Safeale 05 - Did I mess up?

[clint404]

Brewed right at 3 gal last night. Its an IPA and my SG was 1.056. I had half a pack of Safeale 05 that I had sealed properly from 2 weeks ago. I dont have a wort chiller and it was getting late ). I had to be at work in 30 mins and my ice bath wasn't working fast enough. Soooo...I pitched at 76f.

I can't ferment below 70 ambient either. I know that's the upper range for that strain inside my bucket too.

Someone tell me my beer will be decent at best.

PS: No airlock after 12hrs but I know I can't judge by that and yeast lag.

 

[FiddlersGreen87]

It's fine. Your flavors might not be perfect, but before I made starters I had beers take 24-48 hours to get going, and some of those were with liquid yeast. Just give it some time.

 

[JimRausch]

Well, as you seem to know, not ideal conditions for your yeast- underpitching #, pitch temp too high, fermentation temp. high as well.
But........ yeast are tough little buggers. They work under most of the conditions we give them. Will it be the best beer you can make? Maybe not, but it should be drinkable beer, and if there are off-flavors you'll know why they happened. This hobby/obsession is a constant learning process. You are making beer and that's always a good thing!

 

[Vegetarisk]

Probably not. I've pitched that yeast at similar temps without the beer being ruined. It's possible you may get some fusel alcohol flavors from the higher temperature but those will mellow out with time in my experience.

 

[clint404]

Half a pack of 05 to 3gal is under pitched???

I can get another pack today if more would help.

 

[JimRausch]

Half a pack of 05 to 3gal is under pitched???

I can get another pack today if more would help.

Sorry, I made an assumption without checking first. Mr. Malty says that a 1.056 3G wort would need 0.6 pkt. of a typical 11g US-05. So, a slight underpitch but nothing to worry about. You should see evidence of fermentation soon. And the higher temps will actually give you a more active fermentation. The potential flavor changes because of the higher temps. are still possible.

 

[joshesmusica]

pitching rates don't only depend on amount of wort, but also gravity.
1/2 pack isn't terribly underpitching. mr. malty calls for .7 of an 11.5 gram pack (i brought the production date to where it brought viability down to 75%). if you had half a pack that had 100 billion yeast cells in it, you were underpitching by 17 billion cells.
but who knows how viable your half pack was under those storing conditions.
from what i've read if you aerated enough, you could've given enough oxygen to help growth. i believe the warmer temps would stimulate growth as well, though like vegetarisk said, you could get some fusels with that temp.
all in all, i think you'll be fine. for a lot of ale homebrewers, us-05 seems to be the go to strain, mainly because it's a sturdy strain. if you can get it down to your ambient temp that will only be better for the rest of fermentation.
also you could consider to leave it in the fermenter up to 3 weeks, and possibly the little guys will clean up a lot of the fusels they might make.
good luck!

 

[eatmorefrogs]

Manufacturer specs go all the way up to 77F

 

[clint404]

I planned on 30 days in the primary. Dry hop at 25.

Thanks for all the help y'all!

My 2nd batch here. I did a 1gal and pitched slightly lower (70f) and it tasted ok when I bottled.

 

[joshesmusica]

I planned on 30 days in the primary. Dry hop at 25.

Thanks for all the help y'all!

does that mean dry hopping in a secondary for 25? i'm no expert, but i've read that you can start to get off flavors from the yeast after about 3 weeks in the primary.

also, the biggest thing i've learned so far about homebrewing is to not get too worried. as long as you've sanitized well and made sure of no infection, the worst thing that could happen is a beer that's not the best, but still drinkable!

 

[RM-MN]

Mr. Malty may give you the "best pitch rate" but you can certainly get a good beer from pitching less. I made a saison where I pitched half a pack of saison yeast that had been opened 6 months before and it took my beer from 1.057 to 1.000 and it tastes fine.

Sometime, try using Mr. Malty to determine the pitch rate for a 1.070 beer using a liquid yeast that is 6 months old.

 

[clint404]

No dry hop for 5 days after 25.

But now knowing that maybe I should dry hop after 15-18 days then dry hop for 5. I only have one bucket so I'm gonna dry hop in my primary. I just want my yeast to clean things up.

PS: I used enough starsan to clean my house. I'm not worried about infection.

 

[clint404]

.

 

[joshesmusica]

Mr. Malty may give you the "best pitch rate" but you can certainly get a good beer from pitching less. I made a saison where I pitched half a pack of saison yeast that had been opened 6 months before and it took my beer from 1.057 to 1.000 and it tastes fine.

Sometime, try using Mr. Malty to determine the pitch rate for a 1.070 beer using a liquid yeast that is 6 months old.

that is incredible! i have heard that mr. malty often offers a high pitch rate.

 

[joshesmusica]

No dry hop for 5 days after 25.

But now knowing that maybe I should dry hop after 15-18 days then dry hop for 5. I only have one bucket so I'm gonna dry hop in my primary. I just want my yeast to clean things up.

PS: I used enough starsan to clean my house. I'm not worried about infection.

ok gotcha.

i like to leave mine for 3 weeks in the primary, no secondary. especially if all you have is a bucket. there are a lot of professionals these days talking about that if you've done proper techniques up to the end of primary, there's not much need (besides aesthetics) to go to secondary.

also, i don't have time right now, but i found an amazing podcast from some really respected people in the field of hops, and they say that you might as well just dry hop in the primary and not rack off of the yeast yet. just wait until you are down to at least 90% of your fg, and then dry hop for 5-7 days. then after that bottle/keg.

