Urgent - Started Mash, Out of Yeast

Hey Y'all,

I shouldn't decide it is time to brew at 2 or 3 in the morning. That's my lesson for the night. My other lesson, however, I don't yet know. So, I hope that you can help.

Planning to get into partial mashing with the tea bag technique (Deathbrewer's, I believe), I ordered two kits from Northern Brewer - an extract and an all grain. I ordered a White Labs cream ale yeast as well. My plan was to combine and then split the ingredients in half, brew one half, and then brew the second half on bottling day for the first, using the yeast cake leftover from that first partial mash cream ale.

All was well until the brewing bug bit me a couple hours ago. I got stuff going for the second half of the batch, but, a half hour into the mash, realized that I have no yeast for this half. The first half was brewed last Friday, and I don't plan to bottle until this upcoming weekend (or the following weekend). I have various wine yeasts in my freezer for use in making meads, ciders and, of course, apfelwein, but I have no beer yeast that isn't currently fermenting beer.

What do I do?

The only LBS I know of within a couple hour's drive is closed on Sundays and Mondays. I could rack the current cream ale to a secondary, and put this on that cake. I think that's my plan. Better suggestions?

Can't you move the first batch to a secondary vessel to leave the yeast cake available?

Sound fine, or stick a siphon way down into the yeast cake and suck some out. You have a 5 gallon starter.

+1 to the above.
Or, is there a brew-pub nearby that may be willing to share?

MOSFET said:

Sound fine, or stick a siphon way down into the yeast cake and suck some out. You have a 5 gallon starter.

Click to expand...

Yes, and buy 4 packs of US-05, a few S-04 and a WB-06 or two for times like this.


I have yet to see an excuse for not having dry yeast available ALWAYS

unfortunately, there are no brewpubs in this town. and, being sunday here, they wouldn't be open even if they did exist. gotta love sundays in the south (no alcohol can be sold at all on sundays in my county, although it could be worse, as several nearby counties are dry).

i did simply rack the older batch of cream ale into a secondary, and put this batch on top of that yeast cake. i've never seen such an incredibly energetic flurry of yeast activity. with the wort and the yeast cake, the 6.5 gal carboy was filled to about 5.5 gals last night. not expecting the craziness that took place, i simply added an airlock (no blowoff tube). next time, i'll know better, as now i have quite a clean up to take care of.

i do tend to keep some extra s-04 in the freezer, but i used it last weekend when i realized that i had enough excess stuff on hand to brew up an unexpected/unplanned batch. next time i order, i'll be sure to stock up on extra to keep on hand.

sorry for the urgency, and i appreciate the responses.

Glad it worked out for you! I was gonna suggest either racking off of the cake, or sanitizing a siphon and (taking the end off that usually helps avoid drawing up the trub) just suctioning out some of the cake into the new fermenter (probably would have lessened your violent ferment, with far fewer yeast to start with).
Still... glad it worked out!