Adding Pasteur Champagne yeast to Hefeweizen wheat beer.

Dumb question, I know, but I'm gonna ask it anyway.

First though, I brewed my 3rd batch of beer Friday night and, without making a starter, pitched my liquid yeast when the wort MAY have been too hot. Now, almost 3 days later, I see no signs of fermentation. I didn't take my first reading until 12 hours after pitching, and THAT reading is identical to today's reading. (1.030 and they were taken 48 hours apart.)

I cannot get more of the same liquid yeast until tomorrow evening, and by that time the wort will be 4 days old.

Then there's the possibly that I still have to wait 24-72 hrs after pitching for this second non-started liquid yeast to start rocking on.

Here's my question: Can I use an extra packet of Red Star Pasteur Champagne I had stowed in the fridge? As in use it NOW. I expect the answer to be "no", but I had to ask.

Thanks in advance.

G

If you pitch the champagne yeast, it will not be a hefeweizen. It will be something different. Hefeweizens are all about the yeast if you ask me.

Now, you can throw that in there, and I suspect that you will have a fermentation going in a few hours. With a gravity that low, you didn't need a starter at all. What you will end up with though, will be a wheat beer with a gravity that is LOW. Champagne yeast will eat all the sugars leaving behind almost nothing. You also will not get any of the typical hefeweisen flavors.

Sounds like that ain't what I want. I DO want that hefe taste.

I guess I'm just looking at waiting till tomorrow evening then, pitching again, and letting things move along.

My biggest concern is letting my wort sit for this long. Off flavors? Bacteria? And I know that I DON'T know the rest of the risks.

If I didn't have a 8 y/o getting off the school bus here in a little while, I'd pour myself a HB and relax.

Eh, if you sterilized everything like you should it won't be a big deal. If you got a bit of something in there, might turn into something awesome. Who knows? Add the hefe yeast when you can, and see what happens.

+1 to getting more hefe yeast and re-pitching that. I brewed Yuri's Thunderstruck pumpkin ale and pitched a bad sachet of Nottingham. My wort sat in the primary for 4 days before I re-pitched with US-05.

FWIW, Champagne & Wine yeast won't eat too much Maltose, just the Sucrose that's in the wort, get some more of the hefe yeast if you don't drop in gravity.