Time-poor brewer question

[AzfromOz]

Bear with me while I explain...

The ingredients I ordered online took far longer than anticipated. I naively thought couriered gear from the homebrew shop would turn up in a few days, not 10! I now have two weeks to brew, ferment, dry hop and bottle my beer before going on holiday. Not normally a problem, but I also need to make multi-step yeast starter in that time, because that 10-day delivery had a package of liquid yeast in it that I'll need to coax back to life through two to three days on the stir plate.

So, plan is, begin the yeast starter tomorrow, brew on Sunday, chill the wort in the temperature controlled fridge for a couple of days and pitch the yeast on Tuesday after the yeast starter has done its job. Anyone see an issue with this as long as sanitation is observed during the chilling and storing of the wort?

Cheers

 

[MHB]

Big ones - issues that is. no matter how careful you are there is nothing other than luck that will prevent infection getting started. I think there are two pretty obvious ways to handle the wort.
No-Chill it, the advantage being that it is pretty self sterilising in a closed container at high temperatures... pretty well understood process.
The other option being a little riskier, chill it down to near freezing rather than holding it at fermenting temperatures until you are ready to pitch.

There is a saying I like "brewing is the art of making the worlds most infectable substance, then trying to control what lives in it".
It's hard to get across how easily wort at ferment temperatures will get infected.
Mark

 

[mtb]

Would it help to take a financial hit and buy some dry yeast from your LHBS? Saves needing to prep the starter

 

[timmi9191]

No chill. Cube for a few days. Then pitch when the yeast is up to par

 

[manticle]

No chill is screaming for attention.
Gives me time to build starters. If you chill, pitch straight away.

 

[Bribie G]

Let Bunnings be your friend.

If you are going the no-chill route I'd recommend getting two 10L cubes instead of one big one. They actually hold more like 11 right to the top and when you get back to your usual time frame for brewing, they cool down far quicker and are a lot easier to handle.

 

[AzfromOz]

Damn, none of the answers I was after!

Don't want to go down the no-chill route just yet, so looks like either wait until next weekend and dry-hop for longer than planned while I'm on holiday or suck it up and use dry yeast, which is no big deal, but I did want to use a liquid yeast for this one...

Thanks all for advice.

Cheers

 

[manticle]

Opposition to no chill based on having to adapt recipe for late additions or something else?

You can do what you propose - it's just a risk. No chill mitigates that risk.
Alternatively chill right down close to zero and seal up the fermenter as tightly as possible with multi-layers of glad wrap. I have kept wort successfully this way for a few days for starters although it's not my preference.

 

[Barge]

Why not brew and pitch on Tuesday?

 

[AzfromOz]

I'll be at work, otherwise that's the obvious answer!

 

[AzfromOz]

... and the reason not to go no-chill is this is my first all grain batch on new SS Brewtech equipment. Want to get it right old skool style first!

 

[spryzie]

I've done 4 batches in my SS brew bucket now by slow chilling.

Extract brews. Starsan fermenter. Pour boiling wort into bucket. Then immediately pour plain tap water in to bring to correct volume.

The thermowell reads 60 degrees Celsius. I put lid on and use a blow off tubeto prevent the thing imploding. I burp the tube a few times before bed time that day just so the starsan doesn't get sucked up. I run 2m of tube if that helps.

If the liquid is completely inside the tube burp it by cracking the lid and not by lifting the tube out of your reservoir!

24 hours later 20 something is showing on the thermometer and I pitch yeast.

The brew buckets are completely air tight and the blow off tube sits in some starsan.

48 hours is probably going to be fine.

 

[Barge]

I'll be at work, otherwise that's the obvious answer!

Sicky out of the question? I've had a couple of sickies for brewing. Always a good decision!

 

[AzfromOz]

I've done 4 batches in my SS brew bucket now by slow chilling.

Extract brews. Starsan fermenter. Pour boiling wort into bucket. Then immediately pour plain tap water in to bring to correct volume.

The thermowell reads 60 degrees Celsius. I put lid on and use a blow off tubeto prevent the thing imploding. I burp the tube a few times before bed time that day just so the starsan doesn't get sucked up. I run 2m of tube if that helps.

If the liquid is completely inside the tube burp it by cracking the lid and not by lifting the tube out of your reservoir!

24 hours later 20 something is showing on the thermometer and I pitch yeast.

The brew buckets are completely air tight and the blow off tube sits in some starsan.

48 hours is probably going to be fine.

I only have the SS Brewtech mash tun and kettle at the moment, with a run of the mill plastic fermenter....

Having said that, what you said is about what I was going to do by ensuring the fermenter was sanitary and air tight, but the responses here concerned me enough to change my approach - brewing tomorrow and bought some dry yeast to re-hydrate and pitch tomorrow. Will save the liquid yeast for the next batch.

Just need to find a recipe that uses Wyeast 1098 British Ale (hint hint).

 

[AzfromOz]

Sicky out of the question? I've had a couple of sickies for brewing. Always a good decision!

You don't understand - I'm a very important man at work!