Help!!!

[Boomer]

Ok, so I boiled for 60 minutes with hops in the wort. I was doing a partial batch since my brew pot will only safely hold 2 gallons. The water in my carboy was cold. I racked the wort onto the cold water. I gave it a few good shakes and let it sit while I hydrated yeast. Once I felt the yeast was ready, I took a look at the fermometer on the and it said 74. I pitched the yeast, did a little cleaning, and got ready to move the carboy to my fermenting location. I grabbed the neck, and when I grabbed the base with my other hand, it was hot. It was really hot. I think I put the yeast in when it was still really hot and for some reason the fermometer was WAY off. I have it outside and it's about 10 degrees right now. I'm hoping to salvage this. Is there any way to fix it? If it doesn't take off, can I cold crash, rack to another carboy, get to temp, and pitch more yeast?

Thanks!

 

[arturo7]

Did you take another temp reading after you noticed the heat?

 

[Boomer]

Nope. It's hot enough to know that it's over 75. I just took it outside. I didn't want to pull off the airlock now that there is yeast in there. I'm wondering if the wort just didn't mix well with the water. It looks normal, just really hot.

 

[arturo7]

You'll know if you killed the yeast if fermentation doesn't start in a few days. Worst case, you buy some more yeast and re-pitch.

You do have a hydrometer, don't you?

 

[Boomer]

Yep, plus it's a brew I've done a few times and it usually takes off pretty hard. It should be evident. I've just never run into this particular problem. Wanted to make sure I didn't need to try to rack it off to keep any off flavors from dead yeast.

 

[Boomer]

Has anyone done this before?

 

[lumpher]

it's common to pitch too hot. wait 2-3 days. if there is no sign of fermentation, repitch.

 

[Boomer]

it's common to pitch too hot. wait 2-3 days. if there is no sign of fermentation, repitch.

Do I need to rack off of this yeast and repitch in a new carboy or just pitch right back in this one?

 

[lumpher]

when i say "it's common", i mean in the learning phase. just pitch on top of this same 1

 

[tjpfeister]

I have had successful "thermentation" after pitching yeast into a 200*F starter (don't make starters when you are 3 sheets to the wind). You will probably be okay.

 

[Boomer]

I have had successful "thermentation" after pitching yeast into a 200*F starter (don't make starters when you are 3 sheets to the wind). You will probably be okay.

That's part of the problem!!

I just thought since it had sat for a while AND the fermometer read 74 I'd be fine. Not trusting those things anymore. Never had it happen in any of the other batches I've made, either. Oh well. Live and learn.

 

[Boomer]

Gonna be a great brew, I'm guessing, because everything is going wrong!

Just brought it in because it got down to 74 degrees. Figured I'd take a look at the airlock and see if by chance anything is happening yet. The water in the airlock is frozen. Fantastic. I put my hand around it to thaw the water out and it didn't take but a minute or two.







Guess what? She's bubblin!!

 

[zachattack]

Guess what? She's bubblin!!

Chances are it's bubbling because the air in the headspace of the carboy is expanding as it warms up!

 

[Boomer]

Chances are it's bubbling because the air in the headspace of the carboy is expanding as it warms up!

Chances are, it is/was fermenting. The krausen was starting to form and everything. I know it's a rookie mistake, but it's not my first batch.



That being said, be careful what you wish for! I woke up this morning at 6:00 to check on it and make sure everything was ok. I got into the kitchen and heard a hissing noise. WTF is that? Turn the corner, and I was lucky enough to catch it right as the krausen worked its way into the airlock. Ok, I'll just take some tubing and make a blow off real quick, simple, right? I don't know if I mentioned that I sold all of my brewing equipment and decided to get back into it pretty low key. The ONLY tubing I had was the piece for the auto-siphon. I cut it off quickly and tried to jam it on my airlock. They are the exact same diameter, ****! What do I do? What do I do? I tried heating the tubing up to get it to stretch a little bit - no bueno. My LHBS is closed, Lowes and Home Depot are closed, its 6:15am and I don't want A) to lose this batch and B) to have it explode all over my kitchen...

Solution - Not the best one, and probably going to be an addition to Revvy's thread of mistakes, BUT, I did it. I'm not proud of it, but it'll work until the LHBS opens and I can get some more tubing. I took a standard Bic clicking pen, pulled the guts out of it, took the clicker off and the pointed end. I was left with about a 5" long straw that had an OD about 1/32" smaller than the ID of my tubing. I washed it really well, hit it with some star san, and then I used it as a coupler between the stem in the airlock and the tubing, taped the hell out of it, and the batch is successfully blowing off into a jug of water. I had to cut off the outer shield on the airlock so I could put tape around the stem on the inside, as well. I'll be in the parking lot when my LHBS opens to get some more tubing and a handful of air locks!



I'm thinking - Boomer's Black Botch is going to be an appropriate name for this one when all is said and done. At least I didn't burn myself while boiling, that's ONE good thing so far!

 

[zachattack]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like an ass! From the timeline of your postings it looked like it had only been about an hour or two total during which you pitched/brought it outside/brought it back inside.

But just for the record:
A 60 degree F swing in temperature will change the volume of air in the carboy by about 5%, so if you have a gallon of headspace you're looking at 6.4 fluid ounces of volume change. If contained, this would generate a pressure equivalent to about 20 inches of water (I'm assuming no absorption in the wort since air is relatively insoluble), so plenty of force to push it out through the airlock. And since the air has such a small thermal mass the expansion would happen fairly quickly. So regardless of whether or not your fermentation started, if everything was airtight it would have bubbled for a little while as soon as you brought it inside.

Sounds like you rigged up a pretty badass blowoff, Macgyver would be proud.

 

[Boomer]

I'll post a picture later today. There was about 6 hours between pitching yeast and when it came back in. I started the yeast, as well, so it helped speed things along!

It looks like a low budget science class!

 

[DonutMuncher]

Solution - Not the best one, and probably going to be an addition to Revvy's thread of mistakes, BUT, I did it. I'm not proud of it, but it'll work...

You had me laughing at this... I'm sure we've all thought this at some point or another when things go bad

Using a hollowed out, sanitized BIC pen as a makeshift 'adapter' of sorts between the airlock and tubing? That's freaking awesome. I'd guess you should be okay if it was well-sanitized.

 

[Boomer]

You had me laughing at this... I'm sure we've all thought this at some point or another when things go bad

Using a hollowed out, sanitized BIC pen as a makeshift 'adapter' of sorts between the airlock and tubing? That's freaking awesome. I'd guess you should be okay if it was well-sanitized.

I usually have a bowl with a gallon of star san already mixed up for stuff just like this. Every brew day is an adventure, why not embrace it?

 

[Boomer]

Here's a picture of the little booger...

On a side note, this is the most violent fermentation I've ever seen. It's moving through the tube almost like a siphon. Fun to watch, driving SWMBO's dog nuts...

 

[JSherwood]

You MacGyver'd the S*** out of that thing! I love seeing ingenuity like this. As long as it's sanitary, it can't hurt, right?

Prost to you, sir!