Can wort sit for 48 hours?

[jtakacs]

sealed and sterile sitting out at room temp (can't put it in a fridge, it won't fit) - looks like it'll be 48 hours before i can pitch anything...

anyone do this and were there any ill effects?? its an AG ipa with a gravity of 1.057... i did pitch a SMALL vial of washed WLP001 (that's the yeast i was going to use until i realized i was out... ugh)...

 

[DubBrew]

I've read of guys in australia who's method is to let it sit for 24 hours before pitching. If your sanitization was impeccable I bet you will be ok. Not ideal but survivable.

 

[Jenks829]

I agree with DubBrew.

The name of the game is sanitization and protection. You just created a soup full of nutrients and food for any micro organism. If you can keep it airtight and the air that is already in there if void of life, you will have a good shot at holding things off until you can get your yeast in there.

If you did pitch even a small amount of yeast, that stuff will start fermenting. It the pitching count was too low, you may stress those guys out but hopefully you get an ideal amount of healthy yeast in there soon enough to ward that off.

 

[DubBrew]

If you did pitch even a small amount of yeast, that stuff will start fermenting. It the pitching count was too low, you may stress those guys out but hopefully you get an ideal amount of healthy yeast in there soon enough to ward that off.

For sure, the yeast will be stressed and may/will create some off flavors. Hopefully the yeast will clean that up once you get more. In the meantime the hops and small amount of yeast will have some anti infection properties.

 

[jtakacs]

thx...

well, there's certainly no problem with hops. there's only 5 different simcoe additions.

its well sanitized and it does have some yeast in it... i'm more embarrassed that i brewed without yeast... never did that one before! lol...

 

[rycov]

be careful since you already put yeast in, when they start fermenting they will build pressure. what is your wort sealed in? if the fermenter with an airlock or tube then you're good

 

[jtakacs]

blow off tube... i did not build a bomb.

 

[winvarin]

question about this method. I have thought about doing this with a lager later this year in order to drop it down to pitching temps before adding yeast. I normally aerate with pure O2. If I was going to leave it sealed until it reached an acceptable temp, would you aerate before the 24-48 hours, or right before you pitched after the 24-48 hrs?

 

[DubBrew]

After. other wise it may dissipate. I do the same thing when I lager if my chiller doesn't get it down to pitching temps. Then I added o2 and pitch. Works well.

 

[jtakacs]

question about this method. I have thought about doing this with a lager later this year in order to drop it down to pitching temps before adding yeast. I normally aerate with pure O2. If I was going to leave it sealed until it reached an acceptable temp, would you aerate before the 24-48 hours, or right before you pitched after the 24-48 hrs?

i will aerate before pitching (if needed - i'm going to give it 72 hours to see if the small amount of yeast in there does anything... we'll see)

 

[rycov]

question about this method. I have thought about doing this with a lager later this year in order to drop it down to pitching temps before adding yeast. I normally aerate with pure O2. If I was going to leave it sealed until it reached an acceptable temp, would you aerate before the 24-48 hours, or right before you pitched after the 24-48 hrs?

just note that if you put the wort in while its hot, as it cools down it will shrink some and will probably suck the liquid back through the airlock. not a huge deal, just something to think about.

 

[BigIslandBrewer]

Recently brewed a heavy red IPA, I added close to 6 oz of hops within the last 10 minutes of the boil. I didn't have a big enough starter ready so I added the un-chilled wort straight into the fermenter (figured it would help sanitize everything, similar to the Australian method). Let it cool at room temperature on its own and pitched close to 48 hours later. No infections or off tastes and everything went great except there is NO hop aroma in the beer. From my understanding, my aroma additions became bittering additions since it sat hot for so long. It was interesting because there was no hop aroma AT ALL, then you drink it and it slammed you in the face. After dryhopping 2 weeks in the keg, everything balanced out nicely and it tastes fantastic.

 

[jtakacs]

nice tip - i have 4.0 oz of simcoe in there already and it'll be hit with another 2 oz dry hopped, but that won't be until fermentation is done.

 

[jtakacs]

well as a testament to "don't worry" it started happily fermenting with just a small amount of washed WLP001 - lag was 48 hours. not nearly as an aggressive fermentation as when i originally pitched it, but just fine.