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?
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.
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!
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.
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?
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
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.