Mistakes from an early homebrewer

[tezcatlipoca]

So...I made a mistake from my last brew (second overall brew). I started cooling down my I wort, and then the LSU game started and I had to go down the street for thirst and 10. Unlimited draft beer for $10 from an hour before the game to end of game.

I went back with a friend of mine and planned to pitch the yeast. My wort was cool and it was 1AM. I got an unintended late start on brew day. So, I rehydrated the yeast by following the instructions. Let sit in water for 15 minutes and intended to stir it for 30 more minutes. Here is the problem: I fell asleep before beginning to stir the yeast. Game was exhilarating and I was exhausted.

My wife knew something was supposed to happen but she couldn't wake me. I sleep really hard without beer. So, she did wake me up at 4ish, and I freaked out and stirred it and added it to my wort. Woke up a few hours later regretting what I did and wondering how bad this action was.

Probably sat in the water for 3 hours then stirred then added to the wort. Will not be having a brew day on a game day again...

 

[Hello]

You should be fine. Technically you were kind of making a starter. What's going on with the beer now?


Brew day and game day can go hand in hand if you can simply control your consumption ever so slightly.

 

[flars]

If it was a low OG beer and the wort was well oxygenated the yeast will probably still be able to do their job.

 

[tezcatlipoca]

Consumption control: rereading what I posted seems like I drank until passing out. It was the time that killed me. I could have stayed at my place the hour before the game and finished but thirst and 10 was calling. When I made it back at close to 1 AM I grabbed some ice on the way back and started the yeast. Then, my fatal mistake was just closing my eyes for 15 minutes while the yeast sat...ha! I have problems staying up past 12 when not drinking...

I am now getting air bubbles at a rate of 1 per second, so it seems that I have healthy fermentation happening. With the bubbles I'm not so worried now.

Thanks guys!

 

[flars]

The game went until nearly 1:00 AM. That is a lot of over time.

 

[ncbrewer]

When I emailed Danstar about rehydration timing, I got this response: "Our technical manager suggests that you don't go longer than 30 minutes after the start of rehydration before pitching the yeast into wort as the yeast needs nutrients. If there is a delay you could actually add more wort to the rehydration water to give the yeast something to eat while you are waiting to pitch it, so long as it isn't too hot." Apparently, once rehydration starts, the yeast comes out of "hibernation", and it needs nutrients. The lack of nutrients stresses the yeast. I don't know how harmful this is - the more optimistic folks that posted previously might still be right.

 

[GCPHomebrew]

You may end up fine. You may end up with off flavors. Both have happened to me in this situation. I used to try to hydrate my yeast, timing it out with the cooling wort. Very hard to do early in experience. Now I wait until I hit 64degrees to hydrate the yeast. Time will tell.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[tezcatlipoca]

It didn't go that long but the place was packed so it took some time to leave and walk home, stop for ice, etc. Ain't no way I would drive there...

NCBrewer, I find that "longer than 30 mins" interesting. The instructions from my manufacturer said let it sit it water 15-30 mins and then stir gently for 30 mins before pitching. So, this one would defly hit the 45 minute mark at a minimum. Perhaps they meant after rehydration is complete...

Still, I am a little nervous about off flavors from letting it wait three hours, but the fact that it is doing it's job means i should atleast have drinkable beer, right?

Next time, I'll just make sure to get a decent early start to brew day. It takes me a while to cool down wort from 140...

 

[bernardsmith]

Don't pretend to be an expert on yeast but when a manufacturer offers time limits on their products or the amount of load or stress a product can safely take before it can be expected to break down they offer such figures so that there is a great deal of significant redundancy and safety. You can probably double the time without any real impact but to work within the tolerances they advocate is good practice and assures good results.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

RDWHAHB.

Your beer will taste better than Wisconsin's bitter tears.