Pitching my yeast too cold

I brewed my Munton Pale Ale yesterday. When I filled my fermenter with water (after mixing the kit and all) it got too cold. Instead of waiting for it to warm up I sprinkled yeast anyways; because a lot of people say its better to pitch yeast early then to wait for right temperature and let it get contaminated. I left it for about 12.5 hours and checked on it, it seemed to have stuff on the top floating around which i haven't seen on my first kit, and not a bit of fermentation is going on. Should I be worried on the stuff that's floating around or is that normal? its small white things floating...not sure how to describe it. The smell still looks normal.

Also instead of putting on an air lock, i used a cloth and put the lid loosely on the cloth. My thought is; as long as a bit of air can escape I should be fine.

Could it be small hairs from the cloth? Although I don't know how it could fall in...

The Yeast was a little bit out dated but only about a couple months.

The white stuff on top is most likely from the yeast. Depending on how cold it was, it can take some time for things to warm up and for the yeast to get going and produce visible signs of fermentation. And even if it isn't visible, it is likely happening. Let it ride, I'm sure it's doing fine. And get an airlock or blowoff tube on there if you have one.

You can always take serial gravity readings to check. If you don't have a hydrometer, it's a good investment.


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Rehydrating dry yeast before pitching helps immensely, for future reference

Not to worry. Yet, anyway.

Coolish temps will slow the yeast down. I had an out-of-ordinary pitch happen last week because it was so friggin' cold in my basement brewery on a double batch day that by the time I pitched the yeast and had both fermenters oxygenated the wort temp was around 60° - about 6 degrees below the game plan.

The ferm chamber did the best it could to nudge 11 gallons of wort back up to 66°F without cooking it and it took an extra ~12 hours for things to get rockin' than usual. But here we are a week later and FG was nailed on both recipes.

Have faith. Yeast are hardy li'l bastids....

Cheers!

I added the air lock so now I know that is good. The hydrometer I almost bought but decided since I'm a beginner I'll buy it in the near future and just buy the absolute essentials for now. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll start. Hopefully in the morning I'll see activity in the air lock. Is there always an advantage in pre starting the yeast? No matter which kit I use?

for best results, before hand sanitize everything, give plenty of oxygen, put the lid on, and air lock and just wait, the cold isn't hurting anything but sanitation can

The hydrometer and a hydrometer flask is essential. Use it to measure SG before pitching the yeast and then after a couple of weeks. It will tell you if fermentation is complete. This time you will use the kit estimate OG and measure the FG - you will want to do that prior to bottling else risk bottle bombs.

Hydrating dry yeast is a highly debated issue, but if done right it can help.

budlight201 said:

I added the air lock so now I know that is good. The hydrometer I almost bought but decided since I'm a beginner I'll buy it in the near future and just buy the absolute essentials for now. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll start. Hopefully in the morning I'll see activity in the air lock. Is there always an advantage in pre starting the yeast? No matter which kit I use?

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If you don't see activity in the morning, don't worry. Some of my beers take over 30 hours to show that the yeast has gone to work and they all turn out just fine.

If you are using dry yeast and just sprinkle it on top of the wort, you may be killing up to 50% of the yeast cells. Most of the yeast producers recommend that you use a bit of warm water (preferably boiled and cooled but I've used tap water and it works fine) and sprinkle the yeast on that, then in a few minutes, stir the yeast into the water and let it sit for 15 minutes or a bit longer. That gives the dry yeast a chance to rehydrate without harming them. Usually they foam up a bit from the rehydration and then you can dump that into the fermenter.

budlight201 said:

I added the air lock so now I know that is good. The hydrometer I almost bought but decided since I'm a beginner I'll buy it in the near future and just buy the absolute essentials for now. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll start. Hopefully in the morning I'll see activity in the air lock. Is there always an advantage in pre starting the yeast? No matter which kit I use?

Click to expand...

The hydrometer is partly for safety, to prevent bottle bombs. When getting close to bottling day, check the gravity. Check again three days later. If gravity is stable, it's OK to bottle. If it has dropped, wait and check again later. I'm sure you could brew good beer without one, but bottle bombs can be dangerous.

I'm glad you told me, I thought the only way they can explode is adding too much sugar then bottling lol the beer is now at 37 hours and still no activity. If it doesn't do anything by tomorrow I'll prestart some yeast I have here and put a table spoon in and see if it'll get the party started