Storing wort without yeast

[Ddogsleezy]

is it permissible to store freshly chilled wort in your fermenter, without adding yeast? to give some context to this question, say you were brewing, finished your boil and were chilling your wort when you realized that you are out of yeast. its sunday, so the homebrew shop down the street isn't open so you have no way to get yeast in the next few hours. is it okay to put your chilled wort into the fermenter, put the lid and airlock on, and store it for a day or two before adding yeast?

 

[morticaixavier]

maybe. If you can run over to the homebrew shop first thing in the morning and pitch that would be no problem. I often use my ferment fridge to finish chilling my wort overnight. two days is pushing it but as long as no signs of fermentation have begun spontaneously that's still probably okay. might possible get contamination but might not.

 

[LVBen]

It is quite common for Aussie's to do it. Though, I think they typically use "cubes", which are sealed containers with very little head room. They also put the wort into the cubes while they are still about 200 degrees, so that it sanitizes the container.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, this isn't to the same scale as the question, but I try to keep at least four one liter bottles of 40 point wort in one of my brewery fridges at all times, for use with yeast starters when I feel a brew coming on.

They're lightly hopped (a couple of middling Alpha pellets per bottle) but the fact that I've never had one go weird after up to a month or more of sitting there is mostly the result of seriously O/C sanitation regimen - and that part would apply regardless of scale...

Cheers!

 

[lumpher]

i know several people who are expert brewers, and routinely wait 2-3 days before pitching. as long as you have it sealed, and have the airlock secure, no worries

 

[shafferpilot]

Well, there is no doubt that you will know for certain if your sanitization is up to spec or not

 

[el_caro]

is it permissible to store freshly chilled wort in your fermenter, without adding yeast? to give some context to this question, say you were brewing, finished your boil and were chilling your wort when you realized that you are out of yeast. its sunday, so the homebrew shop down the street isn't open so you have no way to get yeast in the next few hours. is it okay to put your chilled wort into the fermenter, put the lid and airlock on, and store it for a day or two before adding yeast?

I have see a few posts about mould and other infections from airbourne yeast in the fermentation vessel where pitching was delayed. Watched an interesting youtube on deli\berate natural yeast infections yesterday. My advice would be to check you have the yeast before the boil or store it in full sanitised containers as previously discussed.
This is one of those occassions when time and space could be your enemy.

 

[badhabit]

The longer you wait the greater the chance of infection....that being said...no worries. Keep it covered, if you have some C02 blast the top of the fermenter to clear out the air. I open fermented, sometimes without any added brewers yeast, with my dad for years without major melt down.