My yeast exploded!!

Hey guys....

I was all excited to try out a bunch of new HB supplies I just bought, and followed a hefe recipe to the letter.... including the yeast instructions for my White Labs Bavarian hefeweizen yeast "take out of refrigerator for 3-6 hours, shake, and open carefully."

Yeah... I opened carefully... but that didn't stop the yeast from exploding out of the vial before I was ready to pitch!! I wound up getting *some* inside the funnel I poured the wort into. Also, I mixed up some sterile water inside the vial to get what yeast was left inside the vial.

Anybody have this problem?? Any thoughts on what will happen? All local HB stores are closed and I can't get any more yeast until Monday!

You have to barely, and I mean barely crack the seal on those tops sometimes to release the pressure. I try to do it a few times as the vial is warming up.

Yep, it's a kick aint it? You'll probably be OK. maybe a bit of longer lag time, but IMHO, it'll come up. Those vials are ok if fresh and kept cool, but like you say, when warm for a while, they are ready to explode........ personally, i like to make a starter off of the vials (and streak some on plates to make slants from) before i pitch. If you try a starter, you'll grow a lot more yeast and your lag time will be something like zip!
Cheers....

For future reference, rolling the vial back and forth on table or between your hands mixes but does not build up quite as much pressure as shaking. As stated above, open slowly! I think you will be okay with what you did get in your brew.

You pitched a vial straight into the wort? How long did it take for your ferm. to start? I am at 36 hours on my WLP380 heffe.... and nothing!

The Pol said:

You pitched a vial straight into the wort? How long did it take for your ferm. to start? I am at 36 hours on my WLP380 heffe.... and nothing!

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First time I used liquid was WLP300. I pitched without a starter and it took over 48 hours before I saw any activity. Freaked me out. I used starters from then on.

seefresh said:

First time I used liquid was WLP300. I pitched without a starter and it took over 48 hours before I saw any activity. Freaked me out. I used starters from then on.

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It the lag time was from 7 at night, and awoke at 10 in the morning to find it bubbling once every 2-3 secs. I used an oxygen stone and some pill for yeast the hbs guy sold me. So I'm relieved that's it's going.

HOWEVER, now I'm worried because there is some green stuff floating in the fermenter. It looks like little bits of celery skin. I've never been able to see my fermentations before because I never used a glass carboy. Is it a cause for concern??? Should I dump it???

Never dump anything until it's at least 3 weeks in the bottles and doesn't improve.

DONT DUMP IT! It will probably be okay, fermentation aint pretty

Thanks all. I won't dump it. I'm looking up emergency plans just in case: I may siphon it to the secondary while trying to prevent the mold from transferring, too.

I've only done four batches and my first one was with dry yeast and the others were with a smack pack. I haven't made a starter yet and pitch right from package to wort and so far my lag time has pretty much been 7 hours. Well, the batch I made yesterday I got into primary and pitched at 1:15PM... by 7:30 I had a bubble every 2 minutes or so. By morning it was bubbling every second and it's humming away nicely with a thick krausen. This has actually been the slowest, the others were going good after 6- 7 hours.

The green stuff has finally been determined to be, by me, HOPS. Haha, I've never used the hop pellets before, and added them during the last five minutes of the boil this time around.

Thanks all for your help!!

my LBHS warned me that those like to squirt a little like a shaken bottle of soda, so I knew in advance to quickly vent the pressure a few times before cracking it open.

as long as you got some yeast into the fermenter, you'll be ok, but there will be some lag time before it starts fermenting

San Jose State University said:

The green stuff has finally been determined to be, by me, HOPS. Haha, I've never used the hop pellets before, and added them during the last five minutes of the boil this time around.

Thanks all for your help!!

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I'm glad you figured that out. I was about to suggest it and hope it was true.

When I use White Labs yeast, I shake it vigorously when I first take it out of the fridge and make sure that pellet is well suspended. Then, occassionally while I brew, I gently resuspend whatever pellet that forms with by rocking it and rolling it like Nurmey mentioned. Then, finally, I open the vial slowly, carefully, and over the funnel. I'm fine that way.

I don't use a lot of WL yeast, but I do use California V and 830. With just manual aeration (i.e., shaking the carboy for a while after pitching), I get lag times of fewer than 10 hours before some visible yeast activity begins. Because of that, I don't bother with a starter for those strains anymore.


TL

Similar explosion of yeast vial problem I had on friday night. However I was in the process of making my starter. I lost SOME yeast when it exploded but I would estimate that I still got at least 2/3 to 3/4 of the yeast into the starter. Since Saturday morning until presently, the starter is bubbling steady at about every 5 seconds. Anybody have any thoughts if I got enough yeast into the starter? This is my first time making a starter so I was already nervous about it to begin with! I am just about ready to brew and was wondering if I maybe should add a little dry yeasr in addition to my starter?

Probably remnants of hop pellets that you see floating. Looks pretty gnarly, nothing is wrong.

My first WL vial, I shook the crap out of it via directions, and the thousands of little bubbles rushing to the surface immediately informed me that I had made a big mistake. Now I know to respect the vial!

dhat: It should be fine to pitch so long as you gave it enough time to build up a healthy number of cells. 18-24hrs is roughly the usual wait-time.

My first brew I pitched the vial direct - and I did have the "shaken soda" issue.

I had the air lock gurgling in 18 hours.

bomberman said:

My first WL vial, I shook the crap out of it via directions, and the thousands of little bubbles rushing to the surface immediately informed me that I had made a big mistake. Now I know to respect the vial!

dhat: It should be fine to pitch so long as you gave it enough time to build up a healthy number of cells. 18-24hrs is roughly the usual wait-time.

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Pitched the starter into my wart (Imperial mocha stout) around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. Checked when I got upt this morning at 5:30 and bubbling good! I would say less than a second between bubbles so appears everything is OK!