Is my starter SOL?

[mpruett]

This afternoon, I made myself a starter consisting of a gallon of 1.034 wort & one XL pack of the Wyeast 2782 Staro Pilsner yeast.

In the process of trying to put the stopper in, I spazzed out and accidentally pushed the sanitized stopper all the way through the neck of my gallon jug.

My issue now is: Am I in trouble due to the stopper being in the starter? Should I go get another stopper at the LHBS, or should I get a new jug and just start over and make a new starter?

(need to know by about 5 pm CST tomorrow - 11/9/08)

 

[Cheeto]

Get another stopper and continue on your path, if you sanitized your stopper before adding it to your starter chances are you will be just fine.

 

[Revvy]

Many of us no longer use stoppers and airlocks on our starters. We use sanitized tinfoil instead. The prevailing opinion is that O2 is good for our starter's health, so locking it out with an airlock is not thought to be a good idea.

Oh, and if you sanitized it before using it, you will be fine...sadly though, I wish you luck getting it out.

 

[mpruett]

I think I may just go slap some sanitized tin-foil on the top then!

 

[Revvy]

I think I may just go slap some sanitized tin-foil on the top then!

Yup, that;s what I was getting at.

 

[HalfPint]

I believe I've seen a post somewhere Revvy where you said you've stuck your entire arm into a fermenter to get one of those baby's out!

 

[slouch]

I believe I've seen a post somewhere Revvy where you said you've stuck your entire arm into a fermenter to get one of those baby's out!

I read that post too. It's one I remember as giving me courage in the face of the many blunders I have done.

 

[slouch]

I think I may just go slap some sanitized tin-foil on the top then!

I think you will be fine with that. I still use stoppers, but just because I have them, not because I think they are special.

Just in case something does go wrong with my starters, I keep an active mother. Sort of a starter for starters. I feed it regularly just like I feed my bread starter, but only use it to make other starters.

That way I keep a "1st generation" yeast. (what ever that is supposed to mean for a single cell organism that reproduces a zillion times faster then any of the rabbits I raised as a kid.)

That is sort of the old school way of yeast maintenance. Easy compared to slants, even though I do want to get into slants some day.

 

[Revvy]

I believe I've seen a post somewhere Revvy where you said you've stuck your entire arm into a fermenter to get one of those baby's out!

It was the lighter I was using to tilt my bottling bucker. It was because of that that I came up with the bottling bucket dip tube.

 

[conpewter]

Once the starter is done, look up the youtube video on removing a cork from a bottle, you can use the same method to get the stopper out of your 1 gallon jug (involves a plastic bag)

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I think I may just go slap some sanitized tin-foil on the top then!

Yup, foil will work just fine. In fact, that's all I've ever done with starters.

 

[mpruett]

I put the tinfoil on the jug, and it's in the cooler at 65 right now... haven't looked at it today though.

I'm hedging my bets though; got another jug, a more correctly sized stopper and another smack-pack of yeast for a parallel starter. I figure at worst, I have a good starter, and at best, I can cold-crash them both, decant, and pitch what amounts to a 2 gallon starter for my lager.

We shall see how it works out... I'm not planning on brewing until the 21st anyway.

 

[mpruett]

FWIW... when I got home yesterday evening, I took it out of the cooler, and looked at it- it has some foam on top (not full krausen though), and smells like it's fermenting correctly, so I think I might be ok!

 

[HalfPint]

FWIW... when I got home yesterday evening, I took it out of the cooler, and looked at it- it has some foam on top (not full krausen though), and smells like it's fermenting correctly, so I think I might be ok!

I find that I don't typically get a lot of krausen with small starters (the starters I make in my 1000 ml flask). Sometimes I do, but not always.

 

[mpruett]

Update 12/1/09:

Back on Nov 22nd, I brewed, and used both starters- they worked rather well. Even though I didn't exactly follow the best procedure (pitched at about 70 degrees, and cooled to 50 asap), it still did well- it smells like beer (well, beer and farts), and not like anything that I wouldn't expect in a lager fermentation.

 

[mpruett]

Update 8/27/2010:

So I ended up leaving it in the lagering fridge until about mid July due to a combination of being busy, being lazy and extraordinary oppressive heat.

I bottled it, and let it carbonate, and tried it last week.

Just fine! Definitely a lager- not a lot of off flavors at all. The main complaint I have about it is that there doesn't seem to be any particularly strong flavors at all- it's like a slightly watered down Helles in flavor.