Kveik will definitely ferment in cold temps... Now I have a dilemma.

[Coastalbrew]

My lbhs is a 2.5 hour drive each way, so when I shop there I usually get the ingredients for a couple of batches at a time. So a little over a month and a half ago I ordered 2 batches of ingredients. When I got them home I noticed the pack of hornindal kveik yeast I bought was pretty full of air. It wasn't pressurized like they get on brew day when left out for a while, just more poofy than usual. I didn't think anything of it, stuck it in the fridge and went on with life.

I brewed the first batch the following weekend and then things exploded at work. I've not even gotten around to packaging that batch let alone brewed the second batch. So fast forward to tonight... I'm sitting on the couch enjoying a few minutes of mindlessness, when my wife calls out from the kitchen "what's all this water in the fridge". Uh oh! I go in to investigate and she is wiping it up with a paper towel. She wipes up part of the puddle and holds out the paper towel for me to smell. Wife: "Ugh! It smells like sour wine." I should note at this point that the puddle was in the direct vicinity of my kveik yeast pouch. I pull it out of the fridge and sure enough it has a pin hole at the top where the seal has failed from the pressure inside the pack. The moral of the story: Hornindal kveik will definitely continue to ferment in the fridge even in the absence of available fermentables.

Now to my dilemma: I don't have any yeast other than the yeast cake from that first batch, and won't be going near the home brew shop again until the end of June. The yeast cake is 1056 in an American wheat beer that has been sitting in the fermenter for nearly 2 months now, and for the last week temps in the house have been around 79* F. The second batch is an APA with a big shot of citra and Magnum for bittering. My gut says hold off on the second batch until I can get some fresh yeast. Or do I just dump the new batch on the old yeast cake and hope for the best? I should also say that it will probably be another couple of weeks before I'll actually get to brew again, so that yeast cake will be well over 2 months old and will have been at ambient temps for all but the first 2 weeks.

Cheers!

 

[Miraculix]

I'd use a portion of the youngest yeast cake and make a starter with it. Which yeast is it? If it's a kveik, no need for a starter, just directly pitch it. Even if it's two months old.

 

[Coastalbrew]

I'd use a portion of the youngest yeast cake and make a starter with it. Which yeast is it? If it's a kveik, no need for a starter, just directly pitch it. Even if it's two months old.

Thanks @Miraculix . The yeast cake is Wyeast 1056 American ale.

 

[Miraculix]

Thanks @Miraculix . The yeast cake is Wyeast 1056 American ale.

Then just make a starter and you're good!

 

[beren]

I would have used what was left in the leaky bag, couldn’t be any worse than bottle dregs

 

[Kickass]

If you don’t have time or DME to make a starter, just take a couple heaping ladles of 1056 from the bucket or rack wort onto the entire cake. If your first batch was properly sanitized and all looks good with it, you have little to be worried over.

 

[beren]

Or even sugar. It won’t poison the yeast

 

[Closet Fermenter]

With your brew day a couple weeks out, will your favorite store not mail what you need? (If you really want to be sure)

 

[Coastalbrew]

With your brew day a couple weeks out, will your favorite store not mail what you need? (If you really want to be sure)

Yeah they would definitely ship it, it's just expensive to ship 1 pack of liquid yeast. I prefer to spread the cost across a couple of batches worth of ingredients and get reduced or sometimes free shipping. I'm not going to be brewing for quite a while now, so don't want to order more ingredients and have them sitting around.

It's a moot point now though. I opened up the fermenter over the weekend and the beer was oxidized like crazy and I dumped it. Life happened and the air lock dried out for who knows how long. I guess this one just want meant to be. Oh well.