Beer Forum

Just looked at my starter and I see and gnat floating around in it. Definitely a gnat and not a fruit fly, would you still pitch it?

Sucks, this was a two yeast vial starter so I'd had to dump it, but this beer is going in a barrel so I'd had to infect it too.

Dumped it, didn't want to do anything stupid

Good move. There is absolutely no reason to knowingly throw bad bacteria into your beer.

That's why I never leave my starter so they'd have access. Cheesecloth, or perforated foil rubber banded in place, then loosely covered in foil.

Just take the gnat out and pitch it, who's to say the gnat would have infected it anyways, guess you'll never know now Tecumseh

But I guess better safe than sorry though huh

Cheese cloth is a great idea.

I can't belive that gnats are out. One day in the 50s and they're back. My wife decided to air out the house by leaving the garage door open, which is right in front of my starter. I had another starter going so I'll just step that one up and brew tomorrow.

ScottyB-Brewing wrote:Just take the gnat out and pitch it, who's to say the gnat would have infected it anyways, guess you'll never know now Tecumseh

But I guess better safe than sorry though huh

Chances are extremely high that it would have been infected.

I use the little foam stoppers in mine, and they seem to keep all the critters out, while allowing in oxygen.