Pitched yeast too cold?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BansheeRider

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Messages
1,505
Reaction score
101
Made my 4th brew last night, Amarillo pale ale. I cooled the wort to 59-60 degrees by mistake. I rehydrated the dry yeast (US-05) and pitched. I put a blanket over the fermenter over night and its reading about 63 degrees right now and no signs of fermentation. I normally show fermentation within 8 hours of pitching with this yeast, but I normally pitch the yeast in 70 degree wort.

Do you think I should make a hot bath to put the fermenter in? I think 63 is a good temp but maybe the yeast went dormant. Should I give the wort another good stir to get things moving? Thanks!
 
No, you've pitched at a perfect temperature IMO. Pitch cool and let it come up to temp. You're still in lag phase and 8 hours is well within range for lag phase. I always cool to ~63F and pitch, then let it warm up. Once the fermentation takes off you won't have to rush to bring the temps down by pitching cool.
 
No, you've pitched at a perfect temperature IMO. Pitch cool and let it come up to temp. You're still in lag phase and 8 hours is well within range for lag phase. I always cool to ~63F and pitch, then let it warm up. Once the fermentation takes off you won't have to rush to bring the temps down by pitching cool.

Good to know. I think I may have shocked the yeast too. I rehydrated in 85-90 degree water for 15 min, stirred and pitched on 60 degree wort lol. Poor yeasties....
 
Agree with above. As long as the rehydrated yeast wasn't 20F hotter than wort, no harm was done. Take the blanket off, let it warm up naturally and it might turn out to be your best beer yet.
 
I'd just let it ride. It is a little cool to start, but not enough to stop all activity. With the temp increasing, i'd say you are in good shape. Give it another day before you start messing around with it.
 
Agree with above. As long as the rehydrated yeast wasn't 20F hotter than wort, no harm was done. Take the blanket off, let it warm up naturally and it might turn out to be your best beer yet.

Read my above post, we posted at the same time. So shocking the yeast wont kill them right?
 
You are fine, lag time might be a little longer than usual. Pitching too cold makes yeast sleepy, they are like me- they'll wake up sloooowly.
 
Read my above post, we posted at the same time. So shocking the yeast wont kill them right?

Well if the water started out at 85-90, and it was likely a small amount (a couple of ounces), it'll cool quite a bit in 15 minutes since it has such a small thermal mass. I don't think it was much of a shock.
 
Well if the water started out at 85-90, and it was likely a small amount (a couple of ounces), it'll cool quite a bit in 15 minutes since it has such a small thermal mass. I don't think it was much of a shock.

Yeah it was only 1 oz of water. I guess I need to RDWHAHB :cross:
 
You did everything just right. Do it like that every time!

Secret- I never rehydrate dry yeast and no one has ever been able to tell. Shhh. I and many others have done side-by-side comparisons (1.060 or lower) and the "pitched dry" always comes out ahead. Shhhhhhhh. Wouldn't want to upset the folks who prefer to complicate things.

;)

Cheers!
 
The ideal scenario is supposedly pitching the rehydrated yeast when it and the wort are within 10*f of each other.

Probably isn't going to make a really dramatic difference in the quality of the beer that results and is definitely better than pitching into 5 gallons of wort that's too hot. Just another thing to save in the memory/experience bank to help things go even better the next time, and whenever in future, you brew.
 
The ideal scenario is supposedly pitching the rehydrated yeast when it and the wort are within 10*f of each other.

Probably isn't going to make a really dramatic difference in the quality of the beer that results and is definitely better than pitching into 5 gallons of wort that's too hot. Just another thing to save in the memory/experience bank to help things go even better the next time, and whenever in future, you brew.

Yeah I had a little too much homebrew with a friend while I was cooling the wort, wan't paying attention and the wort cooled from 212 to 60 in about 20 min using an ice bath.
 
Read my above post, we posted at the same time. So shocking the yeast wont kill them right?

I think going from hot to cold wort is better than the other way around but I don't know. It won't kill all of them but the last beer I did a similar thing too had some acetadhyde issues but it was a repitch so something else might have gone wrong too. ...since then I realized that over chilling can be easily corrected by running hot water through the immersion chiller:) I once over cooled it down to 50F, but it took less than 5minutes of hot tap water through the chiller to return it to 64F
 
So my LHBS said to rock and stir the fermenter one more time in case the yeast went dormant due to the cold temperatures and possible shock from re-hydrating. I stirred and rocked the fermenter until I saw foam at the top of the wort. Hopefully this will kick start things. I'll go buy another packet of yeast just in case I don't see anything by tomorrow.
 
