How Long Can You/do You Wait Before Pitching Yeast?

[Adzmax]

Quick question I've been wondering about for a while. I put down Ross's NZ Golding Best Bitter yesterday and all went smoothly. I had my rehydrating Windsor yeast on the stir plate and chilled my wort down but couldn't getting below 23c without wasting too much water so I decided to pop it in the fridge with an air lock and have a homebrew. My sanitization is very good an I've never had any infections etc but I some words stand out my first piece of brewing info (the stuff that came with my first kit) along the lines of "Pitch your yeast as soon as possible as your wort it is at it's most vulnerable stage for infection". Now I understand why it may be vulnerable but surly there is no harm in waiting an hour or two providing you have sanitized correctly and have an air lock it? Reason I say this is I don't see this being any different to lag time. I'm interested to know what people think and what information there is out there. :beer:

 

[newguy]

In general, the quicker the better if the container isn't perfectly sealed. Airlocks are good, but I've found that when you chill a fermenter a vacuum forms, which will suck some water out of the airlock. I've observed this even with actively fermenting beers. For this reason, I fill my airlock with sanitiser if there is a possibility that I'm going to be chilling it. Unless you boiled the water in the airlock and sanitised the airlock itself, you can't guarantee that the water in it is sterile.

 

[Adzmax]

Yep, I used Starsan and put a tad in the air lock

I should also add the temp was @ 23c and I wanted it down to 18c so not a huge drop needed.

 

[boingk]

Chuck the yeast in when I sit the full fermenter where it'll be staying for the remainder of the time is doing its thing. Meanwhile the airlock hole is covered with a bottle cap or what-have-you. High tech and reliable, I know, but it works!

 

[matti]

Providing your fermenter/bucket/ jerry is totally sanitary and you have means to purge the air there is no real problem.
As for two hour more I think you'd be rather safe if the yeast is healthy and ready to roll.
matti

 

[BoilerBoy]

I use cans of homebrand extract for yeast starters and typically I would put the starter in the fridge the day before brewing and then next morning discard most of the contents leaving the yeast behind.

After boiling and chilling the wort I then put about a litre of it in with the yeast and usually in about 4-6 hours its up and firing sometimes sooner, despite the long time to actually pitching the starter its never been a problem over the couple of years I have done it and it seems to take off quite quickly once pitched.

If your sanitation is good as previously said it shouldn't be a problem.

Cheers
BB

 

[tipsy]

I have to put my wort in the brew fridge to get to pitching temperature.
Yesterday I waited for seven hours before pitching the yeast.

I've done this a fair bit and I believe this is better than pitching earlier into a hotter wort

 

[Adzmax]

Yeah that's what I would have thought tipsy, would be better to pitch at brewing temp rather than warm. Curious to see what others think

 

[hanzie]

My last kit lager sat in a tub of water and a bit of sanitiser for 4hours with lots of ice. That got it down to 16c then my fridge dowmstairs overnignt. I pitched the slurry from 2L starter at 12c thats also been in the fridge for 3 days or so, 12 hours after I made the wort. It was all good no infection.
As long as sanitation is good, its all good

 

[Adric Hunter]

as far as ales go at least, once your wort is down to less than about 28C or so ive never had any problems, if the worts at temp. theres really no further reason to wait