Possible starter issue

[ardonthorn5]

Howdy all! Doubled up a yeast starter for a lager I plan on brewing this weekend. Starter round 1 went great with no problems. Round 2 has me worried. After decanting I added the new wort then sealed with a foam stopper. Left overnight. Yesterday when I got home from work I wanted to check on my precious yeasties and found my stopper partially out for the flask. I'm a little worried I might have an infection. The starter okay....smells like lager yeast normally does. like lager yeast.

 

[501irishred]

So do you feel it might have gotten infected because the stopper came loose? As long as it was covered prior to active fermentation, and covered back before fermentation subsided (sounds like it was), the chance of infection is extremely small. Between the fact that a positive pressure is produced by CO2 production and the high concentration of yeast cells, its actually pretty difficult to infect a starter after active fermentation begins. The biggest risk is prior to pitching.

 

[winvarin]

I agree. Positive pressure is your likely cause, and not likely a cause for alarm.

Your experience is exactly why I do not use stoppers in my starters (lol).

I sanitize an ample size piece of aluminum foil and loosely form it over my flask's neck. This allows the starter to off gas while keeping dust and bacteria from falling in. As Jamil is fond of saying, bacteria don't have legs so the cant crawl into your flask. And things don't fall "up".

He even uses foil over the mouth of his carboys for the first few days of active fermentation when there is a lot of CO2 escaping.

 

[ardonthorn5]

thanks for the advice! like i said, it seemed okay, so i planned on using it. never had that happen before so i though i'd see what the community's opionion was.

 

[501irishred]

Yep, nothing wrong with an occasional "sanity check"....... Just curious about the foam stopper you use. Is it a single use item, or something you reuse? My first thought is that it might be tough to clean/sanitize.

 

[ardonthorn5]

i should probably throw it away and get some more ... i usually soak it in oxiclean and rough it up some while it's in the oxi/water solution. i soak it in star san then. before i use it, i do the same thing.

 

[501irishred]

Certainly more than one way to skin a cat, but is there an advantage to the foam stoppers that maybe I'm not seeing? As Winvarin mentioned, a chunk of tinfoil does the trick for many. Cheap, easy to sanitize, and disposable. With that said, I'm always up to learning something new.....