 

[clint404]

I think a reason I don't have vigorous fermentation yet is because I didn't oxygenate the wort enough. I wisked it for 10 seconds or so and pitched.

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

The only reason I transfer a beer to secondary is to increase clarification. However, keeping it on the trub for longer than 3 weeks will not give any adverse flavors to the beer if given the right temperatures. The off flavors come about when you leave the dry hop in for longer than 7 days. You'll get a vegatable-ish flavor that is pretty harsh in some cases.

Example, I have a Porter that's been in Primary for 3.5 weeks. I'm going to leave it for another few days before bottling. I don't expect anything but good results from the beer. The biggest mistake people make in homebrewing is overthinking it. Your beer will turn out great!

 

[clint404]

UPDATE: So I checked the fermenter after 18 hours and there were no signs of it starting. No krausen no bubbles no airlock activity. I think it would have started eventually but that half pack or less of 05 was 2 weeks+ old and I probably under pitched like a mofo. I dry pitched BTW.

So...

I bought fresh pack on the way home and rehydrated it and pitched the whole thing. Seeing as how I probably didnt aerate enough either I wisked for another 15-20 seconds just to give them something to live off of. Well...3 hours later its picking up and my airlock is finally bubbling. Yay...

Now scold me for aerating....

 

[joshesmusica]

now you just gotta hope it didn't get infected, and i'm sure it'll turn out ok.

 

[rodwha]

I often ferment for 4 weeks.

I used to dry hop as long as 14 days without any sort of vegetable flavor. However I've reduced it to 7 days now as I understand that the aroma it adds dies off, and anything beyond 7 days isn't really adding anything extra.

I use a whisk to aerate also. Love it! Quick, easy, and done well.

 

[JimRausch]

UPDATE: So I checked the fermenter after 18 hours and there were no signs of it starting. No krausen no bubbles no airlock activity. I think it would have started eventually but that half pack or less of 05 was 2 weeks+ old and I probably under pitched like a mofo. I dry pitched BTW.

So...

I bought fresh pack on the way home and rehydrated it and pitched the whole thing. Seeing as how I probably didnt aerate enough either I wisked for another 15-20 seconds just to give them something to live off of. Well...3 hours later its picking up and my airlock is finally bubbling. Yay...

Now scold me for aerating....

How could anyone scold you for doing whatever was necessary to get your fermentation back on track? I say, well done.

 

[clint404]

Yea I hope no bugs got in there and the 18hrs it sat don't throw any "offness" to it. I'm feeling better now that I can see karusen through the bucket with a flash light and this morning it was gassing even more. I'm gonna take a gravity reading at 18 days then 19 then dry hop for 5 more maybe.

 

[clint404]

Again thank you everyone. Seeing those signs of fermentation are like natural xannax to a new brewer

Cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

UPDATE: So I checked the fermenter after 18 hours and there were no signs of it starting. No krausen no bubbles no airlock activity. I think it would have started eventually but that half pack or less of 05 was 2 weeks+ old and I probably under pitched like a mofo. I dry pitched BTW.

So...

I bought fresh pack on the way home and rehydrated it and pitched the whole thing. Seeing as how I probably didnt aerate enough either I wisked for another 15-20 seconds just to give them something to live off of. Well...3 hours later its picking up and my airlock is finally bubbling. Yay...

Now scold me for aerating....

I used a half pack of Danstar Belle Saison that had been opened for 6 months in a 2 1/2 gallon batch and it fermented out in less than 2 weeks. I've been making beer long enough now to not get excited if I don't have activity for a while. I've had some beers with a full pitch of new yeast take up to 30 hours to show signs of fermentation.

 

[kombat]

Half a pack of 05 to 3gal is under pitched???

Depends - did you rehydrate?

 

[kombat]

The only reason I transfer a beer to secondary is to increase clarification.

I don't want to derail this thread, and I've covered this repeatedly elsewhere, but racking to secondary to clarify the beer is a myth. The beer will clear better (in the same amount of time) if you don't disturb it (i.e., leave it in primary). The presence of a yeast cake at the bottom does not impede yeast and other sediment from falling out of solution.

 

[NorthwestBrewman2013]

I don't want to derail this thread, and I've covered this repeatedly elsewhere, but racking to secondary to clarify the beer is a myth. The beer will clear better (in the same amount of time) if you don't disturb it (i.e., leave it in primary). The presence of a yeast cake at the bottom does not impede yeast and other sediment from falling out of solution.

Good point. However, if you don't have the ability to cold crash your beer the secondary helps to make sure that the beer has enough time to settle out (eg. big beers). Of course, when it's 15 degrees outside you don't have to worry about stuff "falling out".

It is better in most cases to leave it in primary though. This allows the yeast to completely clean up any residual nasties and sugars.

 

[clint404]

Depends - did you rehydrate?

Not the first time. I dry pitched and didn't areate enough. The gravity isn't super high so there was some o2 in there already and like I said it probably would have eventually started but I wanted to be certain. I did with the second pack.

3gal in a 5gal bucket and I'm bubbling every 4-5 seconds... I'd say shes a'going now

I'm using an american ale II on my 2 gallon Red IPA for sure.