yeast starter pulled in water

[Elfmaze]

Forgot about the contraction thing when cold crashing a yeast starter and it sucked in some tap water through not the cleanest blowoff tube ever made.


Is it risky to still use the yeast stater?


I had a smack pack that took a week or two to swell but it has finally swollen. I had given up on it after four or five days(it was months old and not refridgerated)

Should I toss the possibly contaminated yeast starter and use the old but apparently still kicking yeast?

 

[Newsman]

Silly question that doesn't answer your question, but you do realize that a starter is supposed to be made with access to oxygen/air, right? The yeast needs oxygen to grow and reproduce. Just wondering why you have a blowoff tube on a starter?

 

[LakeErieMonster]

Yeah, in the future do not put an airlock or blowoff tube on your starters. Sanitize a piece of aluminum foil and cover the top of the starter. The yeast needs oxygen to keep reproducing and bring up their numbers.

 

[Faseel]

Although the smack pack took a while to get underway, and clearly the strain is a little bit weak, it's still in a sterile smack pack so you know pretty much you have 95% percent chance you have the right strain although it's weak.
Me, I would do another pre-pitch with the smack pack let it get up to speed and use it.

Your other starter may be fine but it there's some unknown there.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[IslandLizard]

It's your call how clean and well sanitized the blowoff tube and jar is. An open jar with water and a tube in it is not a sanitary setup. At least Starsan prevents things from growing or hatching in there.

If you want to be 100% sure you can brew in a couple days, I would start with a new pack and make a new starter. Or if you have the time, grow a new batch with the old expired pack, which may take 2 rounds to get enough yeast built up.

The possibly infected one, if you like to experiment and do one for the record to see, decant the starter beer, hoping the sucked back water is still pretty much on top and you may be able to flush out whatever nasties got in there. You could even do an acid wash. Make a new starter with the leftover slurry. If anything bad is growing in there you'll probably know within a week at room temps, but not everything may show up until way later.

Why do you use a blowoff on a starter? You don't want to make beer at that point, you want to grow yeast. The idea is to get gas (air/O2) exchange, hence the loose fitting aluminum "cap" and continuous agitation/swirling. Just add one drop of Fermcap-S to your starter wort when you boil it up. It keeps the foaming and krausen down.

Blowoffs should not be used when cold crashing unless you have a "break" in the line. I found out the hard way and ended up with a pint to a quart of Starsan in my beer once. It became a Blown Amber from there on.

Oh, you can make starters in any kind of glass jar, like pickle jars or clear growlers, unless you use a stir plate, then the bottom must be flat.

 

[flars]

Your old yeast is very stressed. Start the yeast with a very low OG starter, 1.010.
Here is a link to a pitch rate/starter calculator to help out.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

 

[Elfmaze]

I kept it capped with aluminum untill the Krausen started forming then capped because i had some yeasty messes from starters. Fern cap might be a good idea for the future.

So probably consider this batch contaminated and start building up the new set.

 

[grainbill]

I use open cell foam stoppers, got mine at Williams. www.williamsbrewing.com/7-8-FOAM-STOPPER-P434.aspx They sanitize from the steam created when heating the starter. In some 20 yrs, never have had a starter go bad...

 

[rekoob]

I use open cell foam stoppers, got mine at Williams. www.williamsbrewing.com/7-8-FOAM-STOPPER-P434.aspx They sanitize from the steam created when heating the starter. In some 20 yrs, never have had a starter go bad...

that's what I have too. works great.

 

[Elfmaze]

I use open cell foam stoppers, got mine at Williams. www.williamsbrewing.com/7-8-FOAM-STOPPER-P434.aspx They sanitize from the steam created when heating the starter. In some 20 yrs, never have had a starter go bad...

Damn thats a shame, I have a box in the mail from Williams with my Big Oxygen wand. The ferm cap keeps the Krausen from blowing that stopper out?

 

[grainbill]

You really shouldn't be having Krausen blow with your starters. You may be using to much DME for "food". Williams cheat sheet below. I typically brew 10 batches so I do a starter and do a second, doubling the volume. I get really fast starts. I do not use a stir plate...yet....

www.williamsbrewing.com/pdfs/q27 yeast starter kit.pdf

 

[flars]

You will often have krausen over flow with the shake and swirl starter method in an Erlenmeyer flask if it is too small. A stir plate will hold the krausen formation to a minimum because of the constant stirring in the same size flask.

You don't need a flask to make a starter. Any container will do. If you are using a stir plate the container only needs to have a flat bottom to keep the stir bar from being thrown. Cook the starter wort in a kettle and cool. Pour to your starter container and add the yeast.

Gallon wine or cider jugs work very well. The large pickle jars work great also. Large mouth size makes them easy to clean.

 

[Elfmaze]

2000ml flask 200 grams of DME. Stir plate. I didn't think Krausen used to be a problem... But the last two have been. Maby it's the DME I bought?