Delay pitching by three days?

I brewed a light pale ale (came in around 1.038) yesterday because I seriously overestimated my water. Had 11 gallons in the system when I probably only needed nine. My final post-boil yield was eight gallons, which wouldn't all fit in my 6.5 gallon carboy. Luckily, I planned for seven gallons, so I had a cleaned and sanitized corny handy. I splt the eight gallons and put four gallons each into the carboy and corny. Silly me, I only bought oue pack of yeast (Safale US-05). I rehydrated in some warm water, proofed with a tsp of DME and pitched it into the carboy. (No real activity this morning, but some bubbles on top that weren't there last night, so something happening in there.)

The corny keg got sealed up and I used a keg charger to put some pressure on until I can get to the homebrew store on Wednesday and get some more yeast.

This is the first time I've used this keg (or any keg, for that matter) for fermenting (or anything). But I disassembled, oxycleaned, replaced gaskets, and filled with Starsan the night before so I am pretty sure the thing is clean.

I know, RDWHAHB, but can anyone reassure me that I'm not likely to infect the wort in there if it's just sitting sealed under the stairs for three days before I can get the yeast in?

You will be fine.

Haha. Awesome. That's all I needed to hear.

May as well pick up a different type of yeast and do a comparison between the two, I guess.

For eight gallons of 1.038 wort, one package of yeast should suffice. If it's already pitched, I guess it's too late, but I would have just split the package.

You can take some of the krausen off of the first fermenter and harvest yeast that way if you want to.

Hmmm. I hadn't thought about that. Though I'm sort of liking the idea of trying two yeasts in one split-wort so I can see if I can detect the difference.

If I can't wait, or there's mad krausen doing in a day or so, what would I use to get it off the batch in the carboy? I can see taking it off pretty easily if I were fermenting in a bucket.

If this corny fermenting pans out, I may get rid of the glass carboy.

If you have a carboy cap, a racking cane, and preferrably a co2 source, you can stick the racking cane through the carboy cap and use it like a vacuum wand to suck the krausen into a sanitized jar (or even directly into the corny if you have enough tube and krausen). Slow co2 coming into the carboy cap in the other hole will slightly pressurize the carboy and the air will escape through the racking cane as long as yeast doesn't clog it. I think I heard this from Jamil or John Palmer on the brewing network.

I agree it would be interesting to try a different yeast in the corny but it also seems pretty interesting to try top cropping like that, the corny could come out BETTER if you are using the healthiest yeast which are on top! The vessel shape also makes a difference so its not an entirely fair comparison.

bsdx, that's quite a cool little trick. My only CO2 is a hand-held keg charger, which would probably blow carboy cap right off. Haha. I wonder if the krausen would naturally "climb" up the tube and into the carboy via the natural fermentation pressure. My airlock is bubbling pretty steadily.

Better not risk messing with it, I guess. Next time, when I have a real CO2 tank.

Oh thats a good idea! I bet it would climb up if you blocked the output. A thin racking cane would probably work faster if the end seals with the carboy cap.

Heck you don't even need a carboy cap for that, you could probably do it with a drilled bung.

I was going to try it, but none of the tubing I have will fit on the cane. I used what would have fit in fixing my immersion chiller this weekend.

Oh well, I have to run to the LHBS tomorrow anyhow as I dropped my hydrometer and need to get a new one. I'll just pick up a fresh packet of yeast to pitch into the corny.

Sweet trick though, I'll have to figure out how to incorporate it one of these days. Brew on three consecutive days and leapfrog the yeast from one fermentation vessel into the next and then into the next or something like that. Hmmmmm.

I think the tricky part would be figuring out when you have captured enough yeast so you are not under-pitching, although with a day or more in between you could probably make an easy starter with the captured yeast.