Yeast Starter Too Hot?

[Hoser]

Ok so I got home tonight to discover I'd left my balcony door open and my lager yeast starter for my doppelbock (currently cubed) had been sitting in a hot apartment. At 7pm it was 26deg in my place so I'm thinking it might have been even higher throughout the day. And it was on a stir plate which would only have made it slightly hotter again.

So I'm thinking I have 2 choices - chance that the yeast will not be too stressed from a starter at a slightly higher temp .... OR .... I just buy a pile of smack packs (need about 8) for my Doppelbock and pitch them straight in. I have to pitch the yeast on Wednesday regardless because I'm time limited for other reasons.

I guess the third alternative is to dump the starter and make a new one tomorrow night and pitch that instead on Wednesday night....

Thoughts...?

 

[mr_tyreman]

Very interested to find out why u need 8 packets of yeast

 

[Hoser]

Frustrated and perhaps slightly exaggerating. But based upon Mr Malty I think I'll need at least 6 or 7 packets to achieve 614Billion cells for 1087 Doppelbock. Unless I can find time for another starter which I might not be able to pull off...

 

[peaky]

I'm not exactly sure if your yeast will be damaged, stressed, it will probably be ok. If it were me and the yeast smelled ok I would use it

But I do know that you can set up a small bar fridge with temp control for the price of about 4 smack packs to ensure this doesn't happen again. That's what I did anyway.

 

[the_new_darren]

Dump the liquid and re-start the yeast.

A lager starter should be kept at your desired ferment temps as if you dump "warm started" yeast into 10 C wort it will get a shock.

Last thing you want is a shocked doppelbock

tnd

 

[peaky]

Dump the liquid and re-start the yeast.

A lager starter should be kept at your desired ferment temps as if you dump "warm started" yeast into 10 C wort it will get a shock.

Last thing you want is a shocked doppelbock

tnd

Can't you grow the starter at a warmer temp then cool it to pitching temps once it has finished? I would agree that pitching yeast at 26 degrees into 10 degree wort probably wouldn't do the yeast much good.

I've only ever brewed one lager, so I'm far from being an expert.

 

[Spork]

Shockelbock?

 

[Ross]

Can't you grow the starter at a warmer temp then cool it to pitching temps once it has finished? I would agree that pitching yeast at 26 degrees into 10 degree wort probably wouldn't do the yeast much good.

I've only ever brewed one lager, so I'm far from being an expert.

Yes, the ideal temp to build lager & ale starters is approx 21c, then gradually cool if pitching cold, or pitch warm & slowly drop.

cheers Ross

 

[the_new_darren]

I would suggest that it would not be best practice as the yeast will adapt to growing at ambient temps.
If it is dumped into cold wort the first generations will then need to adjust their metabolism to suit.

ymmv

cheers

darren

 

[peaky]

Yes, the ideal temp to build lager & ale starters is approx 21c, then gradually cool if pitching cold, or pitch warm & slowly drop.

cheers Ross

Thanks Ross. I thought I'd read this somewhere before. I have my starters temp controlled at 20 degrees then pitch warm and slowly bring the temp down a few degrees. The one lager that I brewed, the starter temp was slowly dropped then pitched at ferment temps.

 

[Fourstar]

My options would be as follows.

If its fully attenuated, crash chill it & decant the fermented wort/beer. Throw some more fresh wort at it, if it fires as expected and the fresh wort/beer has no off flavours. happy days and pitch away.

If its junk, get a two fresh packs in a 2L starter, get to high krausen and pitch that instead. cheaper than 6 packs and "close enough". at least you wont be heavily underpitching.

 

[Hoser]

Yeah thanks all. So my intention all along was to get the starter going around 21deg then chill down to about 8deg in my temp control fridge. Then pitch into the doppelbock which is around 7deg as well, let that rise to 10deg and hold at 10deg for duration of fermentation.

In my panic I just immediately threw the starter into the fridge at 2deg and have now cold crashed it. It was a simple unshaken starter which was 22hrs in and was still cloudy so unlikely to have completely attenuated. In retrospect I'd have been better to leave that until it finished before cold crashing.

Since I need to pitch my yeast Wednesday night and it needs to be chilled to 7deg when I pitch I don't know if I have time tomorrow night to make a starter and then chill to 7deg in time for Wednesday night.

So I think best bet is to get the current starter to 7deg, decant fermented beer and pitch the yeast. I can do the smell test but really any starter is going to have plenty of esters if it's a lager yeast fermenting in the 20's.

I suppose in the end it is just a starter and whilst the yeast might be a bit stressed (resulting in somewhat lower viability/stability) it shouldn't be too bad as long as I give solid temp control and aeration to the doppelbock when I pitch it. Does that make sense?