Second Round of home brew questions about yeast

[zappadragon]

Ok so tonight I brewed up an Midwest Honey Porter kit with Wyeast. This morning before I left for work I popped the inner packet and when I got home the package was not inflated much at all.

I brewed anyway. I was not able to cool my wort down fast enough and it was still at about 83 degrees. I froze a gallon of water in a bucket in two different things and placed them in a plastic bag.

Problem one- when the hurricane hit Virginia we lost power for just over a day and the water melted but still in the bag. When I dumped the re frozen water into the bucket before I poured the wort in a small piece of the zip lock bag ripped off and was stuck to the ice. I don't think this should be a big problem, as it can get that out later.

Problem two- not getting the wort cool enough and I pitched the yeast anyway. Will this cause a problem, or will it just take longer to start fermenting? Also if the bag was not inflated much, did it work, or was the yeast bad?

Thanks

 

[waldoar15]

Kind of hot to pitch, might throw some funky fusel alcohols or cloves. The packet doesn't have to (or always) swell.

 

[kh54s10]

If you use a swamp cooler to get the temperature down before the fermentation really kicks in it would probably help a lot.

I agree that your yeast is probably ok.

Read up on yeast starters. I gives peace of mind to see that the yeast is active before pitching.

The high pitching temperature will probably make it take less time for fermentation to start. And if your temperatures stay high it may finish quickly also. (not necessarily a good thing)

 

[zappadragon]

Well I got plenty of airlock activity so I think everything is fine.

Thanks guys