yeast problems...HELP!

[StebenMonster]

I am working on my third batch of beer. Of the previous two, one turned out alright, the other must have been contaminated or something. anyways...these are not the issue. While making the batch i am fermenting now i was a little worried about the temperature of the beer when pitching my yeast. I had previously boiled (for sterilization purposes) my water that I added the wort to and it had not cooled down all that much by the time that I was adding the wort and yeast to the fermentor.

I did however cool the wort down a lot in the sink. I figured I would add the wort to the hotter water and they would cool down enough for me to add the yeast that i had pitched in another container and all would be well.

Anyways, now im worried that i might have killed a large portion of the yeast or something. I don't see lots of bubbles coming out of the airlock, but when i put some pressure on the top of the fermentor it pushes out bubbles, so something is working.

If i killed some of the yeast, will there still be enough? Should i leave it in the fermentor longer or something? maybe add more? And if so, how can i tell?

Anyways thanks in advance for any help!

 

[c.n.budz]

do you know what the temp of the wort/top off water mixture was when you pitched? How long has it been in primary?

If you have some slow bubbling you have some fermentation going on. Did you take a gravity reading before pitching the yeast?

 

[BierMuncher]

Whoa...slow down there Tex.
Give us some details like what was the temp when you pitched the yeast?

What time did you pitch the yeast (and what day)?

What kind of yeast did you pitch?

Unless you had extremely hot wort, it isn't likely you "killed" your yeast but to help you know what you should look for / do next, we need some emore details.

 

[StebenMonster]

OK...Should have written this all down, but i can estimate...

I prepared the yeast by adding it to water that was about 100 degrees and then added about a teaspoon of malt extract to the yeast water.... waited about half an hour until it was going and added it to the wort. I used dry coopers yeast.

I was rushed for time (needed to go to bed as this was a late night brewing operation) and so didn't take any gravity readings.

The problem as I see it is that I dont have great temp readings for the wort/water combo. It might have been hotter, but was probably also about 100 degrees. The fact that I dont know makes me worried.

Some fermentation is going on though. I'm just not sure how vigorously the airlock should be bubbling and what to do about it if its not doing enough.

All this might be a little late as well. I pitched the yeast about 4 days ago. I realize that it shouldn't be bubbling a whole lot by this point. But it never really was.

 

[Evan!]

If there is airlock activity, you should be fine. You just about hit the yeast temp threshold---105f or so will kill the little guys. In the future, cool it down to the 60's before you pitch the yeast.

Your other problem is that you added malt extract to water, but didn't boil it. This is asking for an infection. There's always a chance that some stray yeasties are hanging out in the DME, so you should always boil it in some water, then cool it down, before adding the yeast. And as for starters (which is what you were trying to make, I guess), they're only necessary with liquid yeasts...and they should be made 8-12+ hours ahead of time, and they should be made with a lot more than a tablespoon of extract. My starters are typically 6-8oz of DME in 2L of water.

If you're using dry yeast, all you need to do is rehydrate (and even that's not absolutely required). Just boil a 8oz of water for 15 mins, cool it down to 65f or so, put it into a sanitized jar, pitch the dry yeast, put the jar lid on (also sanitized), and shake it up every few mins until the little granules are dissolved. Then pitch that directly into your COOLED (below 80f) wort.

 

[Bobby_M]

In any case, it's not going to taste all that good. Your fusels are going to be through the roof because of the initial (and possibly continued) high temp fermentation. You should be getting it down into the low 70's minimum.

 

[c.n.budz]

Every fermentation is going to be a bit different, some vigorous some slow and steady. 100* is definitely on the hot side but not horribly so.

It sounds like you're using a bucket fermenter. Make sure you have a good tight seal on the lid, that's a pretty common cause of a lack in airlock activity in buckets.

Either way, you have fermentation occuring so just wait it out for a few more days maybe a week. Then, take a gravity reading on consecutive days and if there is no change then either transfer to secondary or bottle

 

[Evan!]

In any case, it's not going to taste all that good. Your fusels are going to be through the roof because of the initial (and possibly continued) high temp fermentation. You should be getting it down into the low 70's minimum.

I'm gonna have to agree here, unfortunately. I think my first few brews (well, #2-5 or so) turned out not so great because of the temps last july-august. But you know what? At that point, I was just thrilled just to be drinking my own beer. I'd imagine that any n00b is in the same boat.

 

[StebenMonster]

Thanks guys. One more question...

The reason I had this problem with temp is that I boiled all the water so that it was sanitized before adding wort to it. I thought it would cool a lot faster than it did... how long should i plan to let the boiled water cool to a good enough temp? Can I just boil it the day before, put the lid on, and add wort and yeast to that?

 

[c.n.budz]

you could always give the preboiled water an ice bath like you do to cool the wort. Or you could do what I do and top off with regular tap water, never had a problem that way.

 

[JewWario]

sounds like we had a similar problem today. I was extremely worried about my latest batch (a Scottish Ale brewed this past Sunday) as I had added my dry yeast at about (stupid me) 79 degrees. It didn't start bubbling until this morning.

Yeah. Almost 40 hours later!

Now it's going pretty good (listening to the happy bubbling sounds in the other room)... but I'm still a bit concerned. It's my first non-pale ale (as I'm striving to stretch my boundaries) and it just had me a bit worried.

Do you all think it will be ok?

 

[dantodd]

You'll get beer so no worries there. 100 is quite hot and likely stayed warm enough to develop a lot of unusual flavors. Jewwario's 79 pitching temp is not too bad depending upon how much work you did to cool it down after pitching. If it sat in a 78 degree room, well you'll get a lot more phenols etc. from the warm ferment as well.

I've found that keeping my fermentations at a consistent temp below 70 is one of the simplest exercises that I can do to dramatically improve the flavors of my beer.

Work hard to get your wort down to the low 70s or high 60s before pitching and try to maintain good temps in the upper 60s for really great clean results. There are some specialty beers that like higher temps (or lagers that need much lower temps but that's another story.)

The MOST important thing you can do for good tasting beer is SANITATION. Even beers that don't have a full blown infection can easily pick up off tastes from little infections or sanitation slips. I use tap water on the rare occasions that I need to top off a fermenter but otherwise anything in my beer before the yeast is working strongly must be very very very clean. From the time your wort stops boiling until it has strong fermentation you are susceptible to infections. Be extra careful during these 3 days and you will be rewarded.

As for re-hydrating dry yeast. I know that some recommend it but I always sprinkle my dry yeasts directly on top of the cooled wort. You really don't need any sort of sugars in if you re-hydrating it is only to wake the yeast up they only need the sugars for growth, not coming out of dormancy.