OVHA Chat

Ok I messed up. I made two small batches last week, both 1 gallon each. two different yeast strains, one a cider and one a beer. The room I fermented my last two batches in dropped in temp do to the weather change and I did not check on it. I've since gotten a water bath that is currently at a constant 75 degrees. I reaerated them, and put them in the water bath and I still have no activity. Its been a week or so since the yeasts were pitched and I'm afraid I may have screwed both batches over with the cooler temps. So do I try to re-pitch, or to I scrap these two batches and start over?

I'd say scrap them. If they've went a week there is a good chance that they have a healthy population of unwanted bacteria etc. that the yeast may not be able to overwhelm. Well, now that I think about it, if there was no airlock activity they may not be contaminated... Hum, that's a tough one, at least it was only a gallon!

Well just two actually. One gallon of each... I may give it another day and scrap them. Maybe run a couple more after Thanksgiving.

If you don't need the fermenter's, I'd let em go for a while. If you have to throw them out, you can do it later after you find out if it really went bad or not. I just wouldn't bottle them unless I was sure fermentation was completed and had no off flavors. You could at least bottle it for you in-laws for a gift.

I tossed them today. One had an off scent but the other seemed ok but wasn't doing anything.

On the other hand I popped open the amber that I made for my girlfriend and got an interesting surprise. I poured her a glass and she said she did not like it. I checked my notes and noticed I had inadvertanly over hopped, ended up with an IPA on the high end of the color scale and with a low nose. At least I liked it.

She doesn't like IPA!?!? You may have to seriously reconsider this relationship