Wort Chilling Disaster

Recently I brewed my first all grain batch starting late on a Thursday night and all was going well until I remembered that I forgot to buy ice to chill the wort once the boil was done.

So in my warm NYC apartment I grabbed things out of the freezer to attempt to chill the wort down as fast as possible. To make a long story short it took a little more than 2.5 hrs to get the wort to 85 degrees so I could pitch my rehydrated yeast and put the beer in the fermenter with the blow off tube (couldnt find my air lock).

What should I expect?

I brewed an IPA and hit my goal OG. I hope all goes ok with the fermentation and that the slow cooling didn't create DMS in my wort.

Just the longer it takes to cool the higher the chance for infection. If you dropped it below 150 fairly quick I doubt color will be an issue. If you had a good starter going when pitched all should be fine. I would say RDWHAHB!

In your kind of situation, I would simply resort to no-chill. I'd seal the boil pot with duct tape, and ærate and pitch yeast the next day, or whenever it got below 80F.

My main issue I think is that my rehydrated yeast was sitting out (covered of course) during my whole struggle to get the wort chilled. Also, I pitched the yeast at a tad over 90 because i felt the temp. of the room was skewing the thermometer readings.

Only time will tell I guess.

Too late for that. I hope my start didn't spoil while I was struggling to chill the wort. I read online that some people have pitched their yeast at 80-90 degrees so when the wort reached 91ish I pitched the yeast, sealed the fermenter, put in my blow off tube, and went to bed (started the brew later and the cooling took forever).

Wow. that sounds WARM! I try to get my wort to 65F and keep it there...
cooler starting temps and cooler fermenting make for better beer, IMO. Nix that - in my personal experience!

I use a checklist before I start - but that's just me...

good luck. It will still be beer, next batch will be better -

My first batch I left uncovered in a kitchen sink full of ice water overnight and pitched the next morning. Turned out great. I wouldn't worry.

it'll be just fine.

rdw

Hold on... incoming message from my car, Infinibrew...

That seems promising, but I pitched the yeast when the worst was probably a tad too warm. So the only thingI can do is hope that fermentation starts in the next 24-72 hrs. If not the wort is sealed in my fermenter with the airlock on it in my cool bedroom and I can go to the homebrew store on sunday and buy a new packet of yeast and pitch it when I get home.

Bitzybrew said:

That seems promising, but I pitched the yeast when the worst was probably a tad too warm. So the only thingI can do is hope that fermentation starts in the next 24-72 hrs. If not the wort is sealed in my fermenter with the airlock on it in my cool bedroom and I can go to the homebrew store on sunday and buy a new packet of yeast and pitch it when I get home.

Click to expand...

Don't worry about the yeast. The best temperature to rehydrate dry yeast is about 100F! (John Palmer says 95 - 105). Seriously, chill (pun intended ) it's going to be the best IPA.

Thanks! All looks good. Saw some bubbles in the air lock this morning and let the hydrometer sample i took settle over night and it looks awesome.

Yeah Chilling wort is a real pain. I'm thinking about buying a no-chill cube.