Hurricane Sandy did a real number on my area of NJ. I'm one of the lucky ones, with no real losses other than 6 days without power and 20 lbs of bluefin tuna steaks that were in my freezer.
I am coming back on line tonight. My worries are this:
Is my yeasts and start wort still good? or should i bite the bullet and lose my yeast cakes.
Through careful planning we were able to stave off most losses until we could eat them. I had a bunch of yeasts I washed and saved, as well as 2.5 qts of yeast starter wort (third runnings from spent grain frozen in chinese soup containers, boiled down to 1.040) along with my vacuum sealed hops.
My yeasts were in the bottom of my frig, and we were able to keep the frig COLD for 3 full days with ice packs, blocks, and discipline(not opening the frig). They never got above 57F, even after we cleaned out the frig I transferred them to the freezer and surrounded them by my remaining ice packs. My hops I assume will be fine, as they were vacuum sealed and stayed cool.
The yeasts in the jar LOOK ok. They were cool the whole time. I had 2 quart jars of washed WLP002 and a pint of US05 and a vial of US05.
The worts also look ok, as they were ice blocks for the whole time and stayed sealed. Considering I'll boil these again before they are used as starter worts, are these ok?
I'd rather not lose my yeast, even if they werent expensive or rare in any way. I just prefer to have a big yeast starter to get fermentation banging right away. The starter wort is free for the most part, it didn't cost me a cent other than time and effort boiling down third runnings.
thanks in advance
I am coming back on line tonight. My worries are this:
Is my yeasts and start wort still good? or should i bite the bullet and lose my yeast cakes.
Through careful planning we were able to stave off most losses until we could eat them. I had a bunch of yeasts I washed and saved, as well as 2.5 qts of yeast starter wort (third runnings from spent grain frozen in chinese soup containers, boiled down to 1.040) along with my vacuum sealed hops.
My yeasts were in the bottom of my frig, and we were able to keep the frig COLD for 3 full days with ice packs, blocks, and discipline(not opening the frig). They never got above 57F, even after we cleaned out the frig I transferred them to the freezer and surrounded them by my remaining ice packs. My hops I assume will be fine, as they were vacuum sealed and stayed cool.
The yeasts in the jar LOOK ok. They were cool the whole time. I had 2 quart jars of washed WLP002 and a pint of US05 and a vial of US05.
The worts also look ok, as they were ice blocks for the whole time and stayed sealed. Considering I'll boil these again before they are used as starter worts, are these ok?
I'd rather not lose my yeast, even if they werent expensive or rare in any way. I just prefer to have a big yeast starter to get fermentation banging right away. The starter wort is free for the most part, it didn't cost me a cent other than time and effort boiling down third runnings.
thanks in advance
