Wyeast 1056 Pitching temp

Hey all,

A little worried because I pitched my Wyeast 1056 smack pack into wort that was 80° F and now a day and a half later there is no airlock activity. Did I mess up? Should I wait longer? Help a brother out!

 

The pitching temp for the 1056 is 60 to 72 degrees if you pitched your yeast in a 80 degrees wort then you shocked it

I cant post a solution but can tell you one thing the ratio for the temp of wort/yeast is 4 degrees... Lets say your yeast is at room temp of 72 degrees then your wort can be anywhere from 68 to 76 degrees without any problem,

place your wort in the correct place for optimal temp controle...

What I like to do after a batch is place my yeast starter or pack/vial near my fermenter for a few hours +\- 5 to 6 , so both get to exact same temp that my wort will ferment at, then I take the stopper off and pitch at perfect harmonised temperature...

Remember that once you pitch your yeast into the wort the activation prosses will raise the temp of your liquid, so if your yeast can take up to 72 degrees and that is the temp that your wort and yeast are, when all this is started the temp might climb to 80.... Not a good thing because the temp is too high, even if your thermometor sais 72 in the room the wort is actually at 80 get a stick on thermometor to go onto your fermentor

I like to have a fermentation chamber and controle the temp, and start the wort and yeast at the low range of the scale... In your case in the low 60's so even if the wort heats up when fermenting I won't bust and get off tastes

Cheers bro

 

If you have the ability to get another pack of yeast over the next day or so...repitch at proper temps.

 

at 80 degrees and falling, within a day and a half, fermentation could have already have moved beyond primary fermentation phase. have you taken a reading yet?

 

Most beer yeast will life and thrive into the 100s of degrees..... the problem is 'off' characteristics.

Pitching at 80 is considered hot but no where near the temps to kill yeast - shock, maybe - but not kill.

What was the gravity of your beer? I suspect it was decent (1.065-1.085) which, with a subtle shock, would cause a longer lag phase. If I were you, and I'm not , I would ride it out. I'm sure it'll take off and you'll end up with a decent beer - worthy of drinking anyways . Next time, pitch much much cooler (60-65F) pretty much any yeast you're pitching.

.....and bring the temps down on your fermenter to the mid-60s ASAP.

 

Definitely not a best practice but you'll have beer eventually. Review Wyeast's strain guide and try to ferment within the recommended range for the yeast. I try to pitch a few degrees cooler than where I'm going to ferment at. Also, one smack pack for a decent strength beer is likely under-pitching. Might want to look into a starter in the future.

 

You did not shock or kill the yeast. If you just pitched a smack pack, you underpitched and it's not surprising you haven't seen any activity yet.

 

Thanks very much for all the replies everyone! I'm headed out to my LHBS right now to get another smack pack and pitch it ASAP. Hopefully my pumpkin ale will survive without too many off flavors...

 

Well, not in my experience. For the last 400 or so batches I've taken my starter out of the fridge, decanted the spent wort, and pitched immediately. I get great results. The theory is that by doing that the yeast aren't consuming their glycogen reserves before getting into the wort. I did it just yesterday and had fermentation starting in a couple hours.

 

One last question:

Should I re-aerate the wort for pitching in the new yeast or is it still aerated enough from a couple of days ago?

 

Probably don't re-aerate. What was the OG?

 

The OG was 1.048

 

Then you're fine. I wouldn't mess with pitching more yeast at this point. Just do better on the next batch!