StarSan and Nottingham yeast

I've heard over and over that the foam from StarSan is good (don't fear the foam), BUT I'm curious about something. StarSan is supposed to kill bacteria and foreign yeasts. I had no choice today but to pitch DRY yeast (not hydrated) into my carboy today. The yeast landed on the foam and as I shook the carboy, I believe the yeast should have mixed in with the wort.

If my dry yeast landed on the foam, the foam wouldn't have killed the yeast would it??

I know you're supposed to hydrate dry yeast, but I also know that as a "last resort" you can pitch it dry and let it hydrate in your wort for a slower start...

I think I just need someone to tell me to RDWHAHB...

Steve

OK, RDWHAHB.

I still don't quite understand why you felt you "had no choice," but whatever. Done is done. The yeast will get started.

Well, I brewed the beer on Sunday afternoon. I went to pitch my liquid yeast starter and it smelled of strong vinegar. I didn't pitch that starter... The wort was just put in an ale pale with an air lock (with no yeast) to protect it. I went to my LHBS today at lunch and got another vial of White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast and a pack of Nottingham to keep on hand for future emergency's. Well, somehow in my house I misplaced my vial of yeast. Looked everywhere. Couldn't find it. I was on my lunch break and wanted to get some yeast pitched before too much time elapsed with my wort just sitting in a bucket. So I pitched the Nottingham without hydrating it.

That was at 12:45 PM Eastern time today. Nothing yet, but I know to be patient here.

Oh, and my wife calls me when she gets home from work and tells me she found my vial of WLP001 on the floor next to my chair. Luckily it rolled off the chair onto a rug and then next to the chair and the glass didn't break.

I just hate to leave wort sitting without yeast for any longer than I have to.

Think about it for a second... how much Star San could you possibly have in there that it would kill 11g of yeast? Even a loss of several million yeast cells is <1% of what you pitched.

joex444 said:

Think about it for a second... how much Star San could you possibly have in there that it would kill 11g of yeast? Even a loss of several million yeast cells is <1% of what you pitched.

Click to expand...

Have you ever transferred wort into a carboy sanitized with starsan? :rockin:

There was about 3 inches of foam on top of the wort! The dry yeast landed on that foam.

Steve

It should be going good by morning.Notty is a quick starter.If not pitch the WLabs!

I have never had a problem with it. +1 on it will be going by tomorrow.

If the Starsan foam is just too firm, and the yeast isn't getting in to the wort, then boil up a half cup of water, let it cool, and pour it in on top of the yeast. It will push the yeast on down into the wort.

I've done exactly what you did and the beer turned out fine. My lag time was longer then usual, but not dramatically long. I had a slight krausen at 12 hours, headspace was full by 24 hours, and blowoff around 30 hours. The beer still hit it's FG by 72 hours.

RDWHAHB, you'll be fine