Did I kill my yeast? Should I repitch?

For future batches, you do not want to boil any grain. For something like C60, you would want to steep it at 150-160 degrees for 20-30 minutes and then removing them prior to adding the extracts and bringing it up to a boil.

Your hunch was correct that this step most likely killed the yeast.

This is what I would do too.

 

A couple things...

Did you check the temperature of the water prior to adding the yeast? I suspect it was too warm and killed the yeast. Next time just dump the dry yeast directly into your chilled wort.

Just because you do not see activity doesn't mean the yeast are not working. Did you check your gravity when you pitched? You always should do this, because you can now check it again to see if its doing anything.

As mentioned above, do not boil grains. In the future steep you crystal malt at about 150 degrees prior to boiling.

 

You learned the hard way that a lot of (I'd say most) LHBS employees are uninformed.

What kind of signs did you look for? Look inside and see if a krausen has formed. It would look something like this...

Or, if a krausen has formed, but already fallen, look for a ring of residue. (Though I'm not sure how visible that is in a Mr. Beer fermenter.

 

You do not want to aerate if fermentation is already underway.

 

Just to clarify, the LHBS person made no mention that you should let the boiled water cool down to around 90 degrees F before sprinkling the dry yeast into the water?

Cheers!

 

• MrB recipes should never be boiled. Ever. The liquid malt extract (LME) is pre-hopped and needs only to be re-hydrated.
• One-half pound of 60L was over-kill for a 2G batch size. The result will likely be cloyingly sweet.
• One package of US-05 (11.5 g) was more over-kill. Twice as much as needed; however ... not a big deal other than a waste of money.
• As for pitching more US-05; just pitch the MrB yeast and be done with it. Aerate with a whisk for one minute.

For best results ... new brewers should hew closely to the recipe and instructions.

 

This video may be helpful to you:

 

If you do not remember him saying "let it cool," then he failed to impress upon you a critical point about rehydrating yeast. I hate reading about LHBS employees giving bad advice (or failing to give good advice), but it apparently happens frequently. If homebrew shops don't take better care of newbies, well, that's like shooting yourself in the foot. Poor advice will cause some to leave the hobby, and the ones that stick around will weigh cheap prices of mail order retailers against their bad experiences with the local ones.

 

Peter, in all fairness communication is a two way street. I may be that the LHBS employee did indeed mention that the water needed to cool down before the yeast is added but @Euclid34 may not have recalled that direction. As was posted: "I am not going to blame the LHBS employee, I just didn't recall him saying to let it cool down."

If Euclid34 is unwilling to "blame" the employee then personally I will not as well.

Cheers!

 

I didn't discount this possibility that it was mentioned. But if the employee's instructions were not recalled, he failed to impress upon his customer a critical point. Emphasis on impress. I'll bet you my conical fermenter that he didn't say ..."And this point is critical, CRTICAL: you absolutely positively must must must MUST MUST MUST remember to let the water cool to 90-95 F before you try to rehydrate, or your yeast will be DEAD DEAD DEAD..."

PS: It's a sucker bet. I use plastic buckets.

 

Heh. You prompted @Euclid34 to doubt his own memory. Thank goodness you're able to personally agree with yourself.

 

The LHBS guy definitely should have done this, since a too high temperature is the most common way to screw up rehydrating yeast. Or he could have handed him an instruction sheet. Or a link to online instructions. Admittedly, I wasn't there and don't know what went down. But I've witnessed bad advice at LHBSs far too many times