Scorched DME for Yeast Starter! Thrash it?

[joeldp144]

I am brewing a Bavarian Hefeweizen (Blood Orange Hefe from Extreme Brewing), and I am using the WLP300 yeast. When making my starter wort today, I noticed that my "light" dme had yielded an amber color with some apparent solids floating in it. The solids were a fine dark color, and I assume that this resulted from some slight scorching. It was the last of my DME, so I went ahead and pitched my yeast into it. In hindsight, I would have just underpitched the yeast directly into my primary.

My questions are:

1) Should I abandon this brew until I can re-order a replacement yeast? This would be a disappointing option considering I have been planning this brew session for months now.

2) Can I minimize the taste affects of this relatively minor scorching by cold crashing and discarding the liquid rather than pitching the full pint into the primary? Then I could just pitch the yeast cake into the primary and discard some of the off flavors. Makes sense to me, but I just won't have a ton of time to crash the starter (maybe 5 hours?).

3) Am I overthinking this whole thing and the 2.5% addition (1 quart of a little scorched wort added to 5 gallons)? Maybe it really isn't that big of a deal?

Needless to say, my afternoon has been shot thinking about how I may have ruined this beer that I was (and still am) so excited about.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I need a shoulder.....or better yet a beer.

 

[dirtdigger]

I'm no expert, so some of the more experienced folks may give better guidance.
Did you taste/smell the wort after boiling? taste/smell scorched?
Did the starter take off OK? How does it smell?
The yeast probably don't care if the sugars are a little burnt.
I'd probably opt for your #2 approach, but since time is an issue, I really think that #3 applies, as long as the starter took off.
All the best with your brew!
RDWHAHB!!!!!!

 

[eddie]

You're worrying too much. I'd just pitch the whole thing to the beer. It won't hurt anything.

 

[joeldp144]

I'm no expert, so some of the more experienced folks may give better guidance.
Did you taste/smell the wort after boiling? taste/smell scorched?
Did the starter take off OK? How does it smell?
The yeast probably don't care if the sugars are a little burnt.
I'd probably opt for your #2 approach, but since time is an issue, I really think that #3 applies, as long as the starter took off.
All the best with your brew!
RDWHAHB!!!!!!

I did taste the wort and there was a slight burned taste to it. The wort was an amber color, so it wasn't totally scorched. I think some little solids fell to the bottom and just burned. It generally smelled normal with a hint of burned smell.

As of this morning, the yeast is working, so that part of the equation appears to be successful. The airlock smell is completely normal.

I expect this yeast to be in full suspension for a while since it is a hefe, so I guess that I am going with option 3 since the yeast kicked off.

Thanks for the advice!

Also, I noticed my math was wrong. The starter is 5% of the total wort.

 

[joeldp144]

Update: I decided to pour the whole starter into the primary. I kegged the hefe earlier this week (after only 10 days of fermentation is was done), and I tasted it last night. It had no apparent burnt taste, so it looks like the minimal scorching didn't affect the flavor at all.

Thanks for the advice Brew-Team!