Delayed yeast pitch consequences?

Hello all,

I am recently new to home brewing and ran into a bit of trouble lastnight with my third batch I've brewed. I was brewing a wheat malt extract (dry) that I am going or "was" going to be making some Apricot Ale with if it still turns out.

I used ice the first two times around to cool down my wort but for some reason I felt like if I had my two gallon jugs of water "nearly" frozen it would be enough to bring the temp down fairly quickly. WRONG. The hours passed and the temp was still sitting at 100. By this time I had already transferred the bucket (carefully) into my bathtub with cool water in it. It got to the point where its midnight and I had to work today so I left the lid on my bucket in the bath tub. I didn't tighten it down (probably should have) but it was on there none the less. Woke up at 5:30, sanitized yeast packet and pitched it. Work came off the turkey fryer at 9 pm, pitched at 5:30 next morning. WILL IT BE OKAY?

As long as your sanitation practice is up to snuff, you're good to go. Cheers!!!

That's what I was figuring and hoping. Hopefully my sanitation was adequate then. There's one span of two hours where it sat in my bath tub without the lid on and I wish I could go back. Nothing and no one was around it but I should have just put the damn lid on.

People practice this technique often called NO CHILL. Put the wort into a sanitized carboy and pitch the yeast a day later... seems to work for most people as long as everything is sanitized properly.

I leave my wort for 24 hours in cube before pitching, no problem. Sometimes I leave it for hours right in a brew pot, no problem. All this cooling wort as fast as possible hype is overkill and paranoia

Ya...no worries...you should be fine. I've done lots of times.

I did this with my batch this weekend. Since I don't have a wort chiller, I submerged the pot in a rubbermaid container full of water. Sanitized the lid for the pot and lidded the pot. Then I lidded the rubbermaid so the cats don't get too curious and left it in the kitchen overnight. Pitched the yeast in the morning. It's happily bubbling.

Yes, all good to know. Everything seems to be fine as it was going crazy lastnight. This batch was explosive, bubbling out the top of the air lock. I'm going to have a blow off setup ready for future batches as I didn't have one and was staring at the late hours of the night when I saw this.

Read two options to combat this with the first being the blow off tube into a 32 ounce bottle of water (half full). The second was to in the best sanitary way quickly remove the airlock, clean it out good in the sink, re-sanitize in iodophor, refill the air lock, and get back on the bucket or bottle as quickly as possible. I did this once last night, and once this morning before I left for work. Anyone done similar in that situation? Outcome?

ryaned82 said:

Yes, all good to know. Everything seems to be fine as it was going crazy lastnight. This batch was explosive, bubbling out the top of the air lock. I'm going to have a blow off setup ready for future batches as I didn't have one and was staring at the late hours of the night when I saw this.

Read two options to combat this with the first being the blow off tube into a 32 ounce bottle of water (half full). The second was to in the best sanitary way quickly remove the airlock, clean it out good in the sink, re-sanitize in iodophor, refill the air lock, and get back on the bucket or bottle as quickly as possible. I did this once last night, and once this morning before I left for work. Anyone done similar in that situation? Outcome?

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Fermentation temperature can have a lot to do with excessive blowoff. What is the beer temp? Cheers!!!

Temp has been STEADY at 75 throughout in a bath tub upstairs with water half way up the bucket. Its been low 80's down here, but I got dedicated upstairs AC set at 76 and that's kept the water temp at 74-75 the past 33 hours. So ya, I'm right at the top of the spectrum but I've read if there's any beer type to flirt with in terms of the higher side its the wheat beers. Hopefully that proves to be true! With temps rising here on out looks like all future batches will require frozen bottles of water in a rubbermaid tub.

75F is pretty high even for a wheat. That would explain its aggressiveness. The frozen water bottles is a good idea. Cheers!!!