CaptYesterday
Well-Known Member
Yesterday I brewed an IPA with the intent to repitch a cake of US-05. I had a batch of Ed's Pale Ale that had been in primary for 2 weeks and fermented down to 1.009.
While my IPA was mashing, I racked the pale ale into a secondary fermentor and left a little beer on the of the yeast cake. At this point I poured a half gallon of distilled water into the carboy and swirled it around to stir up the yeast.
I let that sit until I could see the trub settling out and proceeded to rack the yeasty slurry into a gallon starter jug that I had sanitized with Star-San. The slurry sat in this jug (covered) for approximately 5 hours while I brewed the IPA and cooled it.
I decanted most of the water off the yeast and poured about 1 to 1.5 quarts of the yeast slurry into the fermentor with the IPA, being careful not to pour in the trub that had settled out. This was pitched into wort at 66 degrees.
This morning, about 10 hours after pitching, there is zero activity in the fermentor. No colonies on the surface, no sign of life.
Did I somehow kill the yeast? I've never repitched before, but going by some of the stuff I've read here, this seems like an exceedingly long period of time to go with repitched yeast.
Any suggestions/explanations?
If I don't see any activity by tomorrow, I'm just going to hydrate and pitch a packet of US-05.
While my IPA was mashing, I racked the pale ale into a secondary fermentor and left a little beer on the of the yeast cake. At this point I poured a half gallon of distilled water into the carboy and swirled it around to stir up the yeast.
I let that sit until I could see the trub settling out and proceeded to rack the yeasty slurry into a gallon starter jug that I had sanitized with Star-San. The slurry sat in this jug (covered) for approximately 5 hours while I brewed the IPA and cooled it.
I decanted most of the water off the yeast and poured about 1 to 1.5 quarts of the yeast slurry into the fermentor with the IPA, being careful not to pour in the trub that had settled out. This was pitched into wort at 66 degrees.
This morning, about 10 hours after pitching, there is zero activity in the fermentor. No colonies on the surface, no sign of life.
Did I somehow kill the yeast? I've never repitched before, but going by some of the stuff I've read here, this seems like an exceedingly long period of time to go with repitched yeast.
Any suggestions/explanations?
If I don't see any activity by tomorrow, I'm just going to hydrate and pitch a packet of US-05.