Yeast pitching temperature

[mcmeador]

Quick question about yeast pitching temperature. Is there any discernible difference between:

1) Pitching yeast into 77-80 degree wort and then chilling down to the mid-60s within 10-15 minutes with a temp control coil in the fermenter.

2) Chilling the wort to the mid-60s first and then pitching yeast.

I see people warning about off-flavors resulting from pitching too warm and recommending to chill the wort first, but if you are able to quickly cool your wort with advanced temp control, does it matter? I would think as long as the wort is the ideal temp before the yeast really has a chance to get to work, it should be fine, but I could be wrong.

 

[Steveruch]

10-15 minutes is too short a time to have any effect.

 

[palmtrees]

Yeah that's much too fast to get off flavors. It's still not the optimal process from the yeast's perspective, I would think. Temp increases generally signal to them that it's time to wake up and start eating, while temp decreases signal that it's time to go dormant. It's probably still too fast to have much effect, but a temperamental strain could get confused. If you can cool it down to the 60s in ten or fifteen minutes, why not wait to pitch and avoid sending mixed signals?

 

[mcmeador]

I guess I could. It was just late at night and I was just trying to wrap up. Plus the rehydrated yeast had only cooled to about 80 at that point, so I figured best to pitch it when the wort and yeast temps were about even.

Good news is the blowoff tube was very active first thing this morning and it’s bubbling constantly right now.

Thanks for the responses!

 

[Brooothru]

I would think the most important factor would be pitching when the differential temperature between the yeast and the wort is less than 10F. If your wort 75F and the yeast is 70F, pitching it and then chilling both down to your optimum fermentation temperature should work, assuming that the yeast temperature isn't so warm that it might be killing the yeast.

That said, I think the best practice is to chill the wort slightly below your desired fermentation temperature, have the yeast 5F below that temperature (or at least +/- 5F), and then let the fermenter temperature free-rise to the desired target temperature.

Brooo Brother