Cold break

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Okay so everything was going perfectly on my brew day today. Then as I am using my immersion wort chiller for the first time my thermometer stops working. I have no idea what temp I pitched the yeast at. I am so frustrated because I had such a well planned and smooth brew session before that.

So here is what I did. I do a full boil so I had about 5 gallons in the pot when I started chilling. I ran the chiller for 33 minutes. The water coming out was as cold as the water going in. I got cold break to form and the wort completely cleared. I finally decided to pitch. I pitched a room temp 1 liter starter. What do you guys think? It is in the bucket at 66 degrees ambient temp right now.

Oh it was an imperial IPA and I used WL0001. Somebody reassure me please.

2

it’ll probably be fine. next time remember it’s not the end of the world to seal up the bucket and put it in the temp controlled environment overnight to pitch the next day. It’s also worth while to invest in one of those stick on LCD strip thermos for each bucket in your fleet. They only cost a couple bucks and, as long as you don’t submerge them work well for a long time.

My method is to chill till the water feels about the same coming out as going in as you did, then transfer to fermenter and monitor the LCD strip, when it gets to pitching temp (usually around 64*f for me) then pitch. If it’s the next day no worries.

but it will probably be fine. worst case scenario is unwanted esters and perhaps some higher alcohols

3

Yeah I think I may have pitched to cold if anything. When I put the bucket in the closet and put my room thermometer on top of the bucket it dropped to 55 degrees from the bucket. It may take a while for the yeast to get going.

4

so have we learned to always have a couple thermometers  :smiley: ;D??!!

+1 on the stick on thermometers on your bucket. well worth it.

sounds like you are just fine - pitching too low is much better than pitching at too high a temp and then lowering.

5

Here is a side question then. If you pitch to cold and the yeast are shocked a bit and maybe need sometime to adjust is the wort more susceptible to being infected. My sanitation was fine but I am just curious about the science on that. I know that once the yeast take over they make it difficult for other things to survive.

6

there’s a probability for everything, but frankly I wouldn’t worry about that.

especially if its 55 - there are some folks who ferment 001 at high 50s…

7

You can put a starter in the fridge at 45F to cold crash and it’ll take right off when warmed, I don’t think 55F is even a stress for this yeast.

8

Awesome.

9

+1 I have done an IPA at 55 from start to finish, lag time is a bit long, but that also depends on how well you’ve aerated or oxygenated, and fermentation usually takes about 14 days depending on OG, but in the end it produces a cleaner alcohol than a 65 degree fermentation.

10

I read this three times trying to figure out what the problem  / question is?  ???
never mind, I got it on the fourth read.