Double topic thread ...Couldn't pitch yeast/long chill time

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  Hey all,
  
• I was brewing a stout kit last night and everything was going well until I spilled my YEAST! My LHBS isn't open at midnight (lol) so, I'm heading over there today to pick some up. The wort is sitting in a sanitized brew pale....
  
• On to another topic, I usualy do 2 gallon boils , but I just got my propane burner and 7.5 gallon kettle, wooohoo! So, I did a 3 gallon boil, but it was taking forever to get the wort to chill with an ice bath. It was late , I couldnt pitch so... I set it and forget it. I had it down to 100* when I just popped it into the brew pale and went to bed.

What are the negative results of my actions going to be? no yeast... didnt chill... not my proudest brew moment

Chill haze for the slow cooling, and a higher risk of contamination for not getting the yeast going on it. Get a IC and keep extra yeast handy.

I would suggest the following:

For this brew, pitch two tubes/smack packs of yeast to try and overwhelm any wild yeasts or bacteria that may have started replicating in the wort already. You may also want to add finings to the beer after fermentation is complete to help it clarify (although I don't drink stouts, so I am not sure how important clarity is for that style - it's pretty opaque to begin with because of the dark color).

For future reference, it's always a good idea to have a couple of spare packs of Safale US-05 and Safale 04 on hand (and maybe a Belgian dry yeast as well). They may not be ideal for the style of beer you are brewing, but if your primary yeast gets spilled or is not viable, you have a reasonable (and cheap) backup available immediately. Keep them in the fridge, and they'll be good for a couple of years.
You will also want to find a way to get the wort cooled more quickly. Freezing some pre-boiled water in air-tight containers and adding the (sterile) ice directly to the wort works very well. Immersion chillers do the trick for a bit more $$$ if you have cold tap water (i.e. they don't work too well in the southern US, where the tap water is often in the mid-70s).

You could always start harvesting your Yeast from your batches, then you would always have a few jars of yeast around. as far as the cooling is concerned, I always cool mine in an ice bath, and pretty much always have chill haze in my lighter beers. Some day I'll get an IC, but a 3-4 week fermentation in your primary should help clear some of that up.

Thanks for the replies...

I thought of dumping some ice out of the freezer into it, but sometimes I have what we like to call "garlic ice". You know the ice that picks up scents from food...yuck. Dont really have room to freeze preboiled water ... I'm wondering if I could use bagged ice from the store?

Washed yeast scares me, I have enough trouble avoiding mistakes on brew day. I tried it before and I think the yeast may have picked up some alien bacteria.https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/overcarbonated-unique-flavor-uh-problem-pics-95514/ My next batch did not turn out well.

I did pick up a couple packs of Danstar Nottingham yeast for back ups. And a pack of Red Star Montrachet for my first batch of Apfelwine!

rescue brew said:

Thanks for the replies...

I thought of dumping some ice out of the freezer into it, but sometimes I have what we like to call "garlic ice". You know the ice that picks up scents from food...yuck. Dont really have room to freeze preboiled water ... I'm wondering if I could use bagged ice from the store?

Washed yeast scares me, I have enough trouble avoiding mistakes on brew day. I tried it before and I think the yeast may have picked up some alien bacteria.https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/overcarbonated-unique-flavor-uh-problem-pics-95514/ My next batch did not turn out well.

I did pick up a couple packs of Danstar Nottingham yeast for back ups. And a pack of Red Star Montrachet for my first batch of Apfelwine!

Click to expand...

I would be reluctant to use bagged ice from the store. I would be world about it being sterile. Who knows what goes on in the manufacturing process of bagged ice. Are the bags sterilized? Is the ice sterile for that matter? I don't know, so I don't use it. Just my 2 cents. I am going to try freezing some top off water in sterile plastic jugs for my next batch, as I am having trouble cooling the wort w/o an IC also.

i have trouble cooling as well. it's been taking roughly 8 hours to get it down to a good temp to pitch. Not too worried about wild yeasts, but I'd prefer not to have to deal with them.

I'm going to try freezing a gallon of ice in a cleaned + sanitized milk jug next time. Boil the water, put it in a milk jug with approximately 10% air space and stick in the freezer. Let it freeze completely. Cut it open with a sanitized knife and dump into the primary.

rescue brew said:

Thanks for the replies...

I thought of dumping some ice out of the freezer into it, but sometimes I have what we like to call "garlic ice". You know the ice that picks up scents from food...yuck. Dont really have room to freeze preboiled water ... I'm wondering if I could use bagged ice from the store?

Click to expand...

You don't want to use bagged ice, but what you can do is buy bottled water (or fill your own pre-boiled water into 1-gallon plastic jugs) and put them in the fridge overnight. That should get them down into mid-30s or so. Sanitize them briefly and add that to the wort after it has has had a chance to cool off a little bit, and you'll still get a good cold break and accelerate the cooling process considerably. Just don't add more than you need to to hit your targeted original gravity (in other words, you are adding your (very cold) top-off water to the boil kettle instead of adding it to the fermenter).

I wouldn't freeze a whole gallon jug of water, because it will take forever to melt because of its large thermal inertia and small surface-to-volume ratio. Multiple, smaller pieces of ice (say, frozen 20-oz bottles that you sanitize and cut open with a sanitized knife or scissors) so a much better job.