yeast pitched in hot wort

I made an all grain ingredient kit for a friend, and gave him all instructions. he did well all the things until yeast pitching. he pitched it in hot wort (he says it was 100 F).

so, since I gave him my hydrometer, he took a reading and the OG was 1.045.

in the morning fermentation started, and it is really vigorous after three days (he made a video of it and sent it to me ).

he used S-04 dry yeast, without rehydrating.

my question is, since it is obvious that yeast survived, and fermenting. what are consequences to expect??

off flavors? bad beer?


or maybe, very fine brew at the end?

You should be fine. Your fermentation may have started a bit slow but 72 hours isn't bad.

As far as esthers/off flavors you aren't going to see that until fermentation actually starts. So as long as the wort wasn't still 100F 3 days later...

Kraghed said:

You should be fine. Your fermentation may have started a bit slow but 72 hours isn't bad.

As far as esthers/off flavors you aren't going to see that until fermentation actually starts. So as long as the wort wasn't still 100F 3 days later...

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thanks a lot.

but from what you said, I can conclude that cooling wort to 70 F isn't necessary - just pitch it while it's 100, and wait....

so there are no side effects? that means I could save 10 - 15 litres of water that goes through the wort chiller to bring it from 100 F to 70 F...

400d said:

thanks a lot.

but from what you said, I can conclude that cooling wort to 70 F isn't necessary - just pitch it while it's 100, and wait....

so there are no side effects? that means I could save 10 - 15 litres of water that goes through the wort chiller to bring it from 100 F to 70 F...

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As a rule, I think you still want to wait until the wort is closer to 70. I have read many sources that indicate the risk of off flavors and longer lag time when pitching into temps above 70.

I routinely pitch in the upper 70's because that's about as good as I can do with my immersion chiller and tap-water unless I want to stand there wasting water for a long time. I have not had any issues.

Pitching at 100F is going to give you increased esters & phenols, I think that's pretty certain. However, it'll likely be fine anyway. And if there are excessive esters & phenols, they'll diminish with age.