Eeeek! Have I Wrecked This Brew?

[jonocarroll]

Don't get huffy j1gsaw - you're the one who asked for help, then decided to ignore all of it. Adamt's right; you can pitch more yeast if you have happened to kill the original batch (you only need it to eat a very small amount of sugar, so it doesn't even need to be a great yeast); you probably won't notice any taste that may appear from freezing, which I doubt you'll get; unless you're a perfect brewer (and even then) ALL of your beers have the possibility of being crap. I've had just about everything go wrong with a recent brew (dunkel), but I wasn't going to throw it out without giving it a chance. Had it tasted by someone who knows (and loves) the style, and they reckon it may even be a decent example.

And before you post your next 'have I stuffed it' post - consider that the people on here offer their (in the vast majority of cases) tried and tested wisdom so that you may be able to make a better beer. In many cases they know more than your LHBS owner who is trying to make a buck. If you want to trust the latter, throw it out. Come back when you want to know what you're doing.

 

[j1gsaw]

The mind boggles! IM a bit wary about pitching more yeast as i dont want an overkill on yeast taste etc.
Keeping in mind im just a K&K brewer. Think i will just give it a day, bottle, and fingers crossed it turns out drinkable.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You will not get a yeast taste, regardless of how much yeast you add. The yeast will settle out

 

[jonocarroll]

The mind boggles! IM a bit wary about pitching more yeast as i dont want an overkill on yeast taste etc.
Keeping in mind im just a K&K brewer.

I pitched three batches of yeast into a brew before I realised it had finished fermenting. No yeast taste. Leave it for a while and it will settle out. The steps you've taken prior to the fermenter are of no concern here. I would however recommend getting this end of your brewing right before you make life any more complicated for yourself.

Think i will just give it a day, bottle, and fingers crossed it turns out drinkable.

Clearly you have decided to make your own decision on this one. Perhaps next time you should make that decision before you post.

 

[RetsamHsam]

Well for starters, he informed me that A, the yeast will be dead
B, even if it has minor life, it will taste shocking in the end (like when you freeze a stubbie and thaw out taste)
C, whats the point in bottling 30 tallies only to have the possibility of them being crap?
Id rather put a new brew down then have to repitch and wait another long session to see if it will kick up again.

oh, by the way, got enough tickets on yourself there AdamT... ?

Read This extract from John Palmers book on home brewing. It is about a beer of his that froze and went on to win first place at 2 competitions. Maybe you could print it off and go and show your knowledgable HBS owner!!!

 

[crundle]

I had the same thing happen to my fermenter a few times, just let it thaw out a bit and rack into keg or bottles. If you leave a good bit of ice in the fermenter, your beer will be stronger in alcohol, as pointed out by other posters. I have never had to repitch yeast when this has happened, and although I mainly keg my beer, some goes into bottles, and they all ended up nicely gassed.

Don't ditch the beer!!!!

Crundle

 

[Bribie G]

On my recent trip to Sydney I took a heap of my Nottingham lagers I had transferred to glass bottles. I chilled a few down in the sister in law's freezer but didn't realise it was the freezer from hell and froze them almost solid. Thawed them out in a bucket of warm water. Tasted just fine.

 

[WarmBeer]

Have done exactly this, except I froze the whole lot solid (see my post).

I simply let it thaw out, then chucked in about 1/8th of a packet of yeast (just use kit yeast, you're after CO2 only, it wont contribute to the taste), gave it a stir with a sanitised stirrer, and bottled straight away.

Four weeks later it was nicely carbed up, and getting accolades from my friends.

(PS. If you insist on throwing it away, let me know. I'll gladly, ahem, take care of it for you, gratis )

Edit: Typo

 

[Swinging Beef]

This thread has gone really weird!

 

[Bribie G]

This thread has gone really weird!

It will make perfect sense after beer o'clock

 

[Luka]

I pitched three batches of yeast into a brew before I realised it had finished fermenting. No yeast taste. Leave it for a while and it will settle out. The steps you've taken prior to the fermenter are of no concern here. I would however recommend getting this end of your brewing right before you make life any more complicated for yourself.


Clearly you have decided to make your own decision on this one. Perhaps next time you should make that decision before you post.

I don't see why there is a need for that kind of reply. This guy has every right to post a legit question/concern and he has every right to ask the same question of his LHBS. People choose to offer their advice and experiences which is great, but don't shoot the guy down if he decides not to listen. I don't know why some on here get shirty if their advice isn't taken. To have a go at someone because they made up their own mind and chose not to take the advice given is not on IMHO.

Just my 2 cents

 

[hoohaaman]

I don't see why there is a need for that kind of reply. This guy has every right to post a legit question/concern and he has every right to ask the same question of his LHBS. People choose to offer their advice and experiences which is great, but don't shoot the guy down if he decides not to listen. I don't know why some on here get shirty if their advice isn't taken. To have a go at someone because they made up their own mind and chose not to take the advice given is not on IMHO.

Just my 2 cents

Luka, it's not about being shirty,but wasting good beer.100% replies said it's fine.

Which it is,LHBS said it's no good.That is wrong.Like above, unless LHBS was told different, replies are relevant. :beerbang:

 

[Adamt]

What is "not on" is asking a question, receiving unanimous advice from multiple people, and basically telling them they are completely disregarding it. It's a waste of time for the OP, a waste of time for those who took the time to read the thread and answer the questions, and is just plain rude.

The OP is the one who has "shot people down" by ignoring the correct, unanimous advice.

