Did I screw it up?

[nuclearguy]

Just pitched yeast(Muntons) in an extract brew. I have a broken thermometer(I find out after the fact). Anyway, I added yeast with the wort temp approx. 96dgrees. Did I toast my like beer making buddies? Can my brew be saved? If it can, how?

 

[Brewing Clamper]

You're getting close to the Yeast Death, but you're not quite there yet. That's pretty hot but the yeasties should survive. Muntons yeast is dry correct? Did you rehydrate it or did you pitch it straight? If you pitched it straight it might take some time for any activity to start. Just let it go for now and see if you get any activity. If nothing happens after 3 days or so, I'd repitch. If it does start to ferment, then you're in business, though you might get some different flavors because of the temp. I'm not too sure about this but you might want to condition the beer a bit longer to mellow out any off flavors...

 

[Saxmk6]

Wow. that is pretty high. Get the temp down to 65. Give it a day or two and see what happens. If nothing happens, I would try tossing in another batch of yeast to see what happens. You never know, but at 90+ you could get a little bacteria growing which would be very bad. If you get that bad egg smell, dump it and start over.

Good Luck

 

[feedthebear]

I've pitched at 100F on a scottish ale. Your guys will be fine.

You might get some fruity off flavors that will take a couple extra weeks to condition out.

 

[nuclearguy]

We have fermentation! Airlock is popping away.
Thanks for the responses, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Good on ya!

 

[abenz419]

first off i'd like to point out that as one guy said before.... you might have bacteria cause you pitched so high....... that is completely false... if anything pitching at such a high temp would decrease the likelyhood of bacteria seeing as how high temps kill bacteria.... and secondly a little known fact is that beer yeast ferments best at 90* F and dies at over 100*F, the reason we don't ferment beer at 90*F is because at that high of temperature beer yeast produces so much acetaldehyde that it makes the beer undrinkable... to get the desired aromas and flavors from your yeast it needs to at around 68*F (at least for ales)

 

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

If you get that bad egg smell, dump it and start over.

Bad egg smells are not always a sign of infection. Rotten egg smells are not all that uncommon to be coming out of the airlock.

 

[Yooper]

first off i'd like to point out that as one guy said before.... you might have bacteria cause you pitched so high....... that is completely false... if anything pitching at such a high temp would decrease the likelyhood of bacteria seeing as how high temps kill bacteria.... and secondly a little known fact is that beer yeast ferments best at 90* F and dies at over 100*F, the reason we don't ferment beer at 90*F is because at that high of temperature beer yeast produces so much acetaldehyde that it makes the beer undrinkable... to get the desired aromas and flavors from your yeast it needs to at around 68*F (at least for ales)

I'm not wanting to argue with anyone- so take this FWIW. Bacteria grows best between 90-140 degrees. That's why when you go to a picnic you only leave food out for 2 hours, then cool it, or heat it up. That's the main danger zone.

That's why we chill our wort to 60 degrees as soon as possible, and pitching the yeast is desirable under 70 degrees.

You're definitely right about the off-flavors at high temperatures- but that is because of stressed (dying) yeast.