Starter Overflow

[ox45]

So I was making a starter. I originally tossed in one smack pack into 3L of wort, let it go and crashed. Decanted off the spent wort and put in about 1.75L of new wort. Well I woke up this morning to a puddle of sticky yeast and wort and the tinfoil cap had been pushed completely off. Am I OK to still use this with the tinfoil being off potentially the entire night? Also, should I re-step it up a little to account for the lost yeast in the overflow?

Thanks!

 

[grathan]

You could cold crash it to get an idea if how much yeast was lost.

Next time, why not try pouring most of the yeast into a 2nd container and build up a 2nd new starter?

 

[ox45]

Might just have to do that next time! I'm just surprised the 3L didn't overflow, but the 2L volcanoed!

Should I worry about infection with the cap being off all night?

 

[hiphops]

I don't think so. I've had a similar thing happened and decided what the heck and used it, which produced a nice beer. I think you're ok b/c the alcohol that was created in the starter would have killed off the bacteria that could have infected the wort. Also, I've come to learn that infections are rare; so long as you are reasonable with sanitation, infections are rare. Yeast is a pretty tough animal; tougher than humans.

 

[grathan]

It volcanoed because there was significantly more yeast attacking the fresh wort. It's kinda like doing another batch on top of a yeast cake.