Will Dead Yeast In My Brew Ruin It?

[Lobby Lobster]

Hi,

I tried starting some saflager yeast in malted water according to directions I had read somewhere - boiled 500 mls of water with 2 tablespoons of malt, covered it then added the yeast when it had cooled to 25 degrees.

I gave it a bit over an hour then pitched it in.

It didn't look like I was expecting (thought I'd get a whitish foamy goo). It didn't look 'activated' but I thought it would all work out.

This morning, no bubbles from the fermenter.
I shiggered the airlock and lid many times to ensure that it wasn't just an issue with the seal, but still no luck.

After an hour or so of anticipation, I opened the lid and I am certain that there wasn no fermentation happening. So, I pitched the kit yeast in dry on top.

Will the failed yeast in the mix tarnish the taste? Is there anything I can do?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[RdeVjun]

The original process where you added yeast to malty water is known as making a starter, but it will take much more than an hour to work I'm afraid. The starter process is designed to stimulate the yeast into multiplying, after growing out in the starter wort for a day or two there will be far more of them and it is beneficial in most cases to pitch a large number of actively- multiplying yeast into a full- sized/ production batch. Often starters are used when a smaller amount of yeast (as little as just one tiny colony on an agar plate, a slant or just a small sample) is needed to be multiplied up (usually in several steps) to a population that is adequate for the volume of wort.

Perhaps you should've just rehydrated the yeast in plain water instead, a lot of folks do that with dried yeast to ensure they're pitching active yeast where the number of cells should be adequate in a sachet- full in dried form, so it basically just checks they're viable before pitching and does nothing much to increase the population. Various opinions abound about the usefulness of rehydration though, but it generally won't hurt to try it.

There's a good chance that both of those strains will multiply, the startup process can take a couple of days with dried yeast, so I'd just let it do its thing and relax. The starter shouldn't add any off flavours at all, it probably wasn't failed but just hadn't got going, dumping it into another wort might possibly set it back slightly, if at all, but I'm no expert.

Hope this helps! :icon_cheers:

BTW if you feel like getting technical, Mr Malty pitching rate calculator might be useful down the track, but there's lots of useful info covered here.

Edit: Clarity + links.

 

[Lobby Lobster]

Thanks for that. Seems I may have jumped the gun.

Thanks too for the link to the yeast calculator. The More Beer website is amazing.

 

[zabond]

was the temp of your "started yeast"the same as your wort temp when you pitched it? if not the same or pretty close you can put the yeast to sleep, us05 for me is a pretty slow starter 2-3 days,if they both take off you may have a volcano. dont rely on the airlock, look for condensation on lid, krausen forming and watch your hydrometer but back to your ? NO- dead yeast wont hurt your brew the live yeast will eat it up like a health tonic

 

[Lobby Lobster]

was the temp of your "started yeast"the same as your wort temp when you pitched it? if not the same or pretty close you can put the yeast to sleep, us05 for me is a pretty slow starter 2-3 days,if they both take off you may have a volcano. dont rely on the airlock, look for condensation on lid, krausen forming and watch your hydrometer but back to your ? NO- dead yeast wont hurt your brew the live yeast will eat it up like a health tonic

Well it should have been very close to the same temp, but I can't be 100% sure exactly.
Oh man, I'm pretty sure my impatience has got the better of me - won't do that again.

It's bubbling well now (no volcano action) so hopefully it will drink well.

Cheers.

 

[manticle]

Don't rely on airlock bubbling to tell you if ferment is happening. The only way to be sure is if gravity drops although condensation on the lid and krausen forming on the surface are very good indicators too.