Fermentation question

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srehal

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I brewed a batch of ale on Saturday and filled my fermenting bucket with hot instead of cold tap water by mistake. I only realized this after I pitched in the dry yeast from the kit. I then cooled the bucket by immersing it in cold water with ice in the bathtub overnight.
No signs of active fermentation as there have been no bubble on the air lock. After reading some posts in the forum I swirled and shook the fermenting bucket to agitate the yeast and all of a sudden I felt a huge gush of air coming out of the airlock even though it is tightly sealed.
I assume that the air released was CO2?
Some wort escaped into the airlock as well.
Is my wort fermenting?
 
There are two ways to find out. You could open the lid of the fermenter and look for it bubbling and some krausen or you could open it and take a hydrometer sample and compare it to the OG and if it has dropped you have fermentation happening. Since you have to heat yeast to over 140 F. to kill it and there usually is some lag time between when you pitch and when you get enough activity to see I think you are fine.
 
I think it will be fine too. I will let the yeasties do its thing for a couple of weeks...patience.
 
Are you doing an extract and you topped up with hot water? You can't ferment a bucket of hot water. ;) I've had a few home brews so maybe I'm having a harder time following this. :D
 
I brewed using an extract kit from Muntons
and topped up the wort to 5gallons with hot water and pitched the yeast then
 
I brewed using an extract kit from Muntons
and topped up the wort to 5gallons with hot water and pitched the yeast then
Took me a while when I first read it. You said you filled the bucket with hot water and pitched the yeast. Some folks around here have made some pretty inventive ways to mess up but that would have truly been among the more unique. Water to beer with just yeast. :D If you had chilled your wort properly then the hot water should not have gotten into the 'kill zone' for the yeast. If you were were planning on the water to bring down the temps from near boiling you will probably need to repitch.
 
Kind of along the same lines as this, I was not able to get my wort chilled below due to doing only one pass through the chiller rather than recirc'ing it back to the kettle for a bit and then sending it to the buckets. I think I pitched atound 90-95deg and had some bubbles in the air locks. Im curious to see how your ferm is going but should be fine.
 
Looks like this batch ended up fermenting well...lots of trub and a krausen head when I transferred it into my keg.

Happy days!
 
what do you mean?

High temperatures (over about 72 degrees) produce off-flavors. The higher the temperature, the more off-flavors are produced. Anything over about 78 degrees will really get them. Some are fruity flavors, but one class is called "fusel alcohols" or higher alcohols. They are produced during hot fermentations, and that's the substance that tastes "hot" or like rubbing alcohol. It also is usually blamed for headaches.
 
High temperatures (over about 72 degrees) produce off-flavors. The higher the temperature, the more off-flavors are produced. Anything over about 78 degrees will really get them. Some are fruity flavors, but one class is called "fusel alcohols" or higher alcohols. They are produced during hot fermentations, and that's the substance that tastes "hot" or like rubbing alcohol. It also is usually blamed for headaches.

Thanks Yoop.

I swore I typed up this big 'ol response and quoted crap and everything. Don't know how I mangled the post before pushing the submit button. But Yooper eloquently answered much more concise than I had intended.
 

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