Any reason not to wait till morning to pitch yeast?

[Butcher]

I cooled the wort but not enough. It is sitting at 80 degrees in a 70 degree basement. The yeast (white labs) says pitch at 70-75 degrees. Is there any reason not to wait till morning?

 

[MyNameIsPaul]

I don't know hot to link threads in a response, but do a search for Exploring NoChill Brewing. I've got 2 batches sitting in the garage right now from brewing today. Just waiting on them to cool down, and I'll pitch tomorrow. No biggie.

 

[ChshreCat]

Right now, it's at it's most vulnerable when it comes to infection. If you've been spot on with sanitation, haven't left it exposed and keep it sealed up... it'll probably be ok to wait. Not a gamble I'd want to make, but it's your beer. If it were me, I'd just cool it down to the 60's and pitch tonight.

 

[lumpher]

if you put in an airlock with vodka in it, it should be ok. like ChshreCat says (whose skill blows mine away), it'd be better to pitch tonight. on the other hand, i've waited till "tomorrow morning". i find under 90 is fine to pitch anyway

 

[Ouroboros]

I've pitched on 80-85F wort (which cooled to 65F in a couple of hours) without any ester/fusel alcohol problems. When I used to brew in the evenings, I would sanitize the lid, stick a hot 30 qt kettle in a bathtub full of ice water, and pitch in the morning. In each case the beers came out fine, without infections, unwanted esters, or fusel alcohols.

That being said, pitching on hot wort or waiting to pitch are hardly ideal, and I imagine a side-by-side comparison of those beers against the same recipes brewed "properly" would reveal some flaws.

Your beer will be cooled to "normal" pitching temperatures in an hour or two. Not much of a "penalty" in doing it now. Waiting until morning might give any bugs in the wort a few generation times worth of a head start on your yeast, though.

 

[Butcher]

Thanks for the advice, I did end up waiting up till the temp hit 75 and pitched the yeast and went to bed. I boiled some top off water and threw it in the freezer, but it ended up not cooling much by the time I topped off my fermentator so I actually raised the wort temp. Cooling the wort has come to be the biggest pain for me in brewing.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the advice, I did end up waiting up till the temp hit 75 and pitched the yeast and went to bed. I boiled some top off water and threw it in the freezer, but it ended up not cooling much by the time I topped off my fermentator so I actually raised the wort temp. Cooling the wort has come to be the biggest pain for me in brewing.

You could put it in a tub with cold water and bottles of ice to keep it cool, and to help chill it.

If the room is 70 degrees, you won't be able to chill the wort to under 70 degrees without a wort chiller, an ice bath, etc. I ferment my ales in the low-mid 60s. Keep in mind that fermentation raises the temperature of the fermenting beer, so if the room is 70-72, the beer inside could be 80 degrees or more during active fermentation. That's way too high. I use a water bath to keep the temperatures down and stable.