sanitizing and repitching?

[fumbles]

Background
I made a brew for the first time. It was a clone of hitachino white nest ale. I thought I had foaming sanitizer, but it was actually line cleaner. I still used the line cleaner, but I had to wash it out with tap water. I prepared my yeast early, so they sat for roughly 5 hours at room temperature. I used wyeast 1056 (American ale) with an optimal temperature of 70-75.

In the first 8-9 hours it did nothing. I had shaken the carboy for 2-5 minutes to get aeration (gonna get a stone next time, LOL). I saw no activity, so I put it on top of my drier and ran the drier with heavy towels. The yeast woke up for a bit; I got about an inch of krausen. Unfortunately, I left it too long, it got too hot (80 F), and the head died out. I moved it to a room (71-73). It's been two days with no real activity. Also, the yeast appeared to have flocculated within the first day.

Failure?
yeast is alive:
+yeast formed krausen so it was alive for some period of time
+aeration was done
yeast is dead:
-proper sanitizer was not used
-not active any more
-not long enough for primary to be over (3 days)

Questions
Can I rack to a new carboy, aerate, sanitize, and repitch?
Can I try to drink some to see if it is bad?
How can I test for bacteria contamination?

thanks

 

[rockytoptim]

Have you checked the gravity to see if its finished? I agree 3 days is really quick for primary but what do the numbers say?

 

[fumbles]

I'm current reading 1.04 and my OG reading was a misread. It was touching the bottom. The FG for this beer is 1.013 @ 5.1%.

It hasn't really been working for three days. The yeast worked noticeably for about 8-12 hours. That would be some super awesome yeast if they finished. I pitched one package intended for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[malkore]

Questions
Can I rack to a new carboy, aerate, sanitize, and repitch?
Can I try to drink some to see if it is bad?
How can I test for bacteria contamination?

Your 'rack' scenario is out of order. You'd sanitize the new carboy first, rack, and re-pitch. If any fermentation has started you don't want to aerate at this point because it'll be oxidation risk.

Yes you can drink some, it'll probably taste awful sweet.

If it tastes like crap or smells foul, something else probably took hold of it.

80F won't kill the yeast, nor will bacteria...but 80F will stress the yeast (off flavors) and if the yeast isn't kicking happily, its easier for a wild infection to outcompete the yeast.

 

[fumbles]

Ok I'll make sure to get that order and aerate my starter if that's okay.
thanks for the help