Abused my yeast and now it won't start!

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zbouri

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My WLP039 yeast was 7 weeks expired. It was left out in the cold overnight a month ago but didn't appear to freeze though the water bottle next to it was ice. So I stored it in the fridge and let it warm up overnight before brew day.
Made a ghetto starter with a pint of boiled and cooled water with sucanat sugar and a dab of yeast nutrient., pitched at about 100 degrees but couldn't maintain temperature I got no action at all, yeast keeps sinking to the bottom and I keep stirring it up. I pitched some into my cooled wort anyway out of desperation. My beer is at about 65 degrees for 12 hours now and I worry that time is running out! Do I:

1. Pitch the inactive starter and pray

2. Add a bit of leftover WLP300 Hefeweizen that has been at room temperature overnight - not what I want but better than infection.

3. Go buy a bottle of beer with the same yeast and pitch that

4. Store my wort in the fridge until Tuesday when the HBS opens again

argh!
 
Wait, you pitched at 100F? :eek: Was this out of some sort of desire to torture the yeast?

You should be ok until Tuesday if you feel that your container was properly sanitized before filling it with wort. Keeping it in the fridge will keep bugs that are in there from growing until you can pitch a proper amount of yeast. That is what I would do.
 
Were you rehydrating dried yeast when you say you pitched at 100? If so, give it a day, and I bet the fermentation will take off. 12 hours is too soon to judge dry yeast in my opinion.
 
Dang it no, it was liquid yeast. Pitched into the starter at 100 degrees. darn. I've brewed quite a few good beers but messing around with starters is new to me. I usually just pitch from the vial.
 
Still no action, gonna get fresh yeast tomorrow if I still see nothing in the morning.

Thing is, I still haven't refrigerated the wort because I've been working and that will take some rearranging of.. well lots of ****. the (non-aerated) wort is still sitting covered in the brew kettle. Will the lack of oxygen benefit me by keeping bugs at bay? I think I may have to reboil the wort to be sure of sanitation, is there anything wrong with that?
 
zbouri said:
Still no action, gonna get fresh yeast tomorrow if I still see nothing in the morning.

Thing is, I still haven't refrigerated the wort because I've been working and that will take some rearranging of.. well lots of ****. the (non-aerated) wort is still sitting covered in the brew kettle. Will the lack of oxygen benefit me by keeping bugs at bay? I think I may have to reboil the wort to be sure of sanitation, is there anything wrong with that?

Sorry, this is starting to make no sense: the wort is still in the brew kettle? What happened to the wort you already pitched the yeast in? Are we discussing the same thing here:confused:

Fermentation can take up to 72 hours to show signs of activity. 100f will not kill the yeast but it was certainly shocked so lag time will be longer.

If you want to re-pitch then go ahead but you might try some patience as well.

Btw, liquid yeast should be started by making a starter to verify viability as well as getting proper pitch rate, something to think about;)
 
I don't think he pitched his yeast. He said "pitched into the starter" at 100 degrees. That makes me think he is referring to beginning his starter as "pitching" which is where the confusion comes from. If I'm right about that, then he may just have verified his yeast is dead by proofing.
 

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