First All Grain Troubles

Hey all, I did my first all grain last night and right as soon as I was cooling down the wort with my wort chiller my so called "waterproof" thermometer broke sitting in some sanitizer. It kind of frazzled me and I think I pitched a bit high (the wort was still a bit warm). I immediated got it into a swamp cooler and prolly dropped the temp to room temp in about an hour. Now it has been sitting for close to 12 hours and it at 68f and I see no action in the airlock yet. Should I repitch? Is the batch ruined?

 

Unless the wort was so hot it was uncomfortable to touch, you didn't kill your yeast. 12 hours is way, way too early to worry about re-pitching yeast. Keep the temp where it is, and you should be fine.

What yeast was it? Was it dry or liquid yeast? Did you rehydrate if dry, or use a starter if liquid?

 

The Yeast was liquid WLP008. Didn't use a starter on this one, unfortunately.

 

Be patient.







Maybe the best advice I've ever been given in regards to home brewing...

 

No airlock activity isn't necessarily an indication of dead yeast or no fermentation activity. It's probably lagging. What's you're recipe? How fresh was your yeast? OG?

 

I'm doing a "murky" New Englandish IPA. 10 lbs 2 row, 1.5 lbs white wheat, 10oz flaked oats, 6oz carapils, and 6 0z crystal 20. Hopped with mosaic, citra, and galaxy. I did a 90 minute boil and my OG was about 1055. The yeast was fresh.

 

Did you aerate the wort? If not, this could be the reason for a lag. I would give it another day. As long as you have chilled the wort before fermentation begins, you won't have any bad esters (off flavors) to deal with. Hope this helps!