Pitching Yeast

[plumtired]

Is 85 degrees to warm to pitch yeast? I have a brewers best American Cream Ale kit and am using Nottingham yeast. I don't have the option of using cold water/ice bath.

 

[nick79brew]

yes and no. Ideally you want your yeast to ferment on the lower end, up to 73 degrees. At a higher temp you the yeast will overwork itself and produce off flavors. Now historically brewer brewed all the time, regardless of temp. Im in the opinion of just brewing the damn beer and any off flavors from high fermentation can be taken with a grain of salt. It still should be a damn good beer! However there are steps you can take, such as setting the fermenter in a shallow vessel with a few inches of water, draping a shirt over the carboy and faceing a fan at it. The water will evaporte dropping the temp 5-10 degrees.
nick

 

[plumtired]

Knowing that thew ort should be cooled quickly. If it takes 30 - 60 mins to get it lowered, would that hurt?

 

[nick79brew]

even with my wort chiller it takes about 30 min. you will be fine, just make sure to cool it all the way to 70.

 

[plumtired]

I appreciate the info nick. This is my first brew and I have to many worries & concerns.

 

[desiderata]

it's a tradeoff. as previously said, too high of temps is bad. But then again, waiting too long to pitch the yeast will be greater chance of bacteria infecting it, which is also bad. either way you go, your beer may not be as good as it could be (won't win any awards ), but it will still be quality beer, all else being equal. I remember reading on here before that if you do wait a while before pitching, be sure to cover the wort with a lid to protect from contamination while it cools.

 

[nick79brew]

on another note: i remember my first beer, man it was stressful! after you get a few under your belt it becomes much easier and more enjoyable! At that point you switch to all grain, which has even more head aches! but like extract with practice it becomes abreeze!
happy brewing
nick

 

[grnich]

Well, just yesterday I pitched my Nottingham yeast into wort that was about 77F. I thought that was cool enough, but after more than 24 hours...nothing. No activity at all. Bought some Cooper's(only stuff available on Sunday here), pitched it, waiting impatiently for activity. I didn't hydrate the Nottingham, either. Didn't think that would matter much.

 

[Walker]

personally, I don't think you waited long enough, grnich.

often, fermentation will start within one day, but there are occasions where it can take 48 (or more) hours for the stuff to kick in.

-walker

 

[Walker]

even with my wort chiller it takes about 30 min. you will be fine, just make sure to cool it all the way to 70.

I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to cool your wort all the way to 70°F before pitching. Anything below 85 should be fine. Mine is normally in the upper 70's when I pitch.

Heck, in the heat of the summer, the ground water will be warmer than 70°F, so the chiller won't ever get it that low.


brew on!:rockin:

 

[grnich]

personally, I don't think you waited long enough, grnich.

often, fermentation will start within one day, but there are occasions where it can take 48 (or more) hours for the stuff to kick in.

-walker

Maybe I didn't wait long enough, but I usually get some kind of activity after 24 hours. Most of my brews are done after 2-3 days. I was getting worried about contamination, since I don't use the airlock for primary and there wouldn't be that protection of CO2 on the wort. Oh well, would 2 packs of yeast hurt if the 1st did work?

 

[plumtired]

Well I got it down to 76 degrees and then pitched with two packs of Nottingham's which I re-hydrated. The airlock started activity within 3 hours, about 1 bubble per second. Woke up this morning and the bubbles slowed to about 1 every 10 seconds. I plan on racking to the secondary in one week. Tasted a bit of it yesterday before pitching the yeast, and it was good!