, I transfer the slurry into two mason jars (one for today, one for the next time) after overbuilding. While I thought about sanitizing the jars, I completely forgot to do so.

Question, if you have a spare dry pack available, but this batch was specifically to try the liquid yeast on the same recipe do you:

1. Pitch the potentially infected yeast.
2. Pitch the dry
3. Say, screw it, call off the brew day until you can get a new starter of the liquid up and running.

Any thoughts are appreciated here as my head apparently isn't working today.

 

[flars]

Go with # 3 if you really wanted to try the liquid yeast with the recipe. Going with # 1 may not give you any information about the liquid yeast with the recipe if the yeast is infected. # 2 would give same results as # 1, no information on the liquid yeast, but you would most likely have a beer to drink and a brew day now.

Toss up between waiting and having a brew day.

 

[applescrap]

I would think it depends on how they were cleaned. Our dishwasher uses a heated dry which is also absolutely a sanitization step. It gets really hot. If this were the case I would think it would be okay. Even if it was cleaned really well with soap and water and rinsed really well it might be ok. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think there are threads where people have talked about stopping using sanitizer all together. Me personally if it didn't come from my dishwasher, I would probably use the dry yeast.

 

[IslandLizard]

Indeed, it depends on how clean and sanitary those mason jars were.

Were they brand new? Used, washed and dried? After hand washing and rinsing, the drying method is usually the critical factor. From a dishwasher I'd say chances are it's safe. You be the judge!

To test for infection, make some simple wort, like you'd make starter wort, say 1/2 a gallon, pitch some of the saved yeast in there and let it ferment out. If it was infected you'll know it in 1-3 weeks.

 

[IslandLizard]

Doing anything critical BC (Before Coffee) is a no-no here.

If you really want to brew today, use a dry yeast. Or if you can, buy another fresh liquid pack and make a "Vitality Starter" a la Brulosophy, and pitch that.

BTW, what yeast strain were you going to use?

 

[fourfarthing]

The Mason jars were washed in a dishwasher with a Heat clean, so should have been sterile... 5 days ago. They were stored upside down, but I took flars advice and passed on brewing.

I was trying out London III, which I have used for Porter and currently have a Winter warmer, but S-04 seems to leave a cidery taste and I wanted to isolate if a new yeast strain would eliminate it.

At the end, the knowledge I could gain ruled this one. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[TAK]

I know the time has passed, but I think another consideration would have been: do you keg or bottle? IF there was an infection, 99.9% (ok, an estimate) was London III. If you keg, that yeast is highly likely to be the only microbe to influence the flavor before crashing and force carbing. However, if you bottle, that o.1% could express itself over time.

 

[fourfarthing]

Good point, and I do bottle.