How long can wort sit without yeast

brewed up a batch of yeti imperial stout the other day and haven't added the yeast yet?
i am thinking of making a starter today and waiting a couple days to add.

so my question is will this work. can you wait 4 days between brewing and pitching?

do i need to re aerate??
any other suggestions?

the concern is infection. if you are VERY VERY anal about sanitizing you could do this. if you are waiting, you might as well use a portion of your wort as your starter. in other words, pour your wort into two fermenters, 1 gallon in one and 4 in the other. your fermenter with one gallon becomes your "starter beer" -- then when it is at high krausen, add it to your "main" fermenter with 4 gallons of wort.

be VERY anal about sanitation. wild yeasts and bacteria love the sugars in the wort and if no brewers yeast is present for a period of time, you have a decent chance of infection.

yes, aerate. it is pointless to aerate wort and let it sit for 3 days and then aerate again. just aerate the second time, right before pitching.

Thats pretty dangerous. You are essentially giving any wild yeast or other nasties plenty of time to set up shop and start fermenting your precious wort. Needless to say, mold will likely want to set up shop right away too. If you can store it in an airtight and cold environment, you will improve your chances.

I would flat out say no. You can play russian roulette as well and I would not recommend that either.

The longer you wait the greater the chance of infection becomes. I would say 12 to 24 hours max and only in the case of the overnight cooling method with crazy sanitation.

I am sure I am over reacting a bit but dang why take a chance when you have spent the time and money getting it to the point that all you have to do is pitch the yeast.

I just did this. I just did a no-chill in my bucket with an airlock, aerated, and pitched after 3 days. We'll see how it goes.

I mean I aerated when I pitched.

Subscribed for result.

I normally follow pretty decent sanitizing procedures: sanitize bucket well (let it sit with star san for most of the brew day), after chilling just dump (i don't filter). I have let it sit for 3 days just fine. I get a little worried after that long, but it normally turns out just fine. I typically let my wort sit for 12-24 hours to get to pitching temps and *knock on wood* never have had an issue. If you keep your sanitizing decent (no need to be overly anal, just use common sense) and you don't store it at 80-90 degrees (higher temps are more favorable to bacteria and yeast growth) you'll probably be fine, check the airlock before you pitch though, if it's bubbling then you're screwed.

some of you guys are making me nervous.
it is in a sabntized carboy with an airlock. i guess there could be wild yeasts in the head space in the carboy but is there some other way to wild yeasts could get in there????

look into the no-chill thread. those guys will make wort and let it set around for months before pitching.

You're probably fine, it's beer. Worst case scenario, don't do it again next time. But you won't know until you try it.
If you are overly anal with sanitation, then you could probably leave it around for a while (it will probably be almost as good as if you bought juice from the store). If you are decent with sanitation and don't do anything stupid like stick your arm or drool into the fermentor you'll most likely be fine after 4 days.

Edit: It's beer, RDWHAHB.

Just for giggles toss your spent grain in a sanitized pail cover it and come back in a few days and take a good whiff. The sugars are a ideal breeding ground for yeast and yes infections. By pitching sooner instead of later you are giving the good yeast a chance to overwhelm the bad stuff.

Could it be done well of course it could be done but why chance it.

I once pitched a beer with yeast that must have died during shipping. I stuck it in the basement and checked the gravity 5 days later - it was still exactly at OG. I re-aerated and pitched new yeast that day, and the beer turned out fine (not fantastic, but fine). That said, this really isn't something you want to do if you can help it, for all the reasons people have mentioned. There's a big difference between "sanitary" and "sterile." There are small amounts of microorganisms currently munching away at your wort, and if you let it sit too long (especially at room temperature) they'll multiply to a level where they'll cause off flavors or even ruin the batch.

Personally, I'd rather buy extra yeast than let the wort sit so long and risk losing a whole batch of imperial stout. Or, if you have a way to refrigerate the wort below 40F while waiting for the starter (e.g. sticking it outside if you are in a cold area), that's definitely much better than having it sit at room temp.

i'd get some yeast in there ASAP. if you can get to a supply shop, i'd pitch what i have right now and get some more ASAP to provide backup. there almost certainly are bacteria and wild yeast in the air trapped inside the carboy. usually those populations are so small that your pitched yeast takes over long before they can multiply to the point of making an impact. but it sounds like you're giving those nasties a several-day head-start. you could be fine, or you could have a problem... better not to risk it.

progmac said:

look into the no-chill thread. those guys will make wort and let it set around for months before pitching.

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yeah, but they're doing several things that the OP isn't: the limit the air in the container, they super-heat what air is in there, and generally keep it very hot for a long time to kill any bugs in there - and they seal it from the outside world so fresh bugs can't get in. the OP did none of this, so unfortunately the no-chill reference isn't valid.

I've done a second runnings beer where I refrigerated it over night and then boiled it the next day with hops. Beer turned out great, but I would agree with the others on here that letting it sit around at room temp for a while probably isn't the best thing. The reason homebrewers only have to keep things sanitized and not sterilized is that the alcohol in finished beer and the yeast, when they start fermenting pretty much dominate their environment. If you leave wort andf don't pitch the yeast right away you are giving a chance forstuff to grow. You are probably fine but it's not the best practice.

progmac said:

look into the no-chill thread. those guys will make wort and let it set around for months before pitching.

