Did my yeast die?

We just bottled our 5th extract brew- a Bavarian wheat (from xtreme brewing in de) about 2 weeks ago. We always check at about 2 weeks to see how everything is coming along and we smelled something new: straight up yeast- like I was making bread.

We accidentally left it in primary for I'm thinking about 6 weeks. then we bottled 2 weeks ago and moved it all to the brew fridge yesterday to make room for our next batch.
It IS carbonating.. Just seems slow- and the smell was only in the bottle after I poured the beer.

Did we kill off our yeast?

Nope. If it's still carbonating, keep it at room temperature.

6 weeks in primary is no big deal. 2 weeks post bottling isn't long enough to be sure of decent carbonation. Leave it another week, preferably three.

Yeast wants to ferment and is really hardy. It generally doesn't just die unless boiled or frozen (and even that might not do it).

RndyIamTheLqr said:

Did we kill off our yeast?

Click to expand...

no, but u just put them to sleep if they're in the fridge. take them back out if they aren't fully carbed yet

Ok- update:

We wanted to check the consistency of the yeasty smell so we opened another bottle and it seems to be over-carbonated almost. It's more carbonated than soda and there's no yeasty smell in this one. This one actually tasted great though- I'm wondering about the inconsistency issue now.

And thanks for your responses- beers are out of the fridge and were looking at kegs!

You really need to keep all of these at room temp for one or two more weeks before doing this. You've now opened two green beers... Let them sit, then refrigerate for another three days, and then test. Then we can evaluate carbonation, yeast, etc. beer needs time. My biggest brewing regrets are drinking bottles too early. Especially in a month or so from now when you taste what this beer mellows into... You will be sad about these two.