Can an additional pitch on day 2 hurt?

[gkeusch]

I brewed a six gallon batch yesterday. Because it is so warm now my counterflow chiller didn't quite get it done and the wort was at 85+ degrees. I did not have time for it to cool further before I had to leave so I pitched it anyway with Safale 05 dry (which packet was at around 75 degrees) and put it in my ferm. chamber controlled to about 66 deg. Today I checked it and could see some krausen happening, but this is an important batch (wedding gift) so to be sure I sprinkled in another pack of yeast.
Now wondering if there is a downside (other than cost, and I'm not worried about infection) to adding more yeast on day two when the original pitch was already started? Could it affect flavor or anything?
Thanks for responses.

 

[kh54s10]

For very sensitive people, they may taste the yeast. Other than that it is nothing to worry about, other than you wasted a package of yeast. What may make a difference is how much fermentation happened while the temperature was too high. If the wort temperature is at 66 now, even that is probably not an issue. In the future I would put off pitching until you are at fermentation temperature if it will be less than 24 - 36 hours to get there.

 

[gkeusch]

For very sensitive people, they may taste the yeast. Other than that it is nothing to worry about, other than you wasted a package of yeast. What may make a difference is how much fermentation happened while the temperature was too high. If the wort temperature is at 66 now, even that is probably not an issue. In the future I would put off pitching until you are at fermentation temperature if it will be less than 24 - 36 hours to get there.

Thanks! I figured I should have waited but I just get nervous letting it sit without yeast.

 

[day_trippr]

US-05 is a notoriously slow starter sans an overpitch, and 85°F is actually within the temperature range that Fermentis recommends for hydrating dry yeast (27C ± 3C or 80F ± 6F). So I doubt any harm was done wrt yeast population per se from the warm-ish pitch, and if the OP managed to drop the wort temperature to 66°F overnight there may be no evident character impact as well...

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

US-05 is a notoriously slow starter sans an overpitch, and 85°F is actually within the temperature range that Fermentis recommends for hydrating dry yeast (27C ± 3C or 80F ± 6F). So I doubt any harm was done wrt yeast population per se from the warm-ish pitch, and if the OP managed to drop the wort temperature to 66°F overnight there may be no evident character impact as well...

Cheers!

US-05 is notoriously a slow starter??? I have never had it take less than 12 hours. I don't know exactly when it starts, I pitch in the afternoon and it is going well by the time I get up the next morning.

BTW, Fermentis no longer recommends rehydrating at all. Just sprinkle it on the surface dry.

 

[day_trippr]

I would bet a big chunk of the "Why isn't it fermenting yet?" threads regard US-05. Of course that may simply reflect lots of US-05 users vs the spectrum of alternatives. But I have noticed on occasion a slow start compared to liquid yeast pitches of similar strains (1056, Conan, etc).

As for what Fermentis actually recommends now - and why - there's still a bunch of data out there that suggests a significant loss of cell count if proper hydration is skipped. Whether that matters or not I have no idea, but I'm inclined to believe they dummy-downed the recommendation to make it stupidly simple for the typical dry yeast user with the expectation that there will still be beer eventually...

Cheers!

 

[kh54s10]

I would bet a big chunk of the "Why isn't it fermenting yet?" threads regard US-05. Of course that may simply reflect lots of US-05 users vs the spectrum of alternatives. But I have noticed on occasion a slow start compared to liquid yeast pitches of similar strains (1056, Conan, etc).

As for what Fermentis actually recommends now - and why - there's still a bunch of data out there that suggests a significant loss of cell count if proper hydration is skipped. Whether that matters or not I have no idea, but I'm inclined to believe they dummy-downed the recommendation to make it stupidly simple for the typical dry yeast user with the expectation that there will still be beer eventually...

Cheers!

I haven't looked at their explanation of the research leading them to no longer recommend rehydrating for a while, but I do believe that they found that significant loss of cell count does not happen. Theirs is lab data, a lot of the other is not lab controlled experimentation.

I have both rehydrated and skipped it. I have never noticed a difference other than rehydrated starts a very little bit sooner.

I have not noticed any significant difference in US05 and liquid yeasts. I pitch late in the afternoon and all but possibly 10% of my 107 batches, regardless of yeast or how it was pitched, have been actively fermenting when I get up the next morning. The others all started during the day while I was at work. I don't worry about whether the lag time is 3 hours or 12 hours. IMO that makes next to no difference.

 

[brewbama]

Disregard

 

[Mer-man]

I recently had a batch where a single rehydrated pack was an underpitch, and I only realized it the next morning. I pulled sample before pitching a second pack, and then pulled another sample.

FFT v. FFT . . . they finished at the same point. You're fine, you probably wasted the yeast but whatever.

In contrast, WLP007 in an underpitch without pure O2 finished 10(!) points higher than the same wort with proper pitch and O2. (It was leftover wort put into the starter flask so why not). I think English strains are more O2 sensitive than American . . . or maybe I am imagining that.