poor planning

So I'm in the middle of a brew its almost done and I have to be back to work soon. I don't know if I'll have enough time to get it down to temperature for pitching the yeast in time. I don't have an emersion chiller so I am going to throw it in the freezer and hope it chills fast. What's the best option? I've thought about chilling as much as I can, throwing in the pail and then pitching the yeast when I get home.

I've thought about chilling as much as I can, throwing in the pail and then pitching the yeast when I get home.

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Do that and don't worry about it.

what about cutting the boil like ten minutes short?

Where your priorities?

Call out sick.

benharper13 said:

what about cutting the boil like ten minutes short?

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That will effect the beer.

Really, don't worry about it. Cool it as much as you can, put it in the fermenter and close it up with an airlock. Pitch the yeast when you get home. Everything will be fine.

well I got in a bit of panic and probably made matters worse, I called work to say I was going to be late because goldminer convinced me I had my priorities wrong. Well it wasn't cooling nearly fast enough and I was now an hour late for work so instead of pitching at 70-75 like I was hoping I pitched at 88 so I know I should have listened to you bend but I was already late and made a dumb choice, bottle line I know this will make beer and from what I've read I might have really high apple flavors which might make the beer undrinkable but has anyone had experience with this?

Also it was a white lab german lager yeast and I was brewing a vienna lager

off topic... Kinda...

did you get in trouble at work?

(sorry I can't contribute to conversation I'm just learning myself)

Next time let your wort chill and come back and pitch the yeast later. As long as you have good sanitation practices you should be fine. All you did was kill a bunch of your yeast by pitching it at those temps. This could lead to off flavors, the other thing you could do is pitch 3 times as much yeast as was originally suggested, but that is still not an ideal situation.

+1 on leaving it be, then coming back and pitching later. Like others have said, as long as your sanitation process is good, the wort will be just fine if left in the carboy on it's own for a few hours, without any yeast to play with.

I did exactly that this past weekend. Didn't allot myself enough time for brewing prior to having to pick up a BBQ and lawnmower across town from a friend who was moving. Pitched about 4-5 hours later and the delicious goodness is happily fermenting away.

Have a backup packet of yeast ready just in case, Lager yeast are not going to like upper 80's, if it is not necessary then you are stocked for next batch.

Next time use ice with occasional stir. Start stockpiling it in your frezer a couple days before.

And listen to Bend next time.

I know I know that was stupid. I did not get in trouble at work and I didn't even have to lie about why I was late

you can leave it be for several hours. i've left it overnight in a couple of very specific instances with no problem

K so if I have no signs of fermentation tomorrow I'll go get another packet of yeast. Say I just re-pitch tomorrow I should be fine if I killed the yeast right? If so should I re-aerate the wort?