When To Pitch?

[chiller]

This is directed at experienced all grain brewers but is applicable to all brewing as it is fermentation related.

When i run off my wort at the end of the brewday I usually run it into a blue cube and tightly seal it and take a litre of the brew to add to the starter and when the starter is underway add the starter and brew to the fermenter.

Recently for a Belgian I did this -- ran it into a blue cube and tightly seal it but added the active yeast starter. About 6 hours later the whole lot was poured briskly into the fermenter.
The attenuation of this large beer was very good. 1075 - 1009 in 6 days. Flavour profile was clean -- no major faults.

I know this was a practice of some English breweries in other times.

Has anyone else tried this and if so what have been your observations?

From my observations timing is critical.

Steve

 

[Troob]

Hmmmmmm 6 hours without the prtection of yeast????

I run out a pint of wort late in the mash, boil, cool & aerate, add to starter bottle, pitch into wort as soon as all wort is in the fermenter

 

[tangent]

yeah, i'm a pretty quick pitcher
i chill asap which is probably a horrible waste of water (i try to use rainwater as much as possible)
then she's in, maybe under 2 hours from flame out, maybe less

 

[chiller]

Hmmmmmm 6 hours without the prtection of yeast????

I run out a pint of wort late in the mash, boil, cool & aerate, add to starter bottle, pitch into wort as soon as all wort is in the fermenter

[post="84871"][/post]​

Troob,

If your sanitation is good six hours is not a big deal -- it is a sealed vessel as well.

Steve

 

[Aaron]

I know a few brewers that chill over night and pitch the next day with no problems. Just need to be very sanitary.

 

[Boots]

I follow a practice very similar to chiller (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ), although I must say, that my last beer got infected.

I normally leave it overnight in the fridge to get it down to (or below) ferment temps, and in the morning, rack it between fermenters a few times for aeration and pitch once aerated. This way also lets me harvest yeast after fermentation without worrying about hop / break residue as much.

Since adopting this method my beers have always attenuated well - sometimes too well. 1 infection to date (although the most likely source of infection was me trying to unblock a blocked CFC). So I'd say pitching late wasn't the cause, but it would have let the infection get a jump start on the yeast.

I also feel less pressure about the sizes of my starters when doing it this way, as it gets to ramp up prior to pitching in the main wort.

 

[user 384]

Same as Chiller. Run the beer through a CFC into a sealed container and into the fridge. Set aside 1 litre and pitch the starter yeast into this. Once I've reached pitching temps, add the litre back to the brew. Typically I brew at the end of a day and pitch the next morning, maybe 12 hours. I even gone to 24 hours when my pick-up tube got blocked and couldn't run the wort through the CFC. Absolutely no problems with this beer, no infections, no off-flavour, no haze problems.

Hey Troob, if it was such a significant problem, then can you please explian how the fresh wort kits work?

As long as you have good sanitation and the vessele is well sealed there should be little problem for the timeframes we're talking about.

Just consider the work of Louis Pasteur. In one of his experiments, fermentable juice was placed in a flask and after sterilization the neck was heated and drawn out as a thin tube taking a gentle downward then upward arc resembling the neck of a swan. The end of neck was then sealed. As long as it was sealed, the contents remained unchanged. If the the flask was opened by nipping off the end of the neck, air entered but dust was trapped on the wet walls of the neck. Under this condition, the fluid would remain forever sterile, showing that air alone could not trigger growth of microorganisms. If, however, the flask was tipped to allow the sterile liquid to touch the contaminated walls and this liquid was then returned to the broth, growth of microorganisms immediately began. In fact Pasteur's original flasks still exist at the Pasteur Museum in Paris, complete with uncontaminated broth.

Cheers
MAH

 

[jayse]

morning trend setters,
I use this same method everytime i brew and have been for over a year at least.
Sometimes i'll go for as long as 24 hours and never have a problem.
I kill two birds with this techniquie as i have a healthy awesome starter and plus at the end of brewday it doesn't matter how much i have consumed because i don't need to worry about innoculating the wort untill iam sober the next day/afternoon/night.
Its a top way to go about it.

All the worlds indeed a stage and we are merely players.
Jayse

 

[SteveSA]

Hi Steve,
As you know I use the same method of running off a litre to add to the starter, the remainder goes into a sealed container overnight and both are pitched usually the following morning (12 hours later)

In this instance you added the starter at the same time you ran into the blue cube, sealed it, then dropped it into the fermenter 6 hours later - thereby aerating twice. Makes sense to me.

As long as the additional aeration is done prior to the yeast's feeding stage it should be alright. While I'm no yeast growth expert, I think the extra oxygen would extend the growth stage and have a similar effect of pitching a larger than normal starter, hence the exceptional attenuation. Can't wait to try it

Personally I've never done it this way but due the low attenuation I got on my last big beer I have thought about using this method in the future. In fact you have convinced me to try it.

Steve