Oberon(ish) Clone, wort too cold

What yeast are you using?

 

You put ice into your wort? That is a horrible idea. I would guess you've just majorly increased your chances of contamination for this batch. Next time place the fermenter in an ice bath.

You could probably pitch now or at 60. The yeast should start up once the beer warms a bit. If it were me, I'd wait till I reached my planned pitching temp.

 

Good luck. Ice isn't santiary.

 

Don't be stressed about the ice. Could it introduce bad stuff? Yup, especially if you don't clean your trays often. Will it ruin your beer? I bet less than 1% of the time you get something in there that will overpower the big pitch of yeast you are about to throw in there.

Personally, I would have pitched the yeast and let it warm with the wort. I have no clue if that is bad or not, it's just what my gut would have told me to do.

 

Chances are you'll be fine, but I wouldn't play russian roulette with unsanitized ingredients in the future.

 

Oberon's signature (to my palette) orange flavor is a product of their proprietary yeast strain. So while you will probably have good beer, it might not be very oberon-like with US-05.

A large, late addition of a citrus hop (Cascade always tastes orange to me) could be used to produce a similar flavor.

 

From what I have been told there is a difference there's a difference between throwing a 70*F starter into a 50*F wort (not good) and chilling the starter in the fridge to 50*F and then pitching. Basically you don't want a change in the environment and temperate at the same time.

 

There would probably be no problem at all. Warm yeast into cold wort can be a serious problem. Cold yeast into warm wort (at fermentation temp or below) is generally not.

 

I keep reading that too. I've tried cloning this three times now using American Ale yeast, Kolsch, and fresh dregs from Oberon bottles. I liked the Kolsch best, then the American, then the Oberon dregs. The dregs were grown up and pitched in volume, but they just didn't have much character fermented at 68. Maybe I did something wrong... The Kolsch was great, but I'm still hunting for that orange juice flavor.

 

Ya, sorry to derail - your yeast will make a solid wheat beer for sure. Back to your original question - I think your yeast pitched slightly below the fermenting temp will be excellent.