Forgot foil on starter

[kickflip_mj]

Such a rookie move. Made a 3.5 liter starter with WLP001 yesterday. I was in a rush to get to a engagement party and threw the starter on the stir plate after it chilled and forgot the foil top...... Use or throw? Its been 18 hours or so.

 

[vincentAlpha]

Depends, if you've got more to make another starter it may be the safer move. I'd be asking the 'common sense' kind of questions: Do you see anything wrong with the starter? Does it smell like previous ones? Where did you store it, could anything have fallen into it? etc...

I'd be thinking you are OK but if you can get away with making another it may just be the better plan, a vial (or jar of washed yeast) and some DME is cheaper than a wasted batch. Just my 2c.

 

[kickflip_mj]

It looks good to me, smells fine. It was on my kitchen counter. Nothing floating.

I dont have enough for another starter, which kinda sucks.

 

[vincentAlpha]

You're probably fine then, could always let the starter go on a bit longer and see if anything funky develops over the next little bit though my money would be on if there was gonna be nastiness it'd have shown up by now.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I agree with the above. The real issue is how much free bacteria and wild yeast is in your household. Nothing to do with your personal cleanliness practices, it just varies from region to region. A starter in my house might be contaminated within a few hours while yours might be fine for 3 days. If you want to do an experiment later for your personal knowledge, place a shallow dish with cold wort on the countertop where you normally do starters, and see how long it takes to start growing.

 

[stpug]

3.5 liter starter is big. If this was a second/third step starter then I would be less worried than if it was a single retail vial/pouch. The reasoning is that next steps tend to go really quickly which leaves less room for bacteria and wild yeast to take hold of the starter. However, a single vial/pouch in 3.5 liters of wort might take a day or more to really get going which gives ample opportunity for "unwanteds" to get in and grow.

If everything looks good then I would personally take the chance, but I'm a gamblin' man too .

 

[kickflip_mj]

3.5 liter starter is big. If this was a second/third step starter then I would be less worried than if it was a single retail vial/pouch. The reasoning is that next steps tend to go really quickly which leaves less room for bacteria and wild yeast to take hold of the starter. However, a single vial/pouch in 3.5 liters of wort might take a day or more to really get going which gives ample opportunity for "unwanteds" to get in and grow.

If everything looks good then I would personally take the chance, but I'm a gamblin' man too .

Yeah I normally do 15-20 gallon batches. Actually a 3.5 liter starter can be on the smaller scale.

I think im going to go with it, I put it in the fridge for a day or so. Definitely gambling now.

 

[trentm]

If you want to do an experiment later for your personal knowledge, place a shallow dish with cold wort on the countertop where you normally do starters, and see how long it takes to start growing.

That's a neat idea. It might be more precise if you had a few dishes you could cover and do some tests over time. Say 3 dishes. Leave one for an hour and cover. One for 3 hours and cover. Then one for 8 hours and cover. Or some variation of that scheme.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

That would be an interesting experiment.
What we are really doing when we boil wort, sanitize our instruments and clean our containers is reducing the chance of stray microbes colonizing our wort, giving the yeast a heavy head start. I suspect there has never been a starter or a beer batch anywhere without some level of unwanted microbe contamination.

In other words, do what you can and leave the rest up to the beer gods.

 

[trentm]

In other words, do what you can and leave the rest up to the beer gods.

We ask this in the name of Ninkasi...Amen.