To keep it simple I brewed today to help a friend who was curious about the process. His problem, today is the only day he had available to brew for the next month. My problem yeast hasn’t arrived yet. I feel confident in my sanitizing practices but how long can I let the wort sit for without having to worry?
Thanks for any and all help!
Cheers!
With no empirical data to support this: 48-72 hours.
I hope you have 2 packets of dry yeast coming? 1 smack pack might be stretching it on this brew.
Is there a local home brew store in your area?
The closest home brew shop is about an hour away. I would go but due to other obligations I simply can’t make it this weekend before they close. If it helps, it is the nut brown kit extract kit from NB OG 1.046. Also I have, three packs of US-05 which should be here by Tuesday.
Cheers!
IMO, if you don’t have yeast you’re no more ready to brew than if you don’t have grain or hops.
Agree with Denny…A good lesson to be learned for both of you.
Ever add noodles to lasagna three days later? Good
thing that beer isn’t lasagna, but then I digest.
I spent all last week stepping up a kolsch starter, brewed today with a nice-looking pitch ready to go. While chilling the wort, I decanted the starter wort, and added about a pint of the fresh kolsch wort to wake the yeast up. I saw a lot of activity within a half hour or so - it was really foaming up! I was about to pitch it, and took off the foil to find that it smelled sour. Kind of lactic to me. I poured a sample, and it was hard to tell because I was tasting the fresh sweet wort along with yeast and a mild carbonation from the activity. But it really seemed to have a tang, so I dumped it. 
Now I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get a smack pack from the LHBS. I am planning to have my wife pick it up and smack it in the morning, and pitch when I get home from work in the afternoon. That will be about 24 hours from chill to pitch. I’m nervous!
I suppose you could buy a ton of yeast cultured bottles and drink up :lol: . I would be very worried at 72 hours but you may get lucky…
To el capitan, you should be OK. But you might wanna get more than one smack pack if you’re not gonna make a starter
Well, I got a new smack pack today and pitched this afternoon as planned. Before I dumped in the fresh yeast, I took a whiff from the swelled pack. It smelled an awful lot like my starter did last night - kind of a tart smell. So it’s possible that my starter was fine after all, but better safe than sour.
This is a fairly low-grav ale (1.048) so I think one pack will do fine in there.
i made a batch once only to notice my smack pack wasnt swelling. next day i called NB in a panic, they were very cool, mailed me a couple packs of dry yeast. the following day the pack swelled up and i pitched it before the dry yeast got here. probibly 36 - 48 hours after putting it in the carboy. everything worked out fine. but a lesson learned.
I always keep a variety of dry yeast as back up. Or, to give to a brewer friend that does not have any yeast. :mrgreen:
Yep - picked up a couple packs of US-05 today as well. Kind of moronic to brew without a backup.
Normally this would not be a problem. It seemed to just be bad timing all around. Ordered the yeast a week ago and I normally receive all my orders from NB within 2 or 3 days. Luck of the draw I guess. So it seems I am better off dumping this then? Would anyone even try pitching yeast 5 days later?
Cheers!
I wouldn’t dump it right away. If it still taste like wort I would still pitch. But first, Do you use buckets or a carboy?
An infection can get stuck in plastics, so there would be a chance of souring a bucket. If its in a glass carboy, I would definitely pitch. It’s all up too you tho
If it’s in a glass carboy that’s sealed with a sanitized bung and everything was sanitary going in, it should be fine, no?
could be… but you never know. a lot can happen in 5 days. if it still taste like wort, i would pitch
Well yeast arrived today. It still smelled and taste like wort, so I pitched the yeast. The fermenter is a Better Bottle. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Cheers!
