Worries

[greenhaze]

Hi all
Brewed my first extract 5 gallon batch last night. Everything went very well till I started to chill my wort with my wort chiller. At first tempwas reducing pretty fast till I hit 90 degrees. At that point it the thermometer didn't seem to want to go any lower. I was stirring my wort with my sanitzed paddle.
I cooled it for a total of thirty minutes. The outside brew pot was not warm to the touch so I poured my wort into my sanitized bucket. I gave it a good shake and transferred it to my Carboy ( wanted to be able to see all the action). I then pitched my yeast that I had in some boiled and cooled water.
Then put Carboy into swamp cooler. Checked it this morning no action, nothing. The yeast was muntons dry yeast, it's an Irish red ale from Midwest.
I am worried that the brew was too hot ? Or too cold. I suppose I should just wait, right ?maybe I have a bum thermometer ?
Sorry for the rant it was 1.00 am when I finished and had to be up at 5.30am so a bit frazzled.
But it was so much fun up until the wort chiller part.
One more question I am going out of town in 2-1/2 weeks will be gone for 2-1/2 weeks. Is that too long to leave in primary ?

Slainte

 

[Stretch1991]

If your yeast was pitched into 90 degree wort chances are you didnt kill it but you have shocked it. So the yeast will be strianing and may produce some off flavors that are not the greatest (I still do this now and again, sometimes in small test batches looking for off flavors I like sometimes I run out of time) its hit or miss however give it 72 hours, if you see bubbles and krausen then youre going to be good to go. If not just pitch more yeast and ride it out, what was your starting gravity? If its lower (like 1.050) then the shocked yeast wont have as hard of a time getting going.

As for leaving your beer in the primary 2 1/2 weeks I would say... leave it in their longer. I brewed a batch before I went to florida for work and left it in the primary for 4 weeks and its fine. Plus then you dont have to secondary and the yeast allows itself to clean up some more undisturbed.

 

[greenhaze]

Hey thanks for the info. My starting gravity was 1.040 I think I add .003 to adjust for the higher temp which would make it 1.043. Which is right where it should be according to the info sheet.
Slainte

 

[broadbill]

in the future, there is no harm in letting your wort sit overnight before you pitch; that is, if your sanitation is OK (i.e. if you did it).

 

[twistr25]

4 - 5 weeks in the primary will be just fine if not perfect. It'll give ample time for your yeast to do its initial job of creating alcohol and then lots of time to clean up after itself and make you beer nice and clear. Definitely keep and eye on it over the next couple of days. If it doesn't start to ferment, you'll obviously want to repitch before you head out of town. The MW Irish Red was my first kit too. I went out and bought the Nottingham dry yeast though. My WC had a little trouble getting low too, but I was probably low 80s when I pitched. It came out great though and I thought it had more flavor than Killian's.

 

[bribo179]

Wort does not chill in a linear fashion. As your wort gets colder the temperature drops slower

 

[hepcat]

I would have stuck your bk into an ice bath to get it all the way down to pitch temp.

 

[greenhaze]

So I got home from work and there was a beautiful head of foam (krausen ?) and lots of bubbling in my blow off container.
Such relief, temp holding steady at 66/68
Slainte

 

[greenhaze]

So I got home from work and there was a beautiful head of foam (krausen ?) and lots of bubbling in my blow off container.
Such relief, temp holding steady at 66/68
Slainte

 

[twistr25]

Yep, that should be krausen forming up. No worries then, enjoy your trip and you'll be ready to bottle up when you get back in town!