Zombie Yeast

[Jimbodaman]

My Scottish ale yeast (1728) sat outside in 0 degrees F for about four hours until I got home from work. The liquid smack-pack was frozen completely solid. I smacked the hell out of it in spite, knowing I would have to go to the LHBS to pick up some Nottingham. To my surprise the next morning the Lil' Scotties came back from the dead and ballooned up the smack pack. I ended up making a huge 4 liter starter, just to be safe, and to my surprise again the starter was successful... except for the pungent sulfury smell one that is common from Lager yeasts, or an infection. Long story short I took the gamble, decanted and pitched it into my 1.064 OG Wee Heavy (5 gallon batch) on 1/2/15.

The fermentation started off slow but nothing too concerning. Then after 24 hours of slow airlock bubbling it completely stopped. I waited a few days and still nothing. I haven't checked the hydrometer since I initially pitched the yeast. I have since assumed the Scottish yeast could not process the "harder to digest" sugars in the wort and pitched two packs of safale us-04 (only yeast in stock at LHBS) to try to salvage a brew. 24 hours after I pitched the 04, the airlock started to bubble and has been been doing so slowly ever since.

Has anyone else had a similar situation and how did the beer turn out? I'm fully expecting off flavors.

Mash Temp 154
1lb Honey
Air pump broke... shook wort violently to aerate.

 

[Jimbodaman]

Well it's been 2 weeks since brew day and fermentation has slowed as expected. How long should I wait for the yeast to hopefully clean up some off flavors?

It's still in the primary is it too late to rack it into a secondary?

 

[sudbuddy]

can you thief a sample to taste and check gravity? I wouldn't rack it til you hit your FG

 

[RM-MN]

can you thief a sample to taste and check gravity? I wouldn't rack it til you hit your FG

I wouldn't rack it at all. Take a sample and check where your gravity is. If it is near where you expected it, take another sample in a couple days. No change means you can bottle.

 

[sudbuddy]

I wouldn't rack it at all. Take a sample and check where your gravity is. If it is near where you expected it, take another sample in a couple days. No change means you can bottle.

Why wouldn't you rack it, especially in a case like this? Going to secondary and giving it time might help ease some of the off flavors this fermentation may have made. Secondary is always a good idea, but in this particular brew I would say its necessary.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

In this case I am with RM-MN. Leaving the beer in primary is the best thing you can do to help clean up any off flavors. The cake of yeast is the main thing that will help to clean the beer up. Transferring to a secondary will take the beer off the main yeast cake, lessening the chance the beer's off flavors (if present) will be cleaned up. Needlessly transferring can also oxidize the beer as well.

 

[Jimbodaman]

Update: Beer hit its FG of 1.018 and seems to be just fine, bottling today and will hopefully enjoy within the next 2 weeks.

 

[Jimbodaman]

Well it's been a week since I bottled, the zombie yeast did enjoy the wort, 1.017 FG. Just cracked open one to see how the carbonation is going and carbonation seems fairly complete. The Wee Heavy looks, gorgeous and tastes delicious however it's stinky which is a huge turn off. Hopefully aging it will help. It smells like when a Lager is fermenting, anyone know if that's dangerous? Would cold crashing help?