Forgot to take OG

[jrlepage]

Hey all, first post here. Excited to have found this community!

I brewed my second batch of beer last night (the "Scary Spice" holiday ale from HomebrewDen.com - a LHBS in Tallahassee; my first batch was their "Alpine Wheat"). It's a LME recipe with steeped grains and candi sugar. Pumpkin pie spices and a vanilla bean were added 45 min into the hour long boil as part of the recipe (it smells amazing). I made a handful of hopefully minor mistakes that I wanted some input on:

1) I forgot to take an OG reading. I know from the recipe roughly what the OG is supposed to be (somewhere between 1.055-1.065), and the last time I used one of their recipes my OG was exactly in the middle of their range. I pitched the yeast last night around 10pm and its 7:45am now. I'm debating taking a reading, but I'm afraid of taking off the airlock during this stage.

2) I used a liquid yeast (the kind in a vial) and didn't read up on making starters until after I pitched (oops!). This morning there are still no signs of fermentation, although the vodka in my S-airlock is being pushed around the "S" quite far. No signs of krausen; it's perfectly still. Should I be concerned about off flavors or anything like that? I read that it can take 24-48 hrs. for liquid yeast to really get going; I'm just concerned because a) I didn't use a starter and b) I noticed after pitching that the vial's label said to leave it out of the fridge for 3-6 hours before pitching. I just shook it well and pitched.

3) I think I overfilled my airlock a bit with vodka (above the lines) but I'm afraid to take it off to remove some at this stage. Can this hurt anything?

4) I didn't get the wort completely cooled before pitching. It was getting late and I really needed to finish up, so it was around 78F when I pitched. Should I worry?

5) Along those lines, I'm worried that I didn't aerate the wort sufficiently. I poured it into the carboy using a funnel with filter, so there was a fair amount of splashing, but there wasn't any foam.

My plan is to rack into a secondary (5 gal carboy) after 1 week where I will add 1oz of sweet orange peel soaked in vodka. This isn't part of their recipe, but I wanted to try using a secondary and felt that sweet orange peel would compliment this recipe nicely.

I'll probably leave it in the secondary for 2 weeks, then bottle and drink after 3 weeks (trying the 1-2-3 rule for weeks in primary, secondary, and conditioning). My first batch was just 2 weeks in a primary straight into the bottle, so I wanted to try something different.

Any thoughts, tips, comments, or feedback would be greatly appreciated! I'm excited to be part of this community of homebrewing.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

One way or the other, your yeast are probably not real happy. They are definitely at least in shock and, at worst, dead. But all is not lost.

First, the issues. For a 1.060 wort, you underpitched by not making a starter - not the end of the world. The yeast would be stressed but may still get you to a reasonable FG. The bigger issue is that you pitched 45-ish degree yeast into 78 degree wort. This likely shocked the yeast and probably killed quite a few. Those that survived are going to be stressed. Also, most yeast, even when healthy, don't like a temp that high. Between the cold yeast and the high wort temp, the yeast that may have survived will give you some funky flavors.

Funky flavors are not the end of the world. Depends on what you like. I would say give it 48 hours and see what happens. If you don't get fermentation by then, you probably have some dead yeast. Repitch with a properly sized starter or some dry yeast and wait it out. I am a believer in never dumping a batch until and unless you are sure it's undrinkable. That means ride it out. Finish fermentation, bottle (or keg) and give it at least a few months to develop. Then you can decide how you like it. Who knows - you may have discovered a new style. Good luck.

 

[ajstrider]

Well I am new to this stuff too, but here are my thoughts.

Vodka in the airlock, I wouldn't worry about this, when the fermentation really starts it will still make it's way out. Although the S type isn't usually a primary airlock style. I prefer a blowoff tube or the three piece airlocks, they seem to allow more offgassing that will occur during fermentation. I reserve my S lock style for secondary where I can see how much pressure the carboy is giving off to see how the slow fermentation is going.

I would not worry about the SG.

I am unsure what the above responder is referring to with the 45 degree yeast. I looked up on the website and said the White Labs liquid yeast option with that kit is 65-70F for fermentation temperature, so I think you are fine there. I have done White Labs liquid yeast in both my first batches and did not do anything but what the label said to do, let it warm up to room temperature, shake the crap out of it and pour it into the wort. Both of those were successful. But you do have a pretty high SG beer, so that will make a difference I suppose.

My revised plan would be not be so deadset on a week in the primary, let it start fermenting and slow way down before you transfer to the secondary, that could be a week or two, who knows. Patience is necessary. If it doesn't start showing signs of fermenting in two or three days, get some more yeast and repitch.

 

[jrlepage]

Thanks for the replies! Yeah bluehaus I think there may have been some miscommunication - the liquid yeast I used had a recommended pitching temp of 74F.

Hopefully things aren't too dire.

However, I know next time I will definitely use a starter for liquid yeast.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

My reference to 45-ish degree yeast is because the OP said he removed the vial from the fridge and pitched directly without letting it warm up. The 30+ degree temp difference would likely stress (or maybe kill) the yeast. I think that's what he meant but I may have misunderstood.

 

[jrlepage]

Ahhh I understand now bluehaus. Yes I did run the vile under cool tap water for 15 minutes before pitching to hopefully bring them up to temp more gradually, but I see what you mean about the shock. It's funny how the process seems deceptively simple but there are so many variables and so much room for error; I learn something new every day.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Yeast can be amazingly resilient. Most likely, your brew will work out fine. When I first started I made what I was sure were some huge mistakes. Every one of them turned out fine. Could they have been better? Sure, but they were still better than most of the swill I could buy at the local store. And, it's your own beer that you made with your own two hands to amaze your friends and family. How cool is that!

 

[jrlepage]

Thanks for the encouragement.

I have one more question...

Over the past few hours some small white spots have developed on the surface. Doing some searching I'm a little concerned that it's lactobacillus infection. How can you differentiate lacto from normal yeast activity?

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

If you look closely, you will probably see that the spots are actually made up of tiny bubbles. This is the beginning of fermentation. Could also just be some yeast floating up. Either way, no worries. Check out some of the infection threads to see pictures of what they look like. Meanwhile, RDWHAHB

 

[bu_gee]

Yeast aren't the delicate flowers people try to make them out to be. Yes, they do prefer things a certain way, but it isn't going to kill them. Everybody on here is so worried about producing one or two molecules of something that doesn't taste optimal that they've forgotten that at its base beermaking really is a pretty robust process that people managed to do for centuries before the invention of microscopes.

The real trick with yeast is to leave them alone to do their job.

 

[ajstrider]

My reference to 45-ish degree yeast is because the OP said he removed the vial from the fridge and pitched directly without letting it warm up. The 30+ degree temp difference would likely stress (or maybe kill) the yeast. I think that's what he meant but I may have misunderstood.

Ah, sorry, I misread your original post. I read it like the yeast needed to be 45F. Sorry about the confusion!

 

[jrlepage]

Wow you're right about yeast being hardy! Took a 2 hour nap and it went from a few small white bubbles to this. And the air lock is now gurgling every 6 seconds!