Hello all,
I made a mistake when brewing a pilsner kit Sunday night and I'm not sure if I killed my yeast or if it's just dormant. I live in southern California and I usually hook my immersion chiller to the garden hose hookups outside. It was a really hot weekend so I wasn't able to chill the wort past 85 degrees using the immersion chiller, so I transferred the wort to my bucket, and put the bucket in my temp controlled refrigerator to get it down to pitching temp. I had the temp controller already set to the fermenting temp (54-55 degrees) and I was occasionally checking on it to see when it would get to around 70. The kit directions say to pitch at 60 but I usually pitch in the high 60's/low 70's and I had subbed out the dry yeast from the kit for some White Labs German Lager Yeast.
Anyway, I fell asleep on the couch waiting for it to drop to pitching temp. When I woke up at least 5 hours had gone by and when I ran out to the garage to check the fridge I noticed that it was already down to about 56 degrees. Instead of warming it up, I just pitched the yeast and added some nutrient right then. I forgot to aerate the wort and the yeast had been warming up to room temp for a few hours (probably 75 in the house). It's been more than 48 hours and I don't see any activity in the airlock. Did the 15-20ish degree difference kill it or cause it to go dormant? I figured it might be ok since it's at the ferment temp and the yeast could just be a slow starter. Any help would be appreciated! This is my first lager.
I made a mistake when brewing a pilsner kit Sunday night and I'm not sure if I killed my yeast or if it's just dormant. I live in southern California and I usually hook my immersion chiller to the garden hose hookups outside. It was a really hot weekend so I wasn't able to chill the wort past 85 degrees using the immersion chiller, so I transferred the wort to my bucket, and put the bucket in my temp controlled refrigerator to get it down to pitching temp. I had the temp controller already set to the fermenting temp (54-55 degrees) and I was occasionally checking on it to see when it would get to around 70. The kit directions say to pitch at 60 but I usually pitch in the high 60's/low 70's and I had subbed out the dry yeast from the kit for some White Labs German Lager Yeast.
Anyway, I fell asleep on the couch waiting for it to drop to pitching temp. When I woke up at least 5 hours had gone by and when I ran out to the garage to check the fridge I noticed that it was already down to about 56 degrees. Instead of warming it up, I just pitched the yeast and added some nutrient right then. I forgot to aerate the wort and the yeast had been warming up to room temp for a few hours (probably 75 in the house). It's been more than 48 hours and I don't see any activity in the airlock. Did the 15-20ish degree difference kill it or cause it to go dormant? I figured it might be ok since it's at the ferment temp and the yeast could just be a slow starter. Any help would be appreciated! This is my first lager.