Pitching too cold then having to heat up?

[Jay-Brew]

Unintentionally over chilled my wort and was probably at 54ish degrees when I pitched. Used US-05 that I rehydrated, but forgot to check yeast temperature before pitching. My timing got all screwy towards the end so the yeast was rehydrating for a while - maybe around an hour. Put my carboy in my fermentation freezer and it was showing around 14ish celsius on the STC 1000 I believe. I brought it up to 64F which too a while. Thinking 2-3 hours with my little heater, which kept getting too hot. Anyway, finally got it there.

Definitely some lessons learned process wise, but does anyone see any problems with the pitch temperatures which were a little too different between the wort and yeast for my comfort and then having to heat up the freezer for that long.

Thanks!

 

[Pie_Man]

Pitching cool, even colder than the yeast's recommend fermentation temperature, and allowing the fermentation to warm up is totally fine.

 

[littletim]

I'll be curious to see how your brew comes out. This forum sure is a great source of info. I was about to start a thread to ask a similar question....

I am new to the forum, and pretty new to brewing, kits only so far. From what I read here, yours should be okay....and therefore mine.....Used too much boiled water with my Coopers Stout can, could not get the temp down in a sink full of ice, to even show on my stick-on thermometer, (89 degree top reading). Cooled it over night, now it's about 65 degrees, just dropped off the bottom thermometer reading of 66.

Pitched the yeast that came with it and wrapped it in a blanket. If you can pitch at 54, I'm assuming I can at 65.

cheers

 

[Yooper]

Actually what you did sounds ideal for good yeast health, even though it was inadvertent!

Yeast do very well when pitched cool and allowed to warm.


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[PasbitinusBluinusRibbinus]

To yooper and others with this experience: is there a "too cold?"

I pitched my last batch at 40F, and it took awhile for it to warm up to 62... longer than 24hrs. No issues there? Could I theoretically go lower without problems?

 

[solbes]

If you mean yeast starter temperature, I don't think there is really too cold. Yeast can be "cold crashed" right near 32 and then still come back to temp and bottle condition. I suppose if you freeze them below 32 that might be a problem. If you meant wort pitching temps of 40F, then yes I'd say that is colder than what you want. It shouldn't cause much of a problem, but you will increase your lag time.

This usually my process: Have yeast starters cold on brew day (in fridge at 35F or so). Then bring the yeasties out 25-30 minutes before pitching so they warm up to mid 50's or so. Chill your wort 2-3 degrees below where you want to start fermentation at (usually on bottom side of yeasts working range for me). Pitch the yeasties from mid 50's environment to low 60's wort. Then aerate and let the fermenter warm that 2-3 degrees.

Pitching the yeast on the bottom end of the working range mimizes fusel, ester, and byproducts. Then letting them warm up a couple of degrees helps them to minimize lag time and get to work. They have no problem going from cold to warm. But can be put to sleep going from warm to cold.

 

[Pie_Man]

To yooper and others with this experience: is there a "too cold?"

I pitched my last batch at 40F, and it took awhile for it to warm up to 62... longer than 24hrs. No issues there? Could I theoretically go lower without problems?

You could, although I don't see why you would need to. The yeast are essentially dormant until they near their fermentation temperature range. I would not freeze the yeast either, so there's not much room for you to go lower. 5-10 degrees F below the low end of the yeast's fermentation temperature range is plenty.

 

[AnOldUR]

From my experience, you can pitch cold yeast into properly chilled wort. You can pitch cold yeast into cold wort. What you don’t want to do is pitch warmer (even room temperature) yeast into cold wort.

My guess would be that when you warm the yeast it starts to become active. By putting it into cooler wort it could stall this process.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Some yeasts can cause peach flavor if fermented too cold, but that would be hard to do without a chest freezer or extremely effective ferm chamber.

Pitching and fermenting too warm is so much more likely.

 

[spark_plug]

Well for what its worth. An old German rule of thumb. Your pitch temperature, and your ferment temps should equal 30. So if you pitch at 12C and ferment at 18C, your yeast will do very well as it does not cause any stress.

 

[PasbitinusBluinusRibbinus]

You could, although I don't see why you would need to. The yeast are essentially dormant until they near their fermentation temperature range. I would not freeze the yeast either, so there's not much room for you to go lower. 5-10 degrees F below the low end of the yeast's fermentation temperature range is plenty.

It was less of a "need" to, and more of a "oh **** my beer is still outside!"

New Hampshire problems.

 

[Pilgarlic]

I routinely "overchill" my wort and pitch cold. I get good results by letting the pitched wort temp rise to my preferred ferm temp.

 

[cheezydemon3]

It was less of a "need" to, and more of a "oh **** my beer is still outside!"

New Hampshire problems.

It is just about a wash.

The extended time sitting isn't good, but the wort is "refrigerated" by the cold air, and so microbial activity is low.

 

[Jay-Brew]

Actually what you did sounds ideal for good yeast health, even though it was inadvertent!

Yeast do very well when pitched cool and allowed to warm.


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Thanks, Yooper. Glad to hear that!

Thank you everyone else for your input. Much appreciated!

This is the first time I have ever really had such a spread between the yeast slurry and the wort temperatures. I forgot to measure yeast temp, but I am estimating around 8-10 degrees C difference between the two this time. Guess I was just worried about "shocking" the yeast.

I am trying to improve my process. Started using a fermentation freezer and oxygenating the wort... (first time with this batch actually), but then I "mess up" the wort and yeast temperatures, which hasn't been an issue in the past.

I plan on moving to liquid yeast which I think will be a positive and may get the wort started in the fermentation freezer and closer to fermentation temps then pitch.

Anyway, I learn something every batch, so that is good. All grain is my next adventure - next batch in a few weeks.

Thanks again!

 

[cheezydemon3]

Yeast temp is somewhat important, but yeast are tough little buggars.

They can be pitched dry, wet, frozen, 160 degrees, into 1.02 wort or 1.25 wort and will STILL ferment. You may come up with fewer live ones in the extreme ranges, but pitching and starting too cold is so close to ideal, I wouldn't sweat it.