No fermentation - sanitizer sucked into wort

GRA · Jun 10, 2019

I've been brewing for a few years now, but just extract brewing. On Saturday I brewed a wheat beer and planned to use dry Safale US-05, which I have used successfully many times. Usually I just pitch it straight onto the wort without re-hydrating. However, this time I re-hydrated in boiled water that had been cooled to I think 85 degrees. Then I added to the wort in fermentation container, and put the airlock on with StarSan solution in it. I use a plastic Big Mouth Bubbler fermentation container. When I picked it up to move to final location a bunch of the sanitizer got sucked out of the airlock and right down into the center of the wort where the yeast had been pitched. I thought it would be fine but after 2 days there are no signs of anything happening. My thoughts are:

1) bad packet of yeast
2) re-hydrated too hot and killed it
3) StarSan pulled from airlock killed it

Thoughts?

Gregory T · Jun 10, 2019

My understanding is Star San kills bacteria, yeast not so much. at least not in the amount from your airlock. the upper range is 75 F, but I cant imagine 85 f would kill it. how old is your yeast pack? my first guess would be your lid isn't on all the way. I have a bucket which is notorious for this. it feels like its down, but then I lean on it and it pops in and the airlock starts bubbling away. or its slow starting

Eric_S · Jun 10, 2019

How does it look? Big mouth bubblers can leak around the lid. I feel like they seal better than buckets but still leak some.

Jayjay1976 · Jun 10, 2019

Must be either #1 or #2.
#3 is unlikely.

DatsyukianDeke · Jun 12, 2019

I've always used plain water in my S-shaped airlocks with no issues. During vigorous fermentation, Star San just turns into foam and bubbles out of the airlock.

RM-MN · Jun 12, 2019

Yeast love warmth. I rehydrate my bread yeast at 105 to 110 to get a quick start. 85 degrees won't hurt your yeast at all. The 75 degree upper limit is for the fermentation period as the higher temperatures cause the yeast to produce fusel alcohol and esters that give off flavors.

The chances of a bad packet of dry yeast is very small. When dried the yeast is extremely hardy and can stand temperatures that will kill liquid yeast.

Yeast doesn't always give much signs of ferementation. Bubbling of the airlock isn't an accurate way to tell if it is working or not. Use your hydrometer to sample and measure any change in gravity. It is the only method that is accurate.