Brown specks in yeast starter

[buckinin]

I started up a yeast starter last night and when I woke up this morning checked my stir plate to find small brown specks floating on the surface. I used dme, some yeast nutrient, and wyeast American ale yeast. Is this scorched dme or something that means I need to dump and start over?


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[flars]

I would suspect scorched DME. I don't know of any infection which would present like this. Caramelized DME would not be fermentable. Should not be a problem if your starter was designed to propagate more cells than the minimum required.

 

[brewmeister13]

Yup, should be good. I had that when I was working with WLP007 (I think). My first starter had that and I didn't get a clear enough answer, so I dumped it and started again. At the LHBS I noticed a couple of brown specs in one of the viles. They didn't know what it was, but took it off the shelf just in case. Anyways, I did a second starter and had the spots again. When I contacted WhiteLabs they told me that it is normal with some yeast and not to worry about it.