I think I may have pitched my yeast too cold, what should I do?

jthulin · Jan 11, 2011

Last night I tried a new method of cooling my wort and it was more efficeint than I had anticipated... my wort was at 59 degrees farenheight when I pitched the yeast. I was using safale US-05 dry ale yeast, that was about 8 hours ago and now the temp in the fermenter is about 65 degrees. No bubbles in airlock yet, but that's not surprising to me given the short amount of time that it's been.
Should I be worried that the temp being too cold at the start harmed the yeast to the point that fermentation won't start? Has anyone else on here made this mistake and if so how did things turn out for you? Any advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

mc_eric · Jan 11, 2011

Don't worry, that's actually perfect. You want to pitch the yeast a couple degrees cooler than you're going to ferment if you can. You didn't hurt the yeast at all. In fact I bet that beer is going to turn out great!

Clonefarmer · Jan 11, 2011

jthulin said:
Last night I tried a new method of cooling my wort and it was more efficeint than I had anticipated... my wort was at 59 degrees farenheight when I pitched the yeast. I was using safale US-05 dry ale yeast, that was about 8 hours ago and now the temp in the fermenter is about 65 degrees. No bubbles in airlock yet, but that's not surprising to me given the short amount of time that it's been.
Should I be worried that the temp being too cold at the start harmed the yeast to the point that fermentation won't start? Has anyone else on here made this mistake and if so how did things turn out for you? Any advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

It should be fine. Did you rehydrate the yeast? Did you use more than one pack? It may start slow, but US-05 is pretty reliable.

tjpfeister · Jan 11, 2011

You're fine. I have done this in the past before I started using a digital thermometer with alarm while chilling (it's a great little investment) in the winter. Tap water in Wisconsin can get a little chilly this time of year.

That being said, never panic. Just be patient and wait 24 hours. You should be just fine as the temperature range of S-05 is 59-75F as seen here:
http://www.fermentis.com/fo/pdf/HB/EN/Safale_US-05_HB.pdf

richc · Jan 11, 2011

I would suggest going and drinking a beer and not worrying about it for at least another 12 hours, if not 24.

JRems · Jan 11, 2011

I don't think you pitched too cold. Once it warms up the yeast will wake up. I just made an ipa with us-05. My closet that I keep the fermenter in is 58. It did take almost 2 days before I saw activity at that temp. After 2 weeks I warmed it up for the last 2 days to about 70 and got it down to 1.010.

frazier · Jan 11, 2011

Did you pitch the yeast onto a block of ice? No? Then you're fine.

A watched carboy never kreusens, like the old saying goes.

jthulin · Jan 11, 2011

Thanks everyone, seems like I should be ok. The only thing I'm left a little concerned about is that I didn't do a starter but just sprinkled the yeast directly into the wort which is fine at higher temps but maybe not at 59 degrees?

Clonefarmer · Jan 11, 2011

jthulin said:
Thanks everyone, seems like I should be ok. The only thing I'm left a little concerned about is that I didn't do a starter but just sprinkled the yeast directly into the wort which is fine at higher temps but maybe not at 59 degrees?

No need to make a starter with dry yeast. You can sprinkle it into a glass of water first to rehydrate it though. 59 should be fine for US-05.

bonzombiekitty · Jan 11, 2011

jthulin said:
Thanks everyone, seems like I should be ok. The only thing I'm left a little concerned about is that I didn't do a starter but just sprinkled the yeast directly into the wort which is fine at higher temps but maybe not at 59 degrees?

Don't worry, you'll be fine. It might take a little longer than normal for the fermentation to really get going, but don't fret over it.

dmelt11 · Jan 11, 2011

I did the same thing with a blonde ale and it finished out just fine. I used re-hydrated US-05 also. I wouldn't worry about it. It's like the Ronco roaster set it and forget it.

gannawdm · Jan 11, 2011

US-05 is a beast. I don't think there is anything you could do that could stop it from gorging itself.

MikeRoBrew1 · Jan 11, 2011

I would suggest going and drinking a beer and not worrying

Hahaha awesome +1!

JSkeksi · Jan 11, 2011

I had the EXACT same concern Sunday night... new wort cooling method way more efficient/fast than I expected, couldn't wait to go to sleep much longer so I pitched below 60 deg., went to sleep and kept my fingers crossed. No bubbles in the airlock the next day (on batch #1, airlock was going nuts by that point) but kept the RDWHAHB mantra in mind. Today I woke up and the airlock is bubbling nicely.

I figured the cool wort wouldn't do any harm other than delaying fermentation a day or two. I'll just wait an extra few days before racking to secondary.

jmf143 · Jan 11, 2011

I did the same thing Saturday with Nottingham - wort was about 62 degrees and my rehydrated yeast was about 85. Not only that, I stirred the yeast into the water to rehydrate it rather than just sprinkiling it on top as suggested by Danstar. So I shocked them and made them dizzy but they still began fermentation within 12 hours.

Nokitchen · Jan 11, 2011

There was this one guy who got his yeast eaten by an insect, then he left it sitting there for 45 million years in all kinds of climates. The beer still turned out good. It's actually pretty hard to kill yeast, and once it finds some sugar, it wants to go to work on it.

jthulin · Jan 11, 2011

Thanks a lot everyone for your replies! I'll relax and wait for the yeast to go to work. I definitely appreciate all your input, it's nice to get the reassurance that I didn't totally ruin my batch

jthulin · Jan 12, 2011

Just in case anyone was curious how things turned out, it's now been a little over 24 hours and I've got vigorous bubbling in the airlock so it looks like you all are right and things will be just fine. Thanks again for all your input!

tjpfeister · Jan 12, 2011

Three cheers for vigorousness!

I think I may have pitched my yeast too cold, what should I do?

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