Used Old Yeast - No action. Help?!

[Majawat]

So I'm trying my first 5gal batch. A Brewer's Best German Oktoberfest kit that I received as a Christmas present a few years back.

Brewed on Saturday, Feb. 1st from 5pm to 8:30pm-ish. Yeast was pitched at roughly 80 F straight into the carboy (like the kit instructions said, instead of the yeast packet instructions said) and aerated via a wine degasser/drill.

Some possible contamination may have occurred during the cool down process: I ended up using a snow/water bath as I didn't have ice or a wort chiller. Some (dirty) snow got into the wort!

I'm keeping my living room at roughly 65-70 F to keep the beer cool. (For the love of beer, it's cold to me!)

However, since then I've seen no changes to the wort, whatsoever. Though, there's a significant amount of sediment/trub at the bottom of the carboy immediately after it sat for a bit. It's been less than 72 hours, so I wasn't terribly worried, but of course I'm still quite nervous.

Then I found out something today. I used old yeast! The Best Before date is 1/6/2012. The kit has been sitting on top of my microwave since I got it, so I'm sure it's gotten warm. Note to self, bad idea. Now, with my lack of knowledge on this, I'm not quite sure what to do.

Do I wait and hope it's just some long lag time?
Do I re-pitch some more yeast?
Should I be worried about so much sediment/trub already?
Should I dump? (I don't think so)
What else should I know?

Pictures of the carboy/wort and yeast packet: http://imgur.com/a/Ky2Ci

Thank you in advance and sorry about the wall-o-text, just wanted to give as much info as possible!

 

[dobe12]

Don't dump it.
Don't worry about the sediment/trub.
You're approaching the 72hr mark, so I'd go buy another pack of yeast and repitch asap.
I would be a little concerned about that dirty snow getting in your wort post boil, but it's way to late now.... so try your best not to worry about it and move forward.

Last comment: Go get yourself a fresh kit, man! And keep brewing.

 

[Majawat]

You're approaching the 72hr mark, so I'd go buy another pack of yeast and repitch asap.

Last comment: Go get yourself a fresh kit, man! And keep brewing.

Thanks for the help, very appreciated!

As for the yeast, any specific one? That is, what am I looking for? I'm guessing so, but do I re-aerate the wort after pitching the new yeast?

I certainly will get a new kit soon!

 

[dobe12]

Are you trying to make a true Oktoberfest... as in a lager? Do you have the ability to ferment cold, around 50F? If so, get a lager yeast. I know more about Wyeast and liquid yeast then dry, but at this point, you probably just want to buy a pack or two of dry yeast and pitch it. If you pitch enough, you don't need to aerate before pitching dry yeast.

If making an ale, the same is true, but you most likely only need one pack of a dry ale yeast. Again, you want to keep it cool, but more like 60-65F.

 

[Math0]

If you are worried about an infection because some dirty snow got into the wort, you should definetely reboil the whole thing a couple minutes since the yeast is probably not working out anyway. The yeast might be slow to start or even the temperature is too low. I would repitch another pack after rehydrating the yeast.

 

[botigol]

I read an article sometime recently that suggested using lager yeast at warmer than proper fermenting temperatures would provide a better result than ale yeast in a lager-type beer. The summary was something to the effect of a dirty lager flavor still tastes like a lager whereas a clean ale flavor tastes like an ale. No personal experience with this, just passing along an option.

 

[Majawat]

Are you trying to make a true Oktoberfest... as in a lager? Do you have the ability to ferment cold, around 50F? If so, get a lager yeast. I know more about Wyeast and liquid yeast then dry, but at this point, you probably just want to buy a pack or two of dry yeast and pitch it. If you pitch enough, you don't need to aerate before pitching dry yeast.

If making an ale, the same is true, but you most likely only need one pack of a dry ale yeast. Again, you want to keep it cool, but more like 60-65F.

At this point, I wouldn't mind if it wasn't 100% to style, just want it to be drinkable. I don't really have a way to ferment cold, currently I'm using my living room's ambient temp to keep it in the 60s. Unless you have suggestions about lowering the wort temp without breaking the bank or size of my small apartment, I'll have to go an Ale yeast, unless botigol is on to something.

Seems I have some research to do on yeast. Of all the prep work I've done in understanding this process, I seem to have missed out on this crucial info.

If you are worried about an infection because some dirty snow got into the wort, you should definetely reboil the whole thing a couple minutes since the yeast is probably not working out anyway. The yeast might be slow to start or even the temperature is too low. I would repitch another pack after rehydrating the yeast.

