Black in my starter

[MickDundee]

I’m going to start a “is everything ok?!?!?!?” thread.

I have crashed my lager yeast starter overnight to do a second step tonight/tomorrow for a brew on Sunday/Monday.

big black bits have settled on the bottom. Given I’m a relative newbie to liquid yeast is this normal? The yeast is Omega German Lager

EDIT - a lot of the black in the picture is just shadow. It’s just settled in the 4 “feet” at the bottom of the bottle.

 

[Clint]

What's for tea mother... maggots?

 

[strange-steve]

I've noticed little black bits occasionally, I (rightly or wrongly) put it down to pieces of burnt DME from the heat being too high and/or not mixing the DME in properly before boiling. Never caused me any issues, but give it the smell/taste test before you use it.

 

[BlackRegent]

How did you boil your wort before adding the yeast? In my early days of making starters, I tipped my malt (I use LME) into the boiling water on the hob and it promptly burnt to **** on the bottom of my Erlenmeyer. I now know to dissolve it in hot water before then boiling it on the stove. Could just be burnt malt as suggested above?

 

[MickDundee]

Cheers all. I’ll go on the assumption it’s burnt malt. I added boiling water to the DME, gave it a good stir and boiled for 5mins. Our pans are prone to stuff sticking so it makes sense. A tiny bit of black like that won’t have an effect on 23L of Munich Helles.

 

[Zephyr259]

Yeah, I also see it occasionally and think it's (harmless) burnt DME.

 

[MickDundee]

Yeah, I also see it occasionally and think it's (harmless) burnt DME.

Glad it seems (relatively) common. It’s only my 4th ever yeast starter, (my second using DME -1st 2 were a few of years ago and with H&B LME) and it’s the first time I’ve seen it.