Funny how even when you know you shouldn't pitch at 90, in the moment you can panic and just do it then immediately regret it...
I had an about-to-expire pack of Nottingham so thought for yesterday's batch I would hydrate it in advance. I had about 3.5 gallons of wort in my 5g pot, coming off the boil. Threw that in my sink ice bath and knew it would take a while. I foolishly started hydrating the yeast too soon though, the wort was still at like 160F or so when I sprinkled the yeast onto 10x it's volume of 35c water as per the instructions. Instructions said give it 15 minutes like that, then gently stir, leave for 5 minutes and immediately pitch. So that's what I did...
Problem was my wort, after adding to the primary and then topping off the remaining 1.5 gallons with cold water only got down to 90 or 92F. I panicked, added the yeast in, stirred 'er up and set it in my 68F room.
Panicked some more, and about an hour later I moved it over to my beer fridge which was at about 32F or so. In the next four hours it dropped the primary down to 65F so I took it out and moved it back to the 68F room. Something had happened in that four hour time frame, maybe fermentation, maybe something else? It looked like really soupy thick bumpy runny yeast on top, a layer all over about 1/8 inch thick. Looked gross, but this is my first time using re-hydrated yeast, maybe this is normal?
This morning (16 hours after pitching, 10 hours or so after coming out of the fridge) I have a thicker layer of that goop. So something is definitely happening but man does it look sick. Like a 1/2 inch layer of everything of bumpy wet looking skuzz.
Hate to be that guy, but: did I save it or did I break it?
I had an about-to-expire pack of Nottingham so thought for yesterday's batch I would hydrate it in advance. I had about 3.5 gallons of wort in my 5g pot, coming off the boil. Threw that in my sink ice bath and knew it would take a while. I foolishly started hydrating the yeast too soon though, the wort was still at like 160F or so when I sprinkled the yeast onto 10x it's volume of 35c water as per the instructions. Instructions said give it 15 minutes like that, then gently stir, leave for 5 minutes and immediately pitch. So that's what I did...
Problem was my wort, after adding to the primary and then topping off the remaining 1.5 gallons with cold water only got down to 90 or 92F. I panicked, added the yeast in, stirred 'er up and set it in my 68F room.
Panicked some more, and about an hour later I moved it over to my beer fridge which was at about 32F or so. In the next four hours it dropped the primary down to 65F so I took it out and moved it back to the 68F room. Something had happened in that four hour time frame, maybe fermentation, maybe something else? It looked like really soupy thick bumpy runny yeast on top, a layer all over about 1/8 inch thick. Looked gross, but this is my first time using re-hydrated yeast, maybe this is normal?
This morning (16 hours after pitching, 10 hours or so after coming out of the fridge) I have a thicker layer of that goop. So something is definitely happening but man does it look sick. Like a 1/2 inch layer of everything of bumpy wet looking skuzz.
Hate to be that guy, but: did I save it or did I break it?