Crud!! I screwed up!! HELP!

Hey guys,

I made a smoked porter last night and accidentally left the yeast out all night. It is WLP002 (English Ale Yeast). That would make it having sat out for 12 hours! My wort is down to 67 degrees and I'm going to pitch it anyways. I shook up the vial and it is chunky. Is it still good?? I would imagine that worst case scenario would find nothing happening after 3-4 days and me pitching some new, fresh yeast from the LHB.

Thanks,

evans5150

I think you answered your own question. Go ahead and pitch it; you should be okay.

edit: You mean pitch it into a starter, or into the wort? Those vials are not meant to be direct pitch into 5 gallons, you know. If you haven't made a starter, decant some of your wort into a sanitized vessel with an airlock and pitch your yeast into that. Once the yeast has reproduced in the starter, pitch the whole thing into your big batch. In the future, you should make your starter at least the day before.

You should have no problem what so ever. It didn't hurt for it to sit out. You want to warm the yeast to pitching temp anyway.
RDWHAHB!

Thanks for the quick responses, guys. In the future I will definitely make a starter. I have some little plastic containers that I can cut a hole in and put an airlock. They hold a little less than a quart of liquid. I will go ahead and pitch what I have and hope it works. I have to leave in a half hour and will be gone all day so I was getting nervous about what to do!!

WLP 002 is really chunky. You will be fine.

You'll be fine and the starter is not 100% necessary unless you've made a bigger beer or more than 5 gallons; not using one will just result in a longer lag time.

Thanks for the quick responses, guys. In the future I will definitely make a starter. I have some little plastic containers that I can cut a hole in and put an airlock.

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You do not want an airlock, just sanitized aluminum foil will do. Shake it several times during the propigation period to aerate it with your hand over the foil.

TheJadedDog said:

You'll be fine and the starter is not 100% necessary unless you've made a bigger beer or more than 5 gallons; not using one will just result in a longer lag time.

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I had the longer lag time the first time I made a hefe - no starter and it took about 3 days for airlock activity (longest three days of my brewing life). The second time I made a starter and it about blew the lid off - the fermentation was vigorous and started within 2 hours of pitch. I made a lower gravity hefe - 1.045 - on Friday night and it was a last minute decision (better brew while I can cause it's gonna be a few weeks until I can again). I pitched the smack pack with no starter about 7 hours after initiating it and I had good airlock activity the next morning.

I had good airlock activity the next morning.

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That's all you need. I make starters all the time and only use part of it at a time so I can use more of it on other brews. This reduces cost and makes excellent beer.