I placed an order for ingredients from MB Monday morning. In that I had 2 packs of two different liquid yeasts. I paid for an insulation pack and 2 packs of ice, figuring this would be fine for this amount of transit time. They’re in PA and so am I, typically 1 day.
Well, I was correct that the amount of ice was ok. It arrived a few minutes ago with the 2 ice packs barely thawed inside an insulated package. My yeast however was thrown in a different un-insulated plastic bag and left to fend for itself. So not only did I get hosed out of the 5 bucks for the ice and mailer, but the yeast situation is anyone’s guess.
I have it in the fridge here at work but it has no freezer. I fully intended to pitch these directly, do you guys suppose that is still an option?. Temp of the contents of the two boxes are 77F per my IR thermometer, so that’s what the yeast came at. The ice pack bag was nice and cold though.
(edit to add/update, 6/25). I wrote to customer service at Morebeer to follow up, as I’d told them I would do after seeing if the yeast was ok or not. As of this AM, it does appear it’s at least 99.99% dead… Today they replied via email but then also called to make sure I wasn’t left hanging, and they did offer to replace the yeast and ice overnight. This I declined since that’s a waste of overnight shipping for yeast I wouldn’t be able to use right away anyhow. So in lieu of that they sent a gift card to refund the cost of the yeast and ice, in spite of my not knowing if the second pack is dead or not. (which I also pointed out might yet be ok as that’s an ale strain).
My hope (and I’m pretty confident, theirs also) is they make sure this is perfectly clear to folks packing orders, that yes, the ice and yeast must go in the same insulated container or it won’t survive…
My guess is that it is fine but it’s easy to do a starter so why not.
In the mean time write to MB and tell them what happened. I would not be surprised if they refund the ice and send new yeast or refund the ice and yeast and let you keep it.
I only have one flask so I can only do one starter for this weekend. Well, If I brew on two days instead of one, wasting one entire day, I can do 2 starters.
I did call their CS just to ask wth? Seriously? Ice insulated and yeast is not? Like this didn’t throw up a red flag to anyone that the yeast and ice were not together?
I never got an email saying hey, we made a note of it (as I asked) So for all I know they just took the call and ignored it. I didn’t ask for any refund since I didn’t know if it was ok or not and I try not to be an entitled parasite. I do however like to get what I pay for, and remaining silent doesn’t help either of us.
Doing starters after having paid specifically to avoid doing starters, wasn’t in my plans for Friday and Saturday evenings… but I guess it is now. On the bright site, dme is only $7/lb and I probably have enough to do 2 starters. What’s a little more money on top of the $32 for the yeast…
I gave all my stuff like that to my sisters, so probably the biggest thing I have left that’s glass is a 2qt canning jar, if I even have one of them. I do have carboys still… Bit big for a starter…
On this SNS stuff, I see recommendations of a container 4x the size of the starter. Is that due to the foam dissipating slower because it’s not on a stir plate? To keep it from overflowing? I do have 2 1.5G BMBs I can use…
I also wonder about the stir plate thing. Do people generally use the really small stir bars? I made my stir plate myself, and I use a 2" stir bar going pretty slow. I wonder if it has the same “blender” effect the smaller bars do. Not that I’d miss using it. I’ve only done 3 starters with it since I built the thing but I’d be just as happy letting it sit.
Do folks oxygenate the wort for the starter? Seems like that would be required but I’ve never seen it mentioned. I’ve probably used liquid yeast all of 4 or 5 times in my brewing history, and only bought an oxygen stone around 2014 or so. So I have no idea what the contemporary views are on this. Just the SNS was news to me…
Right, and my maximizing the foam you maximize surface area in the wort for oxygen to be absorbed into the liquid. You’re starting with wort that is essentially at the maximum oxygen concentration when using air for oxygenation.
Well, Saturday I made a starter for the pack of WY2124 to make my Märzen. Did about 1400ml. Yesterday by 6pm, and on my stir plate at about 120rpms, there was no sign of activity. This after smacking and shaking, and injecting oxygen directly into the wort. Figuring it couldn’t all be dead, I pitched it into 2 BMBs of 1.056 wort at just under 16C. It quickly cooled to the recommended range of 8-12C. Today, no activity whatsoever, so I added Oxygen again. If it’s not working by tomorrow, I guess I’ll be adding slurry to this beer.
I’m not a very happy camper, having paid Morebeer to kill my yeast and fleece me out of the money for the ice on top of it. Never mind the additional wasted time on the starter and dme. I do not know if the WL purepitch is dead or not, as I’ve not had time to brew with that due to the one day brew now being 2. I can scarcely say how infuriating this is…
Hadn’t thought of that. Those I have a few left (that so called friends have not taken and never returned, yet…) lol. I bought 3 in the last 3 months. Used to have cases of em…
How about if I inject it with oxygen? I would think that is plenty of O, no?
I decided not to use my little-big-mouth-bubblers due to shaking all sorts of wort and crap onto the gaskets that I don’t want all dirty and stained (if I can help it). I haven’t found any large glass containers cheap anywhere, and wasn’t going to spend more on stuff I use once in a blue moon. I already have loads of single use things I just couldn’t live without. The house is full of em.
I see Morebeer has gallon glass jugs for $5 sans lid. 100mm Lug Lids are either $1 for solid or $2 with an airlock hole punched in. For just under $10 with lid, they have screw-thread jugs with 110mm plastic lids. And they have the old vinegar-style/moonshine-style jugs with finger-loop handles with small openings as well. Ok, next order I’ll probably add some of them.
Injecting with oxygen wouldn’t hurt but it isn’t as useful. With SNS you’re periodically agitating CO2 out and agitating oxygen into the starter. You want to keep the yeast in your starter in their growth phase as long as you can which requires oxygen, rather than a beer where you only want that growth phase initially. Of course, if you’re only shaking that SNS starter once or twice, you might be better off injecting oxygen up front.
I have a pretty slick arrangement for that so I’d say it’s easier than cleaning up the BMB lid.
Hmm, so this is also supposed to include de-gassing the starter CO2? Keeps sounding more and more like I’d be better off with the small opening jugs instead of the wide-mouth ones with the 100 or 110mm lids. For now, I may just continue to run the stir plate as slow as possible, (which on mine is super slow), and just inject the O. Like everything, I suspect my process will evolve over time.
With SNS, you only agitate prior to pitching. There is no need for any more. The purpose of shaking a large container is so it fills with foam and you get all the O2 you need in the beginning.
