First time pitching washed yeast

[jmitchell3]

Hey folks,

Just bottled a batch of pale ale on 1/22 and did my first yeast washing of WLP002. I may have went overboard a bit on the washing, ended up with two pint containers of yeast (see one of the jars in the picture). Stored them in the fridge overnight, then took one out at the beginning of my brew day (1/23) to let it warm to room temp. Shook well, sanitized the exterior of the container, and pitched into the same pale ale (OG 1.062). Did not do a starter, just pitched the contents of one of the two containers. No airlock activity now, 13 hours later. not even a rise on the plastic piece inside (see picture). The original batch was 2.75 gallons, this new batch is 3 gallons.

Is there likely a problem with under pitching? Should I go to the store and get a vial and pitch that, or just wait another 12-24 hours?

Thank you!

Jeremy

 

[Sandbag58d]

I'd be willing to bet it'll work out well. Without having a realistic idea of the cell count or batch size, you can probably guess that there is enough viable yeast in a pint jar (barring improper methods...) to get things moving.

Having said that, I've never hurt a batch by overpitching...

 

[jmitchell3]

thanks for the encouragement! lol. The batch the yeast came off of was a 2.75 gal pale ale, OG 1.043. For that batch, I pitched an entire vial of WLP002. So these two jars are what I collected from the cake of that fermentation. The new batch is 3 gallons.

(Since I missed my efficiency numbers on the previous batch, I'm doing the same recipe again trying to dial in and resolve my errors from last time. Doing well so far!)

 

[flars]

Your jelly jar is marked in milliliters. Looks like there is 75ml in the jar pictured. I conservatively estimate 1 billion cells per ml when I use rinsed yeast. Yeastcalc gives a range of 1 to 2 billion cells per ml. the calculator Yeastcalc can give you an idea if you under pitched or not.

 

[jmitchell3]

yeah did a calculation, and I think I'm low by about 55 million cells. i'll pitch the other jar and see what happens.

 

[kombat]

yeah did a calculation, and I think I'm low by about 55 million cells. i'll pitch the other jar and see what happens.

55 million? Or 55 billion?

If you're only under by 55 million, that's nothing, that's literally a drop in the bucket. Don't worry about it. We're talking on the scale of hundreds of billions of yeast cells here. 55 million will not make any noticeable difference at all.

 

[jflongo]

You need to be more patient than 13 hours. Without doing a starter you need to give the yeast some time to get going, it can take 1 - 2 days. Before pitching more, wait until tomorrow morning to see if you see activity.

 

[petrolSpice]

I'd wait to at least 48 hours before worrying.

 

[jmitchell3]

Yeah 55 billion deficit. The prog called for 133 ml of slurry, and I pitched about 70ml. So I went ahead and pitched the other 75ml container.

 

[Sandbag58d]

Probably wise. No need to knowingly stress the yeast. Do you normally do starters?

 

[doby]

Another thing if the yeast were just washed the day before they didn't settle, there is such a thing as a tight and loose slurry. In other words if this container would have set for a week there would have been even less then 75ml do to compactment

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/repitch.html

scroll down to yeast consantration

 

[jmitchell3]

Good suggestion on yeast concentration. So 8 hours since the second pitch and there is a bit of rise in the airlock. It'll probably be rocking and rolling by tomorrow morning. Thanks for the info, I'll use those yeast calcs again in the future. Good stuff.

 

[jmitchell3]

Oh, and to answer the yeast starter question....no, I've not done a starter yet. This is actually my 4th batch ever....did 2 extract + specialty grains, and this current batch is my second all grain batch. Didn't get my mash efficiency on the first one, so I'm doing the same recipe again, and adding some complexity! I've been procrastinating on buying a stir plate and flask. What would you recommend?

 

[itchygomey]

Build a stir plate. Search in the DIY forum. It's too cheap not to.

 

[Sandbag58d]

Stirstarters.com offer a reasonably priced DIY type setup.

 

[jmitchell3]

Thanks I'll have a look.

 

[jmitchell3]

Alrighty. 150ml of slurry and 36 hours later, we have life!.

 

[EarlyAmateurZymurgist]

I brew 3.5 gallons batches exclusively. I always have positive fermentation within six hours when I pitch between 150 and 200 milliliters of cropped, non-rinsed slurry.