A No Yeast Problem - Advice Welcome

[The King of Spain]

I thought I had another packet of Nottingham yeast from a twin pack, but no....

So I poured 3 bottles of the same recipe beer into the fermenter that were just starting to carbonate.

Will it work OK?

 

[Samwise Gamgee]

It might take a little time to kick off but I don't see why it won't work.

 

[Trent]

KOS
That is a tricky one. It WILL work - provided you aerated very well, and kept it pretty much sterile, cause the beer yeast will take a loooong time to build up enough numbers to start fermenting the beer. What will more than likely happen, is that bacteria (that is always in it somewheer) will multiply alot faster than the beer yeast, and overtake the beer, giving you an infection. You will generally want somewhere in the vicinity of 200 billion yeast cells to pitch into a beer, then the yeast eat all the oxygen (starving the bacteria of it, cause the bacteria are *hopefully* less in numbers, and reproduce, creating more numbhers, then munch away on the sugars creating alcohol, which is a pretty toxic substance to most bacteria. The pH also drops as the yeast are working, further inhibiting bacterial infection. Thats the main reason for pitching lots of yeast - so they saturate the beer themselves, and prevent other organisms from getting a foothold.
You may get lucky, sit back and wait, in the meantime, try and get some brewers yeast from SOMEWHERE (maybe drive to Ross's house!) and pitch that. Will be much safer than waiting, and possibly losing your brew.
All the best
Trent
EDIT - Meant to say that there may be about 10 billion yeast cells or so in each bottle you poured in, at a guess, so you do the maths.

 

[The King of Spain]

KOS
That is a tricky one. It WILL work - provided you aerated very well, and kept it pretty much sterile, cause the beer yeast will take a loooong time to build up enough numbers to start fermenting the beer. What will more than likely happen, is that bacteria (that is always in it somewheer) will multiply alot faster than the beer yeast, and overtake the beer, giving you an infection. You will generally want somewhere in the vicinity of 200 billion yeast cells to pitch into a beer, then the yeast eat all the oxygen (starving the bacteria of it, cause the bacteria are *hopefully* less in numbers, and reproduce, creating more numbhers, then munch away on the sugars creating alcohol, which is a pretty toxic substance to most bacteria. The pH also drops as the yeast are working, further inhibiting bacterial infection. Thats the main reason for pitching lots of yeast - so they saturate the beer themselves, and prevent other organisms from getting a foothold.
You may get lucky, sit back and wait, in the meantime, try and get some brewers yeast from SOMEWHERE (maybe drive to Ross's house!) and pitch that. Will be much safer than waiting, and possibly losing your brew.
All the best
Trent
EDIT - Meant to say that there may be about 10 billion yeast cells or so in each bottle you poured in, at a guess, so you do the maths.

Thanks

Will pick one up tommorow.

Cheers

 

[mfdes]

I think your main problems may be excessive fruitiness from esters produced by the extra long growth phase, and maybe the yeast might have a tendency to cark it before the job is done. It never hurts to toss in some extra packets, even after a day, if you think you've underpitched severely.

MFS.

 

[65bellett]

Hi, I just did a very similar thing. I had a few home brews started reading this forum, got a rush of and the next thing you know I had a ferementer full of my I.P.A and no yeast. I started to panic. It was 10 o'clock at night I was over .05 what do I do. It was then the wife mentioned I had a Coopers Ginger Beer Kit so I used the yeast from that.

This is where the story starts getting worse. I started thinking about it and worrying. I am lucky enough to live 30 seconds away from my L.H.B.S so first thing in the morning I went and bought a packet of American Ale Yeast and pitched immediately. Now it is bubbling and I have every thing crossed that it will taste alright.

I know I haven't helped you with your problem but you have made me feel alot better that I'm not the only one who brews first and thinks later.