Black Flecks in Yeast Starter

[Yrogerg1089]

I fear I may have made an error. Last night (Thursday) I created a yeast starter for my Kolsch I am planning on brewing Saturday. Mr. Malty and I decided that I needed a 1L starter. The pot I normally use for starters wasn't large enough and I was in a bit of a rush. So I quick moved the concoction to a larger pot, which seemed to be clean. Everything went fine, pitched the yeast, shook the crap out of it, and went to bed. This morning, to my dismay, I found black flecks on the bottom of the flask. I checked the pot I had grabbed in haste and found that it had some burn marks from previous uses. Apparently the boiling process had loosened some of the material and allowed it to mix with the solution. My question is this: Should I redo the starter in a clean(er) pot or should I just pitch it and cross my fingers. I know that it may be possible to decant some of the solution and taste it. Not sure how good of an indicator that would be in detecting any infection.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ChuBru]

I doubt you have an infection..i would let it finish,cold crash and decant and taste the decanted starter beer..if it tastes like yeasty flat unhopped beer you are good to go...i have seen black specks in many starters never had a problem

 

[ChuBru]

you will know if its infected by how it tastes...if it tastes sour,nasty,horrible,smells like crap..you will know if its infected

 

[ACbrewer]

Starter usually tastes like crap, so a taste test might night work. Starter is after all, unhopped, flat, oxygenated beer.

That said, it has a flavor that isn't like an infected beer.

And you mentioned 'black flecks' if they are sinkers, they probaby aren't bacterial. They sound like carbon (from a burn/scorching) or paint flecks - from an enamled pot.

Since you boiled your starter, and the source of these is the pot you boiled in, I lean towards the 'your starter is fine' camp.