Forgot to sanitize my re-hydrated yeast recipient!

[Sachibachi]

Hi,

So I brewed a batch of strong American red ale last night. I used dried yeast (US-05) rehydrated it with some wort, waited 30 minutes and then pitched it in the fermenter. All good except that a few minutes later I realised that I hadn't sanitized the bowl in which I rehydrated the yeast! What are the chances that I've just ruined my whole batch? I'm hoping that the huge amount of healthy dried yeast I put into the bowl will have out-competed any wild yeast strains but is this wishful thinking?

Also how long will it be until I know whether my beer is infected and what tell tale signs should I be looking for?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm a relative beginner here and have had a slightly sleepless night thinking about all that beer I may have just ruined!

 

[ong]

You have a very good chance that everything will be fine, I'd say. All the sanitation steps we take are just to improve the odds, but there will always be various microbes hanging out in our wort... Assuming the bowl was at least clean, there's every likelihood that things will be fine.

 

[Sachibachi]

Thanks for the reassuring words! As a newby I do tend to get quite nervous!

That said, I today have thought of another issue with my pitching which I think I do need to solve.
My brew is a strong red ale with an OG of 1.070. I pitched only one packet of US-05. What is more, I hydrated it directly in a sample of wort, instead of first hydrating in water and then feeding it wort. I'm supposing that I've therefore probably killed a few of the bacteria in the process. Given that one packet is probably already quite low for a 1.070 OG beer and that on top of this I most likely killed a few cells in the process, I am worried that I massively under pitched. I Pitched last night, this morning there was a very thin Krausen (about 1/4 inch), would I be OK re-pitching another packet of US-05 this evening? I would re-hydrate it and feed it some DME and possibly wait an hour or two for some strong activity so it has a fighting chance against the yeast that is already in there. Is this a good idea? I've read that re-pitching isn't great and can produce off-flavours. Any advice would be amazing, and please excuse my fairly dumb mistakes!

 

[Psylocide]

Confession: I almost always forget to sanitize my yeast rehydration vessel. No issues yet.

1 packet should be fine for 1.070. If you have activity already, I'd say you're doing alright.

 

[TexasWine]

Thanks for the reassuring words! As a newby I do tend to get quite nervous!

That said, I today have thought of another issue with my pitching which I think I do need to solve.
My brew is a strong red ale with an OG of 1.070. I pitched only one packet of US-05. What is more, I hydrated it directly in a sample of wort, instead of first hydrating in water and then feeding it wort. I'm supposing that I've therefore probably killed a few of the bacteria in the process. Given that one packet is probably already quite low for a 1.070 OG beer and that on top of this I most likely killed a few cells in the process, I am worried that I massively under pitched. I Pitched last night, this morning there was a very thin Krausen (about 1/4 inch), would I be OK re-pitching another packet of US-05 this evening? I would re-hydrate it and feed it some DME and possibly wait an hour or two for some strong activity so it has a fighting chance against the yeast that is already in there. Is this a good idea? I've read that re-pitching isn't great and can produce off-flavours. Any advice would be amazing, and please excuse my fairly dumb mistakes!

Let it ride. You'll be fine, and the beer will be fine too.

 

[cannman]

I guess it depends on what type of dish soap you use, how much access to draft it had, was the bowl stored right side up, up side down, was it nested...? blah. who knows- but-

Lets say that YES you did get a couple of baddies in to the bowl and yeast pitch. The odds are that your yeast count outnumber the baddies and will win the fight once into the wort. Your worst enemy is prob wild yeast and AGAIN, if this is your only sanitary issue, your yeast pack will outnumber and win the war.

However, I'm not sure if the same is true for mold, but that's a fat chance...

good luck!

 

[donbrew]

Relax, it's beer!

 

[Sachibachi]

Haha, thanks. I love how almost all the answers to our (beginners) panicky questions are relax it'll be fine! It's good to hear!