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!
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!