After brew day placed my yeast starters (lager yeast) into my fermentation chamber to acclimate down to fermentation temp. The yeast froze before I could pitch. I’ve thawed but they are not floculating. Is the yeast suitable to pitch? If not will my wort be ok waiting a day or two for me to make new starters?
If your sanitation is top notch you should be ok for 24. What are you brewing that the yeast need to be so cold?
My sanitation is tight. I always brew ales, but decided to brew a Pilsner. I poured off the starter wort so there was just enough to pitch the yeast cake. I was trying to acclimate the yeast and wort together. The fermentation chamber got to cold bringing 8 gallons of wort to 50f. The yeast slurry was not completely frozen, but mostly. Never had this happen before. I was hoping someone would tell me the yeast is still fine to pitch.
No guarantee, but if the yeast wasn’t frozen solid I think you should be OK. I have had smack packs get a little slushy on my doorstep in the winter but the yeast always worked fine.
Ah ha, makes sense cuz the freezer would be working hard to get that volume down to 50 which would for sure freeze the little dab of yeast.
Maybe just pitch it and prove it can be done. In the wild they get frozen every winter but come back to life. Once they get going they should separate just fine. It may not be the optimal method but my money says it’s fine. Will make beer