Should I add yeast to this?

[nuggets]

Hello all

I'm brewing a porter using a recipe I got at my local homebrewing store from extract - mainly BSG Bavarian wheat + typical dark malts like Carabrown and black malts etc. 2.5G is the volume I am shooting for. I ended up using a small packet of leftover Safale K-097 that had been sitting in my fridge tightly wrapped in its packging with a rubber band for 10 months. I was not able to get to my brewshop (8 month old daughter at home) and just wanted to get this done!

Everything went fine until I realized it was getting late and forgot to aerate the wort right after pitching the yeast (which I rehydrated ~1 hour prior to pitching with 10 cc of sterile water, directly into 2 glass carboys). No breaks in sanitation protocol happened, really.

The other thing is that I pitched 0.10 oz of The usual K097 ratio is around 0.15 oz --> 2.5G but I tried my luck nonetheless. Also added 1 oz of Willamette hops.

That was on Sunday (3/26) night. Needless to say, the fermentation didn't pick up as it usually does. There was almost no carbonation for the first ~24 hours. It's now 48 hours later and there are very fine bubbles now, with some froth at the top of the beer. But it's not the loud vigorous bubbling you usually hear in the first few days.

Something seems to be working though, because there is carbonation happening.

Do you guys recommend I just buy some fresh K097 and pitch some more? Or just wait for the next 48 hours?

Thanks

 

[jrgtr42]

If things are happenning, then let it ride.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Yep

 

[RM-MN]

Dry yeast isn't supposed to need aeration so you haven't done anything particularly wrong. As long as you have activity, adding yeast probably won't do anything for your beer. You may need to be a little more patient with the beer before bottling, say give it an extra 5 to 7 days to make sure it completes.

 

[hotbeer]

I press the most of the air out of my opened packets of yeast and then fold a piece of shipping tape over the cut end. But even that seems a little overly cautious to me. But I feel compelled to do it.

My dry bread yeast stays in a jar with a screw top lid and it works well for years. I think if you had told us that the grains of yeast were clumped together and/or soft and sticky, then maybe there'd be some concern. But since it's doing something, just wait it out.

If you can take a sample to get the SG without having to open the lid then it'd be nice, but not really necessary to know that the SG is falling. Might take up to a week or even longer than if you'd used more yeast to be ready to bottle or keg.

 

[nuggets]

Thanks all. I now have this in my airlock(s) - seems like the carbonation picked up a bit more compared to 2 days ago, so looks like your recs were spot on.

Is the beer contaminated because of the contact between the carbohydrate-rich beer and air, which is now communicating with the beer in the carboy? Or should I just re-sanitize the airlocks, rinse them out, refill them with sanitized water or vodka, and just let it sit.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Yep

 

[nuggets]

"Yep" meaning "yes it's contaminated, but if you flush out the airlocks with sanitizer and replace them you should be good"

or "trash it"

?

 

[DBhomebrew]

The only bad thing you have is a mess. Clean it up and let it go.

The worst that can happen is some hops get stuck in the airlock and pressure builds up for a bigger mess.

 

[hotbeer]

Is the beer contaminated because of the contact between the carbohydrate-rich beer and air, which is now communicating with the beer in the carboy?

IMO, Maybe. Particularly a maybe if the beer considered in that question is only the beer in the FV itself.

However why give up on a beer? Even if you see actual evidence of a infection, it might still be a drinkable beer. Maybe even a good tasting beer. Just not the beer it was intended to be. It's unlikely a infection is poisonous. However if you have blackish green or greenish black stuff growing anywhere then that might be one to toss out. That's actually a mold.

Most infections are going to be wild yeasts or bacteria that aren't usually harmful. At worst some diarrhea.

But for certain clean up everything you can. Replace or clean and sanitize the airlock.

Usually most of us will say to keep 15 - 20% of the volume of the FV as headspace. But I have found that blow off tube bigger than 1/2" ID worked better in those type jugs than a airlock. Other end goes in a jar with whatever solution you would put in your airlock.