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No Fermentation
Hi there! Been a while since I've had anything fun to post about here, so here goes...
Brewed a Rye Stout on Tuesday & an English Pale-style on Wednesday. The Rye is fermenting just fine, still active activity in the airlock. The pale, on the other hand, is doing nothing of the sort. The yeast appears to be all caked at the bottom as it would with a normal fermentation, but I never saw any activity in the airlock. In addition, there doesn't appear to be any residual CO2 in the wort. (You know how you can shake a carboy of fermenting wort & it releases a bunch of CO2? Not so much with this one...)
I even did an emergency wort transfusion to try and introduce some live yeast, something I would normally not consider. 
So, a little background for those of you still reading: I sanitized the carboy with OneStep as usual, then filled it 1/2 way with cold water, plugged it, and set it outside to get even colder. I decided at that point, why not add the yeast, too? Couldn't do much harm, right?
Well, adding the slightly-cooled wort to the cold water did drop the temperature pretty dang close to where I wanted it, but I'm concerned I may have done something to the yeast in the process. In the future I would certainly wait until after all that to add the yeast.
Is it possible to shock the yeast in this manner? Or does anyone have another explanation? It was a smack-pack, so I know the yeast was viable before pitching.
It does sound like the yeast was cold shocked...? But I've never heard of this happening. I know most will rehydrate the yeast in about 70-80 degree water, to get it active...How cold was the water you put the yeast in, there abouts? It kinda sounds like you cold crashed it before you put the wort in, but pouring the wort in would stir it up...
I'd try sticking a sanatized racking cane in the carboy and stiring the cake in the bottom up to get it back in suspension, and see what it's doing tomorrow first. If nothing try pouring another smack pack in there.
Yeah, I tried doing a stirring of the dregs at the bottom of the carboy. It's just odd, because I've never heard of or experienced anything like this before. And there's a lot more yeast than should be from just an inflated smack pack...
I'll probably run out & buy another smack pack today. $5 is worth it to keep the batch alive.
Just wanted to know if it was possible to "kill" the yeast by cooling them & then dumping heated wort on top 
EDIT: Oh, and based on the carboy fermometer, the temperature of the carboy was around 40 degrees before dumping the heated wort in.
Welcome back Aspen!
How hot was your hot wort? Was your yeast sitting on top of the cold water in the carboy and then had hot wort dumped on it? It's possible if scalding wort hit yeast sitting on top of cold water that not only could it shock it but may very well have killed it.
How big was your beer? Is it possible it fermented quickly and you never saw it? Have you taken a gravity reading?
Thanks, I really should spend more time here!
It was a five gallon batch. I had pulled the thermometer out of the wort by that point, but my guess is that perhaps I had not cooled it quite enough. I may indeed have killed the yeast. I'll repitch today and hope the batch can be saved...
I have not taken a gravity reading yet, either for OG or FG (Current Gravity?). IN fact, that's one area where I struggle as a brewer; I never seem to remember/bother to take gravity readings.
The odd part is that there is quite a bit of yeast sediment sitting at the bottom of the carboy, but the wort seems to have no CO2 trapped in it. Normally you can give the carboy a shake & release a bunch of CO2, but not this one.
I'll let everyone know how it turns out, I guess.
Good luck!
did you ever see any krausen? or is there a ring where the krausen would have been if it fermented and dropped quickly? if no, then I suspect you shocked the yeast too much going into cold water, then getting hot wort dropped on it.
I like to keep a pack or two of dry yeast around, just in case something like this happens, I can drop one of them in and get it going.
How much yeast IS at the bottom? You say more than a smack pack's worth, but is it WAY more? Like the bottom inch of your carboy or so? If you've got that much it sounds like you did have yeast reproducing. The first thing I ever fermented was a cider and I only did 2 gallons or so, so my fermenter was a little less than half full. I never saw any airlock activity and got worried so I figured I should re pitch but when I took a gravity reading it was very much so fermented, it just never needed to push out of the airlock because of all the head space, you said it was a 5 gallon batch so I'm doubting that's it, but I figured it was worth mentioning. Just take a FG reading, if it had fermented out it will be obvious. I doubt the OG would be anywhere near 1.012 or so.
Well, I may have mis-spoken before. It seems that the sediment at the bottom is actually hop trub, as it is not thick enough to be a yeast slurry, in my opinion. I re-pitched this afternoon, and we'll see what happens. Hopefully there is airlock activity when I get home from work tonight.
It never made any krausen or evidence, such as the ring around the carboy. I'm thinking more & more that I shocked/killed the yeast after pitching. Let's hope this ale is worth all the trouble it's been giving me.
Cheers!
I think the re-pitch should work for you...good luck. It also sounded originally that you sanitized enough not to worry too much about spoiling. It seems now-a-days with modern sanitizing techniques and newer cultures of yeast that spoiling wort is more of a rarity than it used to be. Less than 25 years ago the old timers were still brewing in garbage pails with cheeze cloths draped over them . But then again, they were the generation that compared High Life to champagne 
.
I should add...saying you're the champagne of beers is like saying I'm the Brad Pitt of Steve Buchemi's.
No discredit to Steve Buchemi, who is a fantastic actor! Alas, I'm off subject again.
the layer of "yeast" could be proteins and other debris that settles out of the beer. especially if this was an all grain brew.
More like a half-assed partial mash. I use a lot of specialty grains in my extract brewrs, with extended protien rests. That being said, the one time I made a partial mash, it turned out not so tasty. I would probably manage to do a lot better nowdays.
I think the bottom layer was in fact hop trub & sediment rather than yeast cells. It was not a thick slurry like I am used to, but kind of a watery sludge.
I re-pitched this afternoon & am expecting good things. There were no off-odors that I noticed from the wort, and no odd films or anything floating on the surface that I would notice. Thanks all for the encouragement & words of sage advice. I'll make sure to hang around more often.
PS - I'm off to a local brewpub after work tonight! Can't wait!
yeah sounds like the sediment on bottom was slurry, not yeast. Adding the yeast to cold water like that likely shocked it. when you use yeast you're suppose to bring it to room temp before adding so taking room temp yeast adding it to fridge temp water is reverse and likely put it t sleep and the yeast was likely on top so adding the hot wort to the cold water likely killed the yeast also.
i too add cold water to my carboys and add the hot wort to it. works great. but i wait till temp drops to ferment range before adding yeast. For a 5 gallon batch i usually add 2 to 2 1/2 gallon of water to the carboy and pour the hot wort in and take a temp reading right away. it usually is about 90 degrees and that will definitely kill yeast.
i can now put my carboy outside after dark as the temps here in minnesota are in the 30''s for highs. drops the temp real quick without needing a fridge or ice bath.
DC
Yeah, and normally I would have pitched the yeast after getting it down to temperature, but this was a few beers into brewing night, and it was one of those, "This will save a bunch of time! Why haven't I thought of this before? I'M A DAMN GENIUS!!!"
Normally I would know better. Just trying something new & learning from it. The re-pitch seems to have been pretty successful. We have activity in the airlock & CO2 in the wort 
Deafcone, are you in the twin cities area as well? I went out to Great Waters in St. Paul last night - they have a wonderful Belgian ale on tap right now. Highly recommended.
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