Pitched yeast to warm/hot wort. Is the whole thing ruined?

[Superstorm]

This is only my 3rd brew and every time I never put it in ice or anything to immediately cool it. The first time it cooled on it's own and the second one I pitched not long after boil but that was with liquid yeast. All 3 batches tasted fine, but I never knew that you weren't supposed to pitch if the wort is warm or hot until about an hour ago after I already pitched the yeast. Is this brew ruined or will it be ok? I used dry yeast this time.


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[kh54s10]

It totally depends on how hot??

Besides the chance of killing the yeast, pitching too warm can also lead to off flavors, how bad depends again on how hot.

Read up! Fermentation temperature control is one of the easiest/best places to work on to make your beer better.

 

[TheBrewingBear]

It depends on what you define as warm/hot and which yeast was used.

Pitching too warm will generally cause more esters. Your last two batches did fine, so you may be getting away with something here. I would recommend adopting a chilling step into your brew day routine to assure the yeast stay happy.

At this point, worrying won't help. Time can help. I've had some batches where I pitched too warm that worked themselves out after waiting for the bottles or the kegs to condition.

RDWHAHB!

 

[jrgtr42]

Like they said, depends on how hot. If the wort was over about 100degree F, you probably killed your yeast.
Not a huge deal, since you sealed up the fermenter after pitching, right?
IN this case, go get a new pack of yeast and pitch into the now cool wort.
If you pitched between 70 - 100, you may have killed a few cells, but most of them would be fine, and going nuts. However, you will get some off flavors, esters and fusel alcohols from too-warm fermenting.
Best is to chill the wort by any means necessary to under 70 degrees, 63 - 65 is best. And be able to keep ambient temps about there.
That will keep the yeast happiest and doing their best work.

 

[Superstorm]

Ok, so I just checked on it again and it looks like it's fermenting pretty actively. It's bubbling into the blow off bucket a lot and there's a layer of foam at the top. Here's some pics, what do you guys think?


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[Superstorm]

Bump


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[JimRausch]

Looks like you're fermenting beer! There's a good layer of Krausen and obvious activity, so you didn't kill your yeast. What quality beer at this point does depend alot on the temperature of that beer. If you don't already have one, pick up a cheapo fermometer strip at your LHBS. That'll will give you at least some guess. Then do your best to keep the temperature on the lower part of the recommended temperature range for whatever yeast you're using.
As a general rule, lower fermentation temps. give less off-flavor compounds.

 

[Superstorm]

Ok, maybe I should go pick up one of those. Here's an updated pic, it isn't bubbling quite as much as it did yesterday and it changed from dark brown to light brown, but that's normal with fermentation right?


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[Superstorm]

Bump


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[CBMbrewer]

So... What was the temp when you pitched? What was the temp during primary?

 

[Superstorm]

It was below 100 because there was still active fermentation a few hours after pitching. Now it's changed colors to light brown and the fermentation has died down.


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[TheBrewingBear]

It's obviously fermenting. My brews normally peak in fermenting activity after 24-48 hours after pitching. It's pretty normal for things to gradually decrease in activity after that. I wouldn't worry about color changes as long as the brew isn't exposed to light.

Keep in mind yeast has been making beer for thousands of years. You hired them to do the job because they are pros. Trust them to take care of business, and you will be rewarded with beer!