Cube algae growth in boiled water?

[DJ_L3ThAL]

As per the title, boiled a batch of water and put into a PBW cleaned and sanitised (starsan) 17L cube which was previously a fresh wort kit on 14th November 2013.

I did this to store boiled water for yeast washing, haven't used any since some time in December and the cubes been sitting in my laundry which gets some natural light, but not direct sunlight.

Used it for washing yeast tonight and noticed floaties in the water (refer attached photosa, sorry on camera phone so not quite macro quality), mostly at the bottom but would move when I swished the water around. Is it some type of algal growth because it has had "some" sunlight?

The water/cube inside had that "lemony" scent of starsan still. I tipped the water but in hindsight should have checked the pH.

I've kept the yeast I'm washing hoping someone has seen/done this before and it's not an issue, but at same time if it's algae or some form of coagulation of crap I'll just tip the yeast to be safe also!

Thoughts?

 

[StaticPhase]

I had some sanitiser in a cube for a couple weeks, same deal; out of direct sun light but around natural light of the room, and BAM! floaties... decided to drain it and mix up a new batch...

only other thing I could think of is somesort of oxidisation something something? did you purge the dead space with CO2?

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

No didn't purge the headspace. Cant see how it would be oxidation if left undisturbed though?

 

[Camo6]

Can you see any 'diamond' formations? I had Sea Monkeys once and they had a penchant for baseball. My vote is on Sea Monkey infestation.

 

[QldKev]

If I look close in the first pic, it looks like a women's breasts against a mammogram.

I find if you are going to store them long term, keep them full with a capful of napisan.

 

[StaticPhase]

No didn't purge the headspace. Cant see how it would be oxidation if left undisturbed though?

Just throwing out curve balls... can't really explain it to be honest...

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Can you see any 'diamond' formations? I had Sea Monkeys once and they had a penchant for baseball. My vote is on Sea Monkey infestation.

Nah, no diamond formations. I did think sea monkeys as I remember having that kit as a kid! If anything it looks like there was dust/fluff in the cube before filling with the water, which I know for a fact was not the case.

If I look close in the first pic, it looks like a women's breasts against a mammogram.

I find if you are going to store them long term, keep them full with a capful of napisan.

I wasn't "storing" it long term per-say, just hoping to be able to keep sterile water on hand for yeast rinsing. I think I'll commandeer some kitchen jars or even some soft drink PET bottles and store the water in the fridge from now on?




So does anyone have a recommendation for the yeast that was rinsed with this water, put it down as a learning and turf it, or store and build a starter and pray this time my senses can pick up any funnies going on?

 

[marksy]

Make a starter and taste it. Then you will truly know.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Yea I figured that'd be the only good option besides just turfing it! I might as well build a starter of a little bit of the harvested yeast for testing/learning purposes because the last starter I built was infected with lacto and I thought it was a slightly sour/bitter/astringent flavour from the hops in the leftover wort I used to build it.

Will make this starter from LDME so it's as flavour neutral as possible and see how it goes. Suppose I only need to make a really small step like 200mL and taste that to tell so won't be much wastage worst case.

Will post back!

 

[marksy]

Standing by for results...

I made an awesome coopers starter once, the beer smelt so good, till my bulk priming stage and I used mint detergent to clean the bp vessel.