Impatience + Yeast = Disaster?

[DaveGEsq]

I want to reuse the WL007 I just brewed. So when I racked to secondary I harvested the slurry into a clean/sanitized 1 gallon carboy. I knew I needed to wash it because it would be at least one week before I'd get around to brewing and pitching that yeast. So I boiled some water for washing. I got impatient waiting for the water to cool and decided to use distilled water instead. I dumped in about a pint of distilled water, shook the hell out of the carboy and left it on the counter (covered) to settle out. Settle it did. I decanted most of the liquid and threw the carboy in the fridge until it's ready to use.

What are the odds the yeast is still good?

 

[mux]

Pull some out and make a proper starter.

 

[DaveGEsq]

Pull some out and make a proper starter.

I plan to. Assuming the starter looks good, is there any concern that the yeast may not perform well or throw off flavors around once fermenting the beer?

 

[beerman0001]

Your yeast will be fine. Why so impatient?

 

[DaveGEsq]

I'm just an idiot. Timing was bad, it was getting late, blah blah blah. Dumb.

 

[mux]

I plan to. Assuming the starter looks good, is there any concern that the yeast may not perform well or throw off flavors around once fermenting the beer?

I would pitch just the starter if it looks good. Not sure how long the rest of that cake will last.

 

[paulster2626]

If you keep it cool won't it just last a loooong time?

I'm actually doing an experiment using a week-old yeast cake - been sitting in 40-ish degrees for a week to 10 days - we'll see what happens when I dump a new batch on it.

I think things will be fine. Yeast are tougher than we think.

 

[DaveGEsq]

I would pitch just the starter if it looks good. Not sure how long the rest of that cake will last.

What do you mean "just the starter" and "the rest of the cake"? In the past, I've made the starter 2-3 days before, made sure there is fermentation, then threw it in the fridge to get the yeast to settle down. The I decant what I can and pitch the rest.

 

[beerman0001]

I'm just an idiot. Timing was bad, it was getting late, blah blah blah. Dumb.

How much of the washed yeast are you planning to use? If you washed the yeast and left it all in the carboy then you are going to way over pitch.

 

[prrriiide]

I didn't even take mine out of the fermenter last time. Just racked one batch to secondary, next day racked fresh wort on top of the cake. It took off so vigorously that I thought it was going to blow the airlock out of the bucket.

You'll be fine.