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^This

If you put 200F+ wort into a container that can have all of the air space removed from it and sealed from air leakage, then you can go a really long time (months as was mentioned and longer).

EDIT: I just saw that you're in a carboy with an airlock..... You should not wait any longer to get yeast in there.

Hopper5000 said:

I've done a second runnings beer where I refrigerated it over night and then boiled it the next day with hops. Beer turned out great, but I would agree with the others on here that letting it sit around at room temp for a while probably isn't the best thing. The reason homebrewers only have to keep things sanitized and not sterilized is that the alcohol in finished beer and the yeast, when they start fermenting pretty much dominate their environment. If you leave wort andf don't pitch the yeast right away you are giving a chance forstuff to grow. You are probably fine but it's not the best practice.

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difference is, they're boiling and then letting it sit, you were the other way around.

don't think you would have to be raging anal about sanitation, well... directly proportional to the amount of time left sitting, the less time it just sits, the better.

raging anal... my new punk rock band name

haha, nice band name... I wasn't anal about sanitation when I did that because I knew I was going to boil it off the next day, and I chilled it to keep anything from taking off in it. yeah i know my way was different I was just sharing an experience that was similar...

Hopper5000 said:

haha, nice band name... I wasn't anal about sanitation when I did that because I knew I was going to boil it off the next day, and I chilled it to keep anything from taking off in it. yeah i know my way was different I was just sharing an experience that was similar...

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right... I was just making sure the OP noticed that it wasn't exactly the same

and i did the same thing last brew day that you did. I was doing a parti-gyle and after the 2 hour boil for the big beer, I said "eff it" and left the small beer for the next day. didn't refrigerate it, just left it on the counter in the BK and covered. not sure if it's ruined, will know saturday when I bottle it

and someone else mentioned anal sanitation (another band name!) so I ran with that

ok thanks for all the info.
i pitched some yeast yesterday and re aerated. will let you know what happens

ipsiad said:

I once pitched a beer with yeast that must have died during shipping. I stuck it in the basement and checked the gravity 5 days later - it was still exactly at OG. I re-aerated and pitched new yeast that day, and the beer turned out fine (not fantastic, but fine). That said, this really isn't something you want to do if you can help it, for all the reasons people have mentioned. There's a big difference between "sanitary" and "sterile." There are small amounts of microorganisms currently munching away at your wort, and if you let it sit too long (especially at room temperature) they'll multiply to a level where they'll cause off flavors or even ruin the batch.

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The same thing happened to me- the original yeast must have been dead. I repitched, but that batch had a lacto infection and it was tossed. That was my first and only lacto infection.

suzanneb said:

ok thanks for all the info.
i pitched some yeast yesterday and re aerated. will let you know what happens

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Please do!

I wait 24 hours all the time w/o issue, a number of folks on this forum do. It does have its hazards re: contamination but the advantages noted above (using the wort for the starter AND ensuring the wort is the absolutely correct temperature before pitching) are pretty great. I am 15 batches into using this method and my beer is only improving over these batches (mostly thanks to the advice of folks on this forum.)

Our past two times brewing, due to frozen water spickets we covered the keggle and left it overnight in my uninsulated garage, woke up early, aerated, and pitched the yeast in 55° wort the next morning. Both batches came out great. Just be careful in your sanitizing and cover that puppy up. One was an imperial stout and the other was a normal cream stout. Both taste great!

after about 2 days it is bubbling away. not the biggest krausen i have seen but pretty vigorous bubblin.
how will i know if i got lacto infection or not? or other infection. i am guessing none of the signs will show till fermentation is done

One of the metrics to test your sanitation on the cold side is to run wort into a mason jar and count the days before it starts to bubble from wild yeast or infection. It was on Brew Strong... I just don't remember when.

suzanneb said:

after about 2 days it is bubbling away. not the biggest krausen i have seen but pretty vigorous bubblin.
how will i know if i got lacto infection or not? or other infection. i am guessing none of the signs will show till fermentation is done

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every once in a while, I will press down on the lid of my bucket to make the airlock bubble once. Then I will pop the lid off of the airlock (3-piece), stick my nose over it and take a big whiff.

have never had an infection so I don't exactly know what one smells like. and just because I don't smell one doesn't mean there isn't one. but if I do smell one, I can be almost certain there is one.

JonesSoda6 said:

... due to frozen water spickets we covered the keggle and left it overnight in my uninsulated garage

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Letting fresh wort sit around is an inherently bad idea, but sanitation is the key!

I would guess that it would be more sanitary to just let the wort sit in the kettle than transferring to the fermenter and letting it sit...the less exposure the better, also much more sanitary to aerate just prior to pitching, rather than aerating and letting the wort sit...

I have good results in waiting till the next day to pitch. I do this to get the wort down to temp after pitching too warm and getting off flavors. But its in the fridge and has a airlock.

how will you know if you have an infection... one way to know with lacto, aceto, brett, etc is when you taste it. If you get an infection infection you will probably know visually too... look up pictures of a pellicle and homebrewing in google or on here.