I planned on brewing tonight, using a yeast starter. Starter was active for about 30 hours. Then while I was at work, my wife (in an effort to help out) put the starter in the fridge, like I asked, in order to get the yeast out of suspension. However, she placed the starter in the refrigerator, uncovered. Ooops. It sat in the fridge for about 2.5 hours before I noticed. I put some cling wrap over the flask and its still in the fridge.
I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - its hot and wet here (perfect for growing all sorts of nasty bugs), but the starter is in the fridge albeit uncovered for 2.5 hours. Is it safe to use tonight?
Unfortunately it probably is not safe to use. Refrigerators are not sanitary by any means. If I were in your boat and lived in a place where getting yeast was problematic I would use dry yeast. The shelf life is much more stable and, best of all, no starter is needed (in fact it can be detrimental to yeast health). US-05 is my favorite dry yeast. Its very clean, attenuative and easy to use.
Major, that’s what I thought…too bad, but I appreciate the confirmation.
Thanks for the advice, I’ll order and keep some S-05 on hand for future batches. Now, I wonder how quickly I can get some shipped out here…living in the Far East makes homebrewing a challenge, to say the least!
If it was me, and there was no yeast in sight within a week, and since it was only 2.5 hours, I would squirt some sanitizer in/on there to clean the vessel, then pour off the top inch or two, and use the rest…Then again, I like living dangerously.