Did he kill the yeast.

[Wyo_brews]

I am currently on my 5th batch now and recently got a buddy into the greatest hobby in the world. He went and got himself a kit and asked me to come over and help him through the process. I I allowed him to do most of the work so that he can really learn the ropes. Every thing seemed to be going well. Nice steady boil with no boil overs. (This was an extract batch with specialty grains). However when it came time to pitch he took the temp and claimed it was 68F. I believed him and we moved forward. However when it came time to move the Carboy to its spot I noticed it felt pretty warm and sure enough the stick on thermometer strip read around 79F. What are the chances the yeast is toast. Being fairly new I have yet to run into this problem and am not sure how to address the problem.

The yeast was WLP039. Any advice would be great.

Also it has been sitting for a couple days and has settled right at 65F but with no discernible activity.

 

[flars]

79° will not kill the yeast. The closer the yeast is to the temperature of the wort at pitching the better. Less stress on the yeast and shorter lag time.

I would get the wort temperature down to 62° to 64° for the start of your fermentation. Hold the fermentation temperature at or below 66°.

The fermentation will produce heat so you will have to account for the natural rise in temperature for keeping the wort at the low end of the yeasts optimum temp.

Happy brewing.

Just saw the last line of youir post. If you are using a bucket fermentation may have begun. Just no airlock activity yet. CO2 can escape around the seal of the lid. Sanitize around the lid to partially open it for a look.

 

[Wyo_brews]

Awesome I didn't think so but it never hurts to ask and I can bring the temp down no problem

 

[Wyo_brews]

He is using my spare carboy so that he could watch the process without risking contamination. You know how it is the first couple times when you just want to look every 10 minutes haha

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

Yeah it takes upwards of the 130-140* range to kill the yeast. It may stun the yeast since they probably went from room temp to that 80* area instantly. Just something to watch carefully for next time! If the beer seems to have some off flavors or smells when it's done, consider doing a secondary after 3 weeks and just let it mellow out for some time. I had a porter I made that the ferm temp hit high 70*'s and it ended up having a strong fusel alcohol smell that mellowed out after about a month or two.

 

[Wyo_brews]

Good to know thanks for the heads up.

 

[Wyo_brews]

This is what it looks like this far

 

[sweetcell]

going from 79* at pitching to a stable 65* might have caused the yeast to go dormant. yeast don't like being cooled that much, especially quickly.

that photo make it look like there is some activity - the internal part of the airlock is raised and you have the beginning of some krausen. your friend (yeah riiiiiiight, "your friend"... wink wink) might want to bump up the temps a few degrees if he can, then very gently swirl the carboy to get the yeast back in suspension.

 

[cluckk]

He is using my spare carboy so that he could watch the process without risking contamination. You know how it is the first couple times when you just want to look every 10 minutes haha

I started in 2004 and still want to look every ten minutes. My wife thinks I'm nuts. It kills me to go out of town and not be able to look at my carboys. I've thought about putting a webcam in the fermentation chamber so I can watch over the internet, but it is also our walk-in closet and my wife occasionally changes in there, so it wouldn't be a good idea...then again...no wait, not a good idea. She'd kill me.

 

[flars]

This is what it looks like this far
View attachment 172139

Beautiful.