Hot yeast, can it be saved?

[RidingDonkeys]

I suffered a power outage while I was out of town. It killed all my beer in the kegerator, and I thought that was all the damage.

Then last week I did a yeast starter with Safale 05 for a new batch. I pitched it, and got nothing after 4 days. I thought I had a bad pack of yeast. I had some Danstar Nottingham in the fridge, so I rehydrated it and pitched it into the batch. Three more days, and nothing.

MrsDonkeys said "Oh, no! The power outage must have killed all the yeast."

I had two Wyeast smack packs in the fridge too. I told her to smack one, and if it took off we'd brew yesterday. She smacked a Lambic pack, and after 12 hours, no expansion. I left it on the counter, and woke up this morning to a swollen wyeast pack.

Is this worth salvaging, or could the warm temps caused by the power outage done enough damage for me to dump the yeast and start over again?

 

[bja]

I left it on the counter, and woke up this morning to a swollen wyeast pack.

Since it swelled up, make a starter and use it. Why would you throw it away?

 

[RidingDonkeys]

Since it swelled up, make a starter and use it. Why would you throw it away?

Because it took 24hrs to swell up, and all the dry yeast that was stored has proved to be dead as a doorknob.

Even though some of the wyeast is still living, could it have suffered from the heat? Could this adverseley affect the beer?

 

[bja]

It swelled up because some of it is still alive. Make a starter and it will be fine.

 

[BigFloyd]

+1 on using the swollen pack to make a starter.

Did you make a starter with a pack of US-05? That's not the best way to use that yeast since tossing dry yeast cells into starter wort kills up to about half of them. Better to rehydrate it in warm tap water.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

+1 on using the swollen pack to make a starter.

Did you make a starter with a pack of US-05? That's not the best way to use that yeast since tossing dry yeast cells into starter wort kills up to about half of them. Better to rehydrate it in warm tap water.

I did use a starter on the US-05.

I simply rehydrated and pitched the Nottingham.

Still no action on the batch. I am going to try to find some fresh US-05 today and save the batch.

 

[bja]

I suffered a power outage while I was out of town. It killed all my beer in the kegerator, and I thought that was all the damage.

MrsDonkeys said "Oh, no! The power outage must have killed all the yeast."

OK, I've got to ask. How could a power outage cause all this damage?

 

[RidingDonkeys]

I had 4 kegs on tap. The power was out for almost 2 days with temps in the upper 90s. She said it was 88 in the house when she got home from work the first day, and that was at 11pm.

My guess is the beer entered another fermentation. It was definitively bad. I even opened the kegs and sampled from within to make sure it wasn't skunked lines. Each keg has the same foul smell and taste to it.

We pretty much lost everything in the fridge/freezer. There was no ice to be had in town. She got the meats (deer/pork) into a cooler with ice packs, and those were saved, but that's all that made it.

 

[fizgig]

The dry yeast would have to get to like 140 degrees to kill it, even unrefrigerated dry yeast is 80% viable after one year according to White and Zainasheff's yeast book.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

That is what I thought too. However, the Wyeast smack packs are alive. The Safale is not. The Danstar isn't either. All of it was shipped to the house in May on the same shipment. The power outage is the only thing I can contribute it too. I'm open to other theories though.

 

[fizgig]

yeast assassins killed the power, snuck it, and next thing you know, 400 billion dead.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

yeast assassins killed the power, snuck it, and next thing you know, 400 billion dead.

Now this is a distinct possibility. They could have been hired by the government to kill my yeast. I had failed to make foil hats for my yeast, and the Wyeast was in a foil package. Foil is the key...or so the other conspiracy theorists tell me.