Fruit flies in the starter

[spiderwrangler]

If you have issues with fruit flies, it's certainly best to get rid of them before making your starter if you are using the foil over the opening method that Whitey and others have recommended (this applies less for folks using airlocks or foam stoppers). However, as anyone who has been visited by these pesky buggers knows, they can show up from nowhere, so a handy trick to get the gas exchange and no headspace pressure of using foil, but preventing flies (and all the bacteria and yeast on their feet) from getting in is to do the following:
1. After setting up your starter, wrap foil over the opening and secure it tightly with a rubber band.
2. Using a sanitized pin or needle, gently poke a series of holes in this layer of foil, taking care not to rip it. Essentially, you are making a screen, and I suppose one could use mesh or screen, but foil is cheap and easy, and can be recycled after each use... less sanitization to potentially worry about.
3. Loosely wrap a second piece of foil over the top of the flask. Flies are prevented from dropping into your starter, it's shielded from airborne dust particles, and it allows for gas exchange with the yeast pressure free.

[Brew Swillis]

does quartering the offender and posting its parts at the four corners of the brew property not quell such fly behavior?

[mordantly]

for flasks, the foam stoppers are the greatest invention ever.

[animaldoc]

does quartering the offender and posting its parts at the four corners of the brew property not quell such fly behavior?

Indeed it does not, for these ignoble creatures care not a whit for the untimely demise of their brethren, nor doth the horrfic nature of their fate deter the loutish beasts .........



Thanks for the tip -- fruit flies are the reason I bought foam stoppers.

[brewinhard]

If you have issues with fruit flies, it's certainly best to get rid of them before making your starter if you are using the foil over the opening method that Whitey and others have recommended (this applies less for folks using airlocks or foam stoppers). However, as anyone who has been visited by these pesky buggers knows, they can show up from nowhere, so a handy trick to get the gas exchange and no headspace pressure of using foil, but preventing flies (and all the bacteria and yeast on their feet) from getting in is to do the following:
1. After setting up your starter, wrap foil over the opening and secure it tightly with a rubber band.
2. Using a sanitized pin or needle, gently poke a series of holes in this layer of foil, taking care not to rip it. Essentially, you are making a screen, and I suppose one could use mesh or screen, but foil is cheap and easy, and can be recycled after each use... less sanitization to potentially worry about.
3. Loosely wrap a second piece of foil over the top of the flask. Flies are prevented from dropping into your starter, it's shielded from airborne dust particles, and it allows for gas exchange with the yeast pressure free.

Good tip!

[spiderwrangler]

Yes, I do like the idea of the foam stoppers in general, but if you do have a bunch of flies running around on top of the foam and the lip of the flask, there are additional concerns about sanitizing the foam for future use and flaming the lip of the flask before pouring. The foil keeps them off the lip. I also use foil on my carboys when I've got the stoppered airlock in there... on at least three different times in the archives JZ's bitched about the little crack between the stopper and the opening, and how he gets freaked out about dust settling in there and later falling into the beer. Wrap that thing in foil, no issue.

[Brewdouche]

Cliff Clavin factoid

I recently learned that fruit flies eat yeast. I figured well hell since I spend so much time brewing, and learning more brew stuff learning more about my enemy wasn't a bad idea.

http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/ ... inny1.html

[jwatkins56550]

Yes, I do like the idea of the foam stoppers in general, but if you do have a bunch of flies running around on top of the foam and the lip of the flask, there are additional concerns about sanitizing the foam for future use and flaming the lip of the flask before pouring. The foil keeps them off the lip. I also use foil on my carboys when I've got the stoppered airlock in there... on at least three different times in the archives JZ's bitched about the little crack between the stopper and the opening, and how he gets freaked out about dust settling in there and later falling into the beer. Wrap that thing in foil, no issue.

You can autoclave those foam stoppers if you have a pressure cooker