 

[Luka]

Now come on, if the guy wants to through out his beer regardless of what others here have told him, that's his problem. But he has every right to make that decision, that's my point here. You can choose to post a reply and he can choose to ignore it. It is not rude to not take the advice given here nor is it wasting peoples time, this is supposed to be a brewing community for brewers of all levels of experience. Don't have a go at someone if they don't heed your advice, whether you agree with them or not.

 

[hoohaaman]

No one had a go,he was offered sound advice by those with cumulative years of experience and chose to believe some one with less experience.

Simply really,how many and what size shirts would you like Luka?

 

[j1gsaw]

Must have struck a nerve on here with many ppl,
I should just copy and paste what Luka said... pretty much covered it.
As for me not taking any advice, what crap, i absorbed all of it in, just becasue i rung my local HB man to get the final call, im suddenly whinged at??
Too many cheifs not enough indians on here.
Needless to say i did/do appreciate any advice given to me from this site, and i have no question of a doubt that some of you are well experienced in the brewing game, but i sure as shit dont need any heros telling me that im wasting their time becasue i didnt go with their advice.
Like i said though, i do sppreciate the info. Live and learn seems to be the biggest challenge in this hobby.

 

[bradsbrew]

The cheifs have given you good advice and you have chosen not to go for it which is totaly fine, your call. Problem is they probably wont bother next time. Its like asking a tradesman with years of experience how to do something and then totally disregard what they tell you.
Can you contextualise how "too many chiefs not enough indians" can be used within this forum, are you saying you only want one reply to your questions??

Brad

 

[Screwtop]

Must have struck a nerve on here with many ppl,
I should just copy and paste what Luka said... pretty much covered it.
As for me not taking any advice, what crap, i absorbed all of it in, just becasue i rung my local HB man to get the final call, im suddenly whinged at??
Too many cheifs not enough indians on here.
Needless to say i did/do appreciate any advice given to me from this site, and i have no question of a doubt that some of you are well experienced in the brewing game, but i sure as shit dont need any heros telling me that im wasting their time becasue i didnt go with their advice.
Like i said though, i do sppreciate the info. Live and learn seems to be the biggest challenge in this hobby.

J1g, from experience, I've had this happen without problems. Heat kills yeast. Yeast is stored at temps well below 0 by the big yeast companies, admitedly the use of glycerol assists with cell wall integrity, but for temps way lower than freezing.

This from Brew Your Own Magazine:

Making Dried Yeast
I spoke with Bruce Patterson of the Lesaffre Group (producers of Fermentis dried yeast) about how dried yeast is manufactured.

Fermentis yeast strains are stored in a laboratory either at -80 C (-112 F) in glycerol or at 4 C (39 F) on slants. Each strain is genetically identified before it is sent to the factory for a production run. The yeast is transferred to a liquid media made from molasses (with a sucrose content of 4555%) with added nutrients to supply nitrogen, phosphorous, vitamins and minerals. The culture is stepped up several times in the lab before being sent to the factory.

At the yeast plant, the culture enters a rapid cell production phase and the yeast are fed continuously with molasses, nutrients and oxygen. The yeast are grown in very large fermenters, much larger than at liquid yeast plants. (How big exactly is a trade secret.)

Next, the rate of cell division is slowed and, in preparation for drying, nutrients and unspecified agents are added to the yeast to help it survive the process. The yeast cells are then harvested, separated from their media and dried to a cream with between 15 and 20% solids. The cream is pressed into a cake and extruded through a mold to produce yeast noodles. The noodles are then dried in an air lift dryer.

In an air lift, the yeast sit on a grate and hot air is forced up through the yeast noodles. The yeast are churned sort of like corn kernels in a hot air popper. (An older way of drying the yeast is to put the yeast in trays and have it ride on a conveyer belt through a long oven.) The yeast are slowly dried until they contain 94% solids. The dried yeast is then vacuum packed into sachets, which have a shelf life of two years when stored under 10 C (50 F). The viability of the dried yeast is 86%, but each dried yeast packet contains about 10 billion living cells per gram. Thus an 11 g pouch would contain about 110 billion cells. (These are the numbers for Fermentis yeast. The numbers for Danstar Nottingham and Windsor yeasts are comparable.)

Dried yeast companies report a very low contamination rate. (Fermentis yeast, for example, reports less than 5 bacterial cells/mL of wort in adequately pitched wort.) Patterson, however, mentions that sometimes the level falls below what can be detected in the lab. And, the experience of many brewers shows that this level does not result in problematic beer.

Tough little buggers these friendly little organisms eh!

Maybe give a copy of this article to your LHBS guy, we can always learn a little more about this hobby obsession.

Many of us on AHB started out on our journy of learning trusting the words of our LHBS owner, some of them have a great deal of knowledge, some **** all. Think I could count on one hand the knowledgeable ones I know. Many remember the pain of tipping the results after following instructions provided by their LHBS. After finding the wealth of experience available on AHB and realising that what they had been told was crap, some are still a little bitter, does it show :lol:

Anyway, most of what you will receive here on AHB will be good advice, if not other posters will soon point this out. Make beer mate and learn, after a while you'll know damn well if your LHBS guy is trying to baffle you with bullshit.

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

+ 1.57865

To true Screwy...


By the way...I am planning a stump burning ( with some beer ) session when things cool down..

 

[clean brewer]

I dont listen to my LHBS guy, I dont even go their, he talks a bit of shit..

Anyhow, ive learnt more on here reading topics and getting advice from Brewers with experience and that also win Competitions than anywhere.

The guys on here giving advice are obsessed with Beer and Brewing and have/do alot of research on this obsession, some stuff they give advice on still goes over my head, there is alot to learn and you will never know it all.

From what ive read on AHB, there are alot of HBS that give really poor advice and alot of brewers never go back there, this is probably the best place to source a wealth of information..

Cheers :beer:
CB