Fruit fly in starter - stuffed?

[jonw]

I think I know the answer to this already ;-)

I made a 4L starter of WLP051 and put it on my stir plate last night, loosely covered with foil. This morning there's a tiny fruit fly spinning round on the surface. I fished it out with a sanitised spoon, but I guess it's too late and the starter is stuffed.

Would you chuck it out or risk pitching it?

Cheers,

Jon

 

[Bribie G]

Being a fruit fly, they love yeast - the yeast of fermenting fruit attacts them which is why fruit fly baits are based on yeasts.
So chances are he was covered with yeast from his last meal. I'd be very cautious about using the starter.

Why not take a small portion of wort and pitch the yeast from the starter into that and have a taste in a few days to see how it's going?

 

[manticle]

I have had fruit flies (not often) appear in a fermenting wort* and the resulting beer has turned out OK. That's 20 odd litres though so I'm always going to 'see what happens' in that instance.

However in a starter, I wouldn't bother. The risk of losing the main batch wouldn't be worth avoiding the hassle of making a new one. If curious, ferment out the starter and store to see if vinegar eventuates but I'd be making a new, fly free one for this batch.

*Actually inside the glad wrap layers (which I no longer often use) but not necessarily in the wort - enough to make me think 'trouble' though.

 

[jonw]

Thanks Guys. I only have the one erlenmeyer, so I can't really let this one ferment out to see what happens - I need the flask to build up a starter of something else if I'm going to brew this weekend.

Fortunately I have a 3787 in the fridge, so I think I might just ditch the WLP051 and change plans from LCBA to Patersbier for this brew.

Cheers,

Jon

 

[Nick JD]

Fruit flies are pretty much flying balls of acetobacter.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2681620/

 

[benno1973]

Fruit fly in most parts of the world refers to the Drosophila family of flies, which are also commonly known as vinegar flies. In Australia, we use fruit fly to describe the Tephritidae family (like the Bactrocera Oleae Nick referenced above). Regardless of which family they are from, they transport acetobacter which will convert ethanol to acetic acid and carbon dioxide. You can make some lovely malt vinegar this way.

One fly won't do much damage if found in the primary (and if you drink that keg quick enough), but I'd say you've got more issues if it's in the starter. I'd suggest make a new one.

 

[browndog]

The big green fly that got in my IPA the other week seems to have not affected it. That or it could not overwhelm the 250g of hops

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Obviously you will need to make a beer with the starter then send the whole batch to me for expert analysis

 

[Bizier]

Fruit fly in most parts of the world refers to the Drosophila family of flies, which are also commonly known as vinegar flies. In Australia, we use fruit fly to describe the Tephritidae family (like the Bactrocera Oleae Nick referenced above). Regardless of which family they are from, they transport acetobacter which will convert ethanol to acetic acid and carbon dioxide. You can make some lovely malt vinegar this way.

One fly won't do much damage if found in the primary (and if you drink that keg quick enough), but I'd say you've got more issues if it's in the starter. I'd suggest make a new one.

Woah... slow down egghead. I only have capacity to learn one thing per day.

 

[bowie in space]

My first attempt at a lager was leaving the fermenter in my garage in the dead of a Melbourne winter, before I had a fermenting fridge. It attracted plenty of fruit flies, through the airlock. I bottled anyway and it turned out really well, I even named in FFL (Fruit Fly Lager). Original, I know.

...and yes it was a little fruity for a lager!

 

[benno1973]

Woah... slow down egghead. I only have capacity to learn one thing per day.

Zoology degrees only become useful once every few hundred years. I had to seize the moment.

 

[Bribie G]

The Kimchee / sauerkraut turned out great. I'll post in the other thread.

 

[Coodgee]

I had this very situation occur yesterday. Spent some time on Saturday diligently preparing a 1.5L starter of london ale yeast for a porter. Had a pretty good brew day yesterday and went to get my starter to pitch. And there it is, a little &$*# of a fruit fly spinning round and round in my starter. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Managed to source some WLP002 at short notice and pitched 2 lots. Big Krausen going this morning!

 

[kaiserben]

I've had fruit flies hanging around my apartment-slash-brewspace for the past month or 2. (actually, I think they're gnats, not fruit flies, because they're smaller)

I'm not sure where they're coming from (google search suggests drain holes might be a source).

Does anyone have any simple and effective methods for getting rid of them?

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Apart from fly spray. Prevention is the thing. Since I pressure ferment in a temp control fridge eliminates the aroma that attracts them.
Or, I compost veggie waste and if I leave vegie/fruit scraps sit around more than a day its the attraction for them.

 

[Mardoo]

Fruit fly traps:

https://www.greenharvest.com.au/PestControlOrganic/FruitFlyControlProducts.html

Or other means:

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s4306170.htm

I try to go the prevention route. However, sometimes you can't. If they're in your place and are a self sustaining population, you can try putting something elsewhere that reeks of their preferences, to keep them in another part of your house. My wife and daughter started raising beetles that eat rotting banana and maple syrup in the lounge room next to the kitchen. I just about shit when I realised that would be constantly in the house, but over time it became clear that the fruit flies had little interest in what I had to offer, compared to THAT festering heap. So, yeah, we had fruit flies all the time, but they never flew the 4 meters to where I was growing yeast.

 

[Coodgee]

^ I got a house fly trap once. It just seemed to attract the bastards. Given there is, for all practical purposes, an infinite stream of house flies, I didn't see the point in the end. Ended up with the most revolting smelling writhing mass of dead and dying flies.

 

[Andy_27]

Does anyone have any simple and effective methods for getting rid of them?

Get some venus fly traps and site them next to your starter? It would save having more chemicals floating around...

 

[WoopWoopYank]

Had the same but not due to brewing. I think they are called drain flies, smaller than gnats.
Pour 1 cup of bleach, 1cup of baking soda and 1cup of vinegar down each drain.
Drain flies will soon disappear or at least they did for me.
They do like fruit or anything sweet but they aren't fruit flies.

 

[wynnum1]

You need a gecko when we have bananas in the fruit bowl they hide waiting for the flies to come problem is they shit and get into electrical items and short circuit or lay eggs.