Rookie Mistakes... Need Advice

BeerGreek

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So I looked up different threads, but didn't see anything that described my situation. This is my first all grain batch and I tried making a west coast session. I made a rookie mistake and forgot to buy ice for the wort chill. I still used my immersion chiller, but couldn't get it to drop below 80. I used my auto siphon to rack to my fermentor and pitched my liquid Wyeast 1056 at 80 degrees. Where I really think I messed up is I didn't dilute the star san when I put it in the airlock and about 8 hours later, the airlock was empty and the krausen was already dying out. Now it's been 10 hours, I removed the straight star san and replaced with diluted, and the picture shows what it looks like now. Original Gravity was 1.054. How bad do you all think I've screwed up and is there any way to salvage it.
20180930_141649.jpg
 
A pitch at 80 degrees is a little warm but not enough so to ruin the beer. The Star San shouldn't be a huge problem but if it's a really small batch, a few ounces might make it taste a little weird. Let it sit a few days and check it.
 
I once racked a brown ale onto a keg with 5 lt of diluted phosphoric acid (I dumped it) I forgot to empty it out the keg before transfer:confused:. In future dont rush to get the yeast into fermentor if it's not an pitch temp just let your fridge chill it the rest of the way. It's the start of the fermentation phase that is critical to get temp right.

Beer is pretty resilient stuff I try all sorts of ways to try and stuff it up and 9 times out of 10 it turns out fine:).
 
So I shouldn't even worry about pitching more yeast to get the process going again then?
 
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A pitch at 80 degrees is a little warm but not enough so to ruin the beer. The Star San shouldn't be a huge problem but if it's a really small batch, a few ounces might make it taste a little weird. Let it sit a few days and check it.
It was only 1 ounce of star san and the batch is 5 gal.
 
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When you say you didn't dilute the StarSan, do you mean you put it directly from the bottle it come in into the airlock? If that is the case then yes, you may have a problem.
 
When you say you didn't dilute the StarSan, do you mean you put it directly from the bottle it come in into the airlock? If that is the case then yes, you may have a problem.
Yes that's what I did. I think. It was 4 am when I did it, and now I'm wondering if I actually did fill it. I've read that when a beer is in the first phase of fermentation it's pushing out so much carbon dioxide that "theoretically" you don't need an airlock for the first couple days. When I checked on the beer this morning around 11 the airlock tray was empty. At first I though maybe it got sucked into the beer, but now I'm not sure if I even filled it. Is the CO2 theory correct?
 
It was only 1 ounce of star san and the batch is 5 gal.
But you mean that you measured out an ounce of thick, gooey Star-San direct from the container to put into the airlock? That's an entire 5-gallon dose. If you did that your wort will have a PH of 3 or less when it should be 5 or better. Things won't be okay. It's totally possible that a PH that low would kill or inhibit your yeast growth. If you can check PH, you'll know right away what's going on.
As for pitching and airlock protocol, get the temp down before pitching, as @Trialben says, pitch yeast after you've aerated your wort, close the fermenter with a bung and airlock and put sanitizer solution or other sterile liquid in it. If you're pitching slightly higher than your fermentation temp, you'll suck airlock liquid. For that reason, I use vodka in my airlock.
 
But you mean that you measured out an ounce of thick, gooey Star-San direct from the container to put into the airlock? That's an entire 5-gallon dose. If you did that your wort will have a PH of 3 or less when it should be 5 or better. Things won't be okay. It's totally possible that a PH that low would kill or inhibit your yeast growth. If you can check PH, you'll know right away what's going on.
As for pitching and airlock protocol, get the temp down before pitching, as @Trialben says, pitch yeast after you've aerated your wort, close the fermenter with a bung and airlock and put sanitizer solution or other sterile liquid in it. If you're pitching slightly higher than your fermentation temp, you'll suck airlock liquid. For that reason, I use vodka in my airlock.
I'll check the PH and see what I need to do. Thank you for the info.
 
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. I've read that when a beer is in the first phase of fermentation it's pushing out so much carbon dioxide that "theoretically" you don't need an airlock for the first couple days.

If you are using a three piece airlock, then I would say you could probably get away with a dry airlock for a few hours at the beginning of fermentation, I wouldn't feel so good about going dry with an S shaped airlock. However, I could be wrong, so I always use a dilute StarSan solution in my airlocks,
 
The LBK fermenter doesn't even have an airlock, so don't worry too much about that.
Most yeasts will survive at 80 but may be a little difficult to start, so don't worry too much about that.
Wort that contracts as it cools and sucks in highly concentrated acid could be a problem for yeast strains that are not adapted to sour environments. 1056 does not have that adaptation.
 
I have the same fermenter, wasn't comfortable with just putting some sanitizer in that recessed area. I bought a smaller bung so I could use an air lock. I hope your batch works out. Maybe let it chug away for a week, then check your gravity and see how it tastes.
 
The LBK fermenter doesn't even have an airlock, so don't worry too much about that.
Most yeasts will survive at 80 but may be a little difficult to start, so don't worry too much about that.
Wort that contracts as it cools and sucks in highly concentrated acid could be a problem for yeast strains that are not adapted to sour environments. 1056 does not have that adaptation.
In that case, theoretically, I should be good to go. I checked on it last night before going to bed and the sanitizer tray was bubbling a lot more, even though there still wasn't any krausen so I'm assuming it's still doing something. I'll wait until Friday and check the gravity. Thanks
 
Honestly, pull a sample and test it, also taste it. If it tastes sour, well yeah that could be bad. If not I wouldn't stress to hard about it. Generally you're pretty safe leaving the carboy overnight to finish cooling if you have good sanitation, I can't always get mine down to 20-21C either.

Beer is really hard to screw up through anything other than an infection. It might not be great beer but it will likely be drinkable.

Live and learn.
 
UPDATE...It's been a few days now so I checked it this morning and I feel much better. I haven't tasted it or checked the PH yet, but I'm getting more confident that the process is on track.
20181003_082054.jpg
 
Sorry to tell you but that's not what healthy krausen looks like. :eek:
That's what it looks like when I'm using pressure transfer to clear a keg of SarSan with a hose into a bucket and I don't catch it soon enough after the liquid runs out. It makes a tub full of big pretty bubbles just like that.
You have a shit-ton of Star-San in your beer, buddy. :(
 
^^^^^ No rinse does not mean no dump.
 
You could sample and taste it if you want to but if your lock sucked as much as an ounce of undiluted Star San into the fermenter, you've essentially brewed an entire batch using sanitizer instead of water. :oops:
 
You could sample and taste it if you want to but if your lock sucked as much as an ounce of undiluted Star San into the fermenter, you've essentially brewed an entire batch using sanitizer instead of water. :oops:
That's what I was afraid of. Here's a question though, if the star san was in the airlock tray undiluted, is it safe to taste the wort or will it harm me?
 

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