Wort over chilling

Kilroy08 · Aug 17, 2014

The source of today's excitement is a Brewer's Best brew kit for English Bitter.

I did everything on schedule with a 2.5 gallon boil going from the grains to the malt continuing on through the hops and tossing in a whirlfloc tablet at the last 15 minute mark.

Then comes the time to cool the wort.

Oops!

Things not to do with your beer:

Substitute ice for the entire balance of your water when doing a 2.5 gallon boil. 20 pounds of ice is overkill, I have now shot way past the pitching temperature for the yeast and have to let things warm back up.

Right now it is nice and chilled, as in cold glass of lemonade from the fridge chilled.

Did I ruin my beer?

Well, it gets a good stir anyway when you pitch the yeast in. I guess we shall see how a pre fermentation cold crash turns out.

Hammy71 · Aug 17, 2014

Shouldn't hurt anything as long as you wait for it to warm up before pitching the yeast. No worries.

MindenMan · Aug 17, 2014

You could also let it warm up within 5 or 10 degrees, pitch your yeast, and let it warm up the rest of the way on it's own. What do you use for fermentation control?

flars · Aug 17, 2014

Pitching into cool wort will only increase the lag time. The yeast will go to work on the sugars as the wort warms up to their working range. I hope the instructions you are using didn't say to pitch the yeast into 90° wort.

Kilroy08 · Aug 17, 2014

flars said:
Pitching into cool wort will only increase the lag time. The yeast will go to work on the sugars as the wort warms up to their working range. I hope the instructions you are using didn't say to pitch the yeast into 90° wort.

It recommended an ideal pitching temp of 62-70 degrees.

Since it's an ale, my temperature control is the coolest, darkest closet. About 70 or so.

I skimmed off the excess ice, pitched the yeast, and gave it a good stir. Now I'm just doing what it needs, leave it alone and don't mess with it.

flars · Aug 17, 2014

An ambient temperature of about 70° will allow the fermentation temperature to rise 4° to 10°F, depending upon OG and the yeast used. Will those temperature be in the low to mid range of the ideal fermentation temperature range for the yeast? Off flavors are usually produced at fermentation temperatures that are to high for the yeast.

I just recently pitched WY1056, generation 4, into 50°F wort. It took 20 hours for active fermentation to begin.