Pitched Yeast - uh-oh....

I need some advice.

Just brewed my second batch. I used liquid yeast this time and when I opened the cap on the yeast it went everywhere. I might have lost 1/4 - 1/2 of it. How will this effect my beer? Here is the recipe I am brewing:

American Style Pale Ale

8 lbs light malt extract

1 lb Crystal Malt 40L
1/2 lb. CaraPils Malt

1 1/2 oz. Northern Brewer Hops - 60 min
2 oz. Cascade Hops - 5 min.

White Labs California Ale Yeast (liquid)

We've pretty much all done it the first time we opened one of those test tubes. You'll be fine.

It's going to take awhile to reproduce enough cells (you really should make a starter for all liguid yeast anyway) but it will be fine.

What was your OG?

Wow....most people use a starter with liquid yeast because it does not have enough yeast to get a good active fermentation going. I would give it 24 hours but try and get your hands on some more yeast.

Mmenges said:

What was your OG?

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1.10

That seemed a high???

yeah you might like to add a little more yeast

1.100 for your OG?


....might want to try to get some more yeast if you only pitched 1/2 of a white labs tube. That's a pretty high OG for that amount of yeast cells.

With 8 pounds of extract, the OG should be in the area of 1.070 if it was dry extract, or 1.057 if it was liquid extract. 1.100 is an incorrect reading- I bet the extract was not mixed up completely. That doesn't matter, as the yeast know where to find the sugar!

Ideally, you'd have used more yeast. But it'll be fine- the yeast will have to work a bit harder to reproduce before getting fermentation underway. Keep it in the area of 65-68 degrees if possible, and it'll get going within the next 2-3 days. Don't worry!

It was a liquid extract. I am sure it was mixed well. I just can't explain the high OG.

I am keeping the carboy at just under 70 in the fermentation chamber I built. That was what the yeast and the recipe called for. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thanks for the help.

rwinzing said:

Wow....most people use a starter with liquid yeast because it does not have enough yeast to get a good active fermentation going.

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Done over 13 batches now without starters, and I use White Labs religiously.

the few times i used the liquid yeasts i just dumped them straight in without a started and they did fine.

Marsdude said:

It was a liquid extract. I am sure it was mixed well. I just can't explain the high OG.

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It's nearly impossible to get the boiled wort and to-off water completely mixed together, though it will all homogenize as fermentation happens.

I'm an extract plus specialty grains brewer and don't even measure the OG anymore; I just trust what Beersmith calculates. As long as you used the right amounts of the right ingredients in the right batch size, your real OG will pretty much be what's calculated.

JiveTurkey said:

It's nearly impossible to get the boiled wort and to-off water completely mixed together, though it will all homogenize as fermentation happens.

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Well, that MUST have been what happened.

I am already getting fermentation, slow, but not bad for the day after.