I'm a bit worried, of course. Though in order to re-boil, I would have to split up the pots as I don't have the capacity or equipment to do otherwise. The downside of living in an all-electric apartment and only having 3 gal pots. I doubt so, but will splitting it up be an issue?

At this point tonight, I'm going to try to find a new yeast, reboil the wort, remove the current sediment?, clean/sanitize carboy, rehydrate and pitch the new yeast (maybe aerate) and start the timer again. Right?

You guys have been awesome for a newcomer like me. Thank you so much!

 

[Math0]

I would boil at the last minute. I mean, buy some yeast first then when you have it in hands, boil, cool and pitch to avoid once more an infection.

 

[RmikeVT]

This is what I would do: Pitch a fresh pack of Fermentis US-05 into the beer you've already brewed and put the energy and effort of reboiling/cooling into doing another batch with a fresh kit.

You have a couple things working against you in that old batch
1) Yeast Age -- Probably not very viable
2) Old LME/DME -- Liquid Malt Extract and to a lesser extent dry malt extract stale over time, they oxidize and get off flavors
3) Old Hops -- Hops lose ability to bitter and oxidize overtime too, especially at room temperature, they tend to break down and get nasty

I would hate for you to go through all this effort just for a beer that was doomed from the get go. Just brew a fresh kit and give yourself a fighting chance.

 

[dobe12]

This is what I would do: Pitch a fresh pack of Fermentis US-05 into the beer you've already brewed and put the energy and effort of reboiling/cooling into doing another batch with a fresh kit.

You have a couple things working against you in that old batch
1) Yeast Age -- Probably not very viable
2) Old LME/DME -- Liquid Malt Extract and to a lesser extent dry malt extract stale over time, they oxidize and get off flavors
3) Old Hops -- Hops lose ability to bitter and oxidize overtime too, especially at room temperature, they tend to break down and get nasty

I would hate for you to go through all this effort just for a beer that was doomed from the get go. Just brew a fresh kit and give yourself a fighting chance.

This is actually not a bad idea. Repitch some new yeast and see what you get. Brew another batch right behind this one (with fresh ingredients ) and hope you have 2 batches of good beer in a few weeks.

To keep fermentation temps down, google swamp cooler. Cheap and easy. I have a fermentation fridge so I haven't ever made/used one, but many swear by them. It's just an inexpensive way to keep your fermenting beer cool.

 

[Majawat]

Alright, thank you for all your help again. Here's what happened tonight:

I went and picked up Fermentis Safale US-05 and a Thief. Measured the OG (Yeah. Another bad idea on my part, no decent way to measure gravity). If I measured right, it sits at 1.052. Pitched the new yeast. Aerated with sterile equipment. Mainly because I didn't figure it'd hurt, and I have fun aerating it.

Wish me luck. Still need to get a better cooling system.

I won't be doing another batch for a bit as space is a bigger factor for me at the moment.

 

[Math0]

I find people are going crazy over a cooling system and the need to chill in 5 minutes if possible! A cold water bath with a couple of ice packs will do. Its going to cool in 1-2 hours, yes but if its in a closed area, ive never had an infection that way. Best of luck

 

[kh54s10]

I looked up the kit. It is a true lager kit. By pitching the US-05 you have turned it into an ale. Probably a good thing since you do not have the temperature control to do the lager properly.

Good luck. It will likely turn out all right, not as it was supposed to though.

 

[Majawat]

Gentlemen. We have bubbles!

Thank you all for your help, I have already learned so much from this site and it only gets better from here!

 

[RmikeVT]

looking good. Also looks like you are going to have a blow-off. You should hook up a vinyl tube to the inside part of the airlock and vent into a bowl or pitcher of sanitizer. You might have a mess on your hands.

 

[Majawat]

Thankfully and luckily I didn't have any blow-off, nor did it get too close either. It only took a few days to settle down to a very gentle bubble. Since this started actually fermenting on Tuesday, I'll let it sit for another week, check Specific Gravity and then keg?

 

[unionrdr]

That was def the yeast sitting at the bottom in the pic,a lager yeast at that. The white to cream colored layer is yeast. The brown stuff would be trub. Switching to the ale yeast should help. I brewed a 2 year old Cooper's kit once,an OS Lager with ale yeast. I made a small starter for the 7g ale yeast packet. The beer turned out much like a Salvator Doppel Bock in color & flavor. So old extract doesn't automatically equal off flavors.