Dropped my stopper in the starter!

VeroBeachBrewer · Feb 19, 2012

Ok, I whipped up a starter using Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes. Everything was going fine - starter wort prepared, activator nicely swollen and added - then I screwed up and pushed the stopped completely into the jar. The rubber stopper was mostly sanitized in Starsan, but maybe not completely. Is the starter completely lost?

kh54s10 · Feb 19, 2012

Probably not. The yeast fermenting the wort should overpower anything bad in there.

Forget the stopper and just cover the opening with a sanitized piece of foil.

VeroBeachBrewer · Feb 19, 2012

That was my first instinct. How would I know if the starter is infected? I plan on brewing tomorrow.

jberg440 · Feb 20, 2012

I wouldn't sweat it until it starts growing fur!

Golddiggie · Feb 20, 2012

I used one of these in my flask for my last starter (on a stir plate)... Worked great. Before this, I was just using sanitized foil to keep things from falling in. It still allowed air in/out, but nothing bad. With the foam stopper, it has better gas flow, but it's still protected from getting an infection. Pretty damned cheap too.

BTW, I've seen it mentioned many times to not put airlocks on starters. Part of the point is to get a free flow of gases in both directions. The airlock will only allow gas out of the vessel. So, unless you're pulling the stopper, or airlock, to aerate the starter periodically, you're probably not getting the best results from the starter. Still, any starter is better than no starter at all.