Witbeir Starter Went Bad
Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:37 pm
So my stir plate died about a week ago (it may or may not be full of brown ale 
) but the brew must go own. I prepped a 2L 1.040 starter @ 72F for the Witbier recipe I pulled out of Jamil's BCS, dropped in my vial of WLP400, and decide to give it a blast of O2 for about 30 sec (since it wasn't going to be on the stir plate). Things looked alright but after about 8 hours I still hadn't seen any activity, so I decided to give it another mini blast of O2 (10 sec) and went to bed.
This morning I woke up to a mess. The krausen had lifted my foil lid off and the whole thing was a brown, sticky mess. When I saw it I immediately sanitized a new piece of foil and covered up the flask, then proceeded to clean up the mess. My question to you guys is if I should let the thing finish out, chill, and pitch like I normally would or if I should just start over with fresh yeast?
The starter tastes fine (about 24 hours after pitching) and I don't get any off aromas but I'm not sure if I should use it since the foil lid was off for an indeterminate amount of time (max 8 hours). Do you guys think that the krausen would have prevented any nasties from getting in, or is it just that any infectious organisms haven't had a chance to multiply yet (like a ticking infection timebomb)? Any advice would be appreciated, its my first time working with the strain so I'd love some insight from you Belgian lovers.
) but the brew must go own. I prepped a 2L 1.040 starter @ 72F for the Witbier recipe I pulled out of Jamil's BCS, dropped in my vial of WLP400, and decide to give it a blast of O2 for about 30 sec (since it wasn't going to be on the stir plate). Things looked alright but after about 8 hours I still hadn't seen any activity, so I decided to give it another mini blast of O2 (10 sec) and went to bed.This morning I woke up to a mess. The krausen had lifted my foil lid off and the whole thing was a brown, sticky mess. When I saw it I immediately sanitized a new piece of foil and covered up the flask, then proceeded to clean up the mess. My question to you guys is if I should let the thing finish out, chill, and pitch like I normally would or if I should just start over with fresh yeast?
The starter tastes fine (about 24 hours after pitching) and I don't get any off aromas but I'm not sure if I should use it since the foil lid was off for an indeterminate amount of time (max 8 hours). Do you guys think that the krausen would have prevented any nasties from getting in, or is it just that any infectious organisms haven't had a chance to multiply yet (like a ticking infection timebomb)? Any advice would be appreciated, its my first time working with the strain so I'd love some insight from you Belgian lovers.