Yeast Starter Error

[Sixgun2764]

Hello All, I need some thoughts on my problem. Two days ago I started two 3 L starters for an amber ale. I have an old incubator that I got through work. I brew in my basement and the temps can dip into the high 50's in the winter, so I use the incubator to incubate the starters at around 75 F. When I went to place the starters in the incubator, I realized the GFI on the circuit for the incubator had tripped, I reset it and went on my way. Didn't occur to me to check the set point. When the powered cycled, the set point reset to 100 F. So I have to starters that have been incubating at 100F for two days, should I use them? Thanks

 

[McKnuckle]

I would use them, but no way would I include the starter beer. I'd refrigerate those puppies ASAP and let the yeast drop til the wort above is clear. Then pour it all off and pitch just the yeast. Remember that the point of a starter is to grow a larger yeast population, and yeast do that efficiently at such a warm temp. You just don't want to taste the resulting beer!

 

[VikeMan]

100F isn't immediately lethal to yeast. But it would have made the starter attenuate faster. After that, the high temperature would have caused you to lose more cells (they are slowly dying all the time, at any temperature) faster. But you certainly would still have some live yeast left.

As @McKnuckle mentioned, crash and decant this. I would decant with extreme prejudice, even if that left virtually nothing but yeast. In that case, you could add a little wort to get the yeast swirled up into suspension to make pitching easier.

 

[Sixgun2764]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll decant well and move forward. Thanks!