My LHBS recommended I added another packet of yeast to prevent possible contamination. They said stale fermentation for 15 hours is too long and I should pitch another packet dry and stir. So needless to say that's what I did and finally fermentation took off after a few hours. The temp rose from 62 to about 70 once the yeast went to work.

Thanks everybody for your input. I think I shocked the yeast when I pitched. The wort was 60 degrees and the yeast was at about 85. I'll have to be more careful next time.

My wife also told me that when she was using the stove she saw the packet of yeast on the stove top and it got really hot, she then moved it to the counter top about 15 min before I started to re-hydrate it. Maybe the yeast died and I pitched dead yeast. This is when I called my LHBS and took their advice about re-pitching new yeast. After a couple hours this is what I got.....

[ame]http://youtu.be/A0n18orF3m0[/ame]
 
I'd much rather pitch it on the warm side. That's me. 50-60 is way too cold to pitch imo. I'd rather pitch it when the wort is at 80 and let it come down naturally. That's just me. It's been my best results. It's best for most yeast in getting started and I fee that it doesn't make a huge difference in taste. The only difference in taste has been for the better.

Start it off hotter then go colder if need be.

I see lots of people here don't agree but that's my opinion.
 
Good to know. I think I may have shocked the yeast too. I rehydrated in 85-90 degree water for 15 min, stirred and pitched on 60 degree wort lol. Poor yeasties....
The instructions I use to rehydrate yeast tell me to use 105F water, so you've done nothing but good here. I usually cool my ale wort to the high 50's before pitching, but I also ferment them cool and slow around 60-62F internal temp.
 
I'd much rather pitch it on the warm side. That's me. 50-60 is way too cold to pitch imo. I'd rather pitch it when the wort is at 80 and let it come down naturally. That's just me. It's been my best results. It's best for most yeast in getting started and I fee that it doesn't make a huge difference in taste. The only difference in taste has been for the better.

Start it off hotter then go colder if need be.

I see lots of people here don't agree but that's my opinion.

I normally do as well. I normally cool the wort to 75-80 degrees and top off to five gallons with cold drinking water. This normally brings the temp down to around 70, perfect for pitching yeast. Just have to remember to cool the rehydrated yeast to within 10 degrees of wort. All is good now since I pitched more yeast. I'm watching it like a hawk today with a blow off tube at the ready :D
 
I'd much rather pitch it on the warm side. That's me. 50-60 is way too cold to pitch imo. I'd rather pitch it when the wort is at 80 and let it come down naturally. That's just me. It's been my best results. It's best for most yeast in getting started and I fee that it doesn't make a huge difference in taste. The only difference in taste has been for the better.

Start it off hotter then go colder if need be.

I see lots of people here don't agree but that's my opinion.

80F is way to warm for pitching yeast. If it's warm in the house,it'll take longer to cool down & start making off flavors,howecer slight they might be. If it cools down too fast,the yeast can shock 7 go dormant.
As with the others,yeast rehydrate temps are 90-105F. But pitching that into 58F wort will shock it & it goes dormant till temps rise again. Get the temp within the yeasts' range & gently swirl it to get some yeast back into suspension. It should start going again. But don't shake or swirl violently,you don't want any foam from more aeration at this point. Air at this point can make off flavors.
 
80F is way to warm for pitching yeast. If it's warm in the house,it'll take longer to cool down & start making off flavors,howecer slight they might be. If it cools down too fast,the yeast can shock 7 go dormant.
As with the others,yeast rehydrate temps are 90-105F. But pitching that into 58F wort will shock it & it goes dormant till temps rise again. Get the temp within the yeasts' range & gently swirl it to get some yeast back into suspension. It should start going again. But don't shake or swirl violently,you don't want any foam from more aeration at this point. Air at this point can make off flavors.

If fermentation hasn't started yet then oxygen is a good thing, isn't it?
 
If fermentation hasn't started yet then oxygen is a good thing, isn't it?

Not necessarily. The purpose of oxygenating is to give the yeast the oxygen they need to reproduce. If they are done reproducing, but havent started active fermentation, you do not want to introduce more oxygen.
 
If fermentation hasn't started yet then oxygen is a good thing, isn't it?

Unless you tested it first,you wouldn't know that it started even a little bit & stalled. Some habits are good to keep. Shake the snot out of it at this point,you may find yourself doing too often,& right when you shouldn't.
 
You did everything just right. Do it like that every time!

Secret- I never rehydrate dry yeast and no one has ever been able to tell. Shhh. I and many others have done side-by-side comparisons (1.060 or lower) and the "pitched dry" always comes out ahead. Shhhhhhhh. Wouldn't want to upset the folks who prefer to complicate things.

;)

Cheers!
shhhhhh...mme tooo
 
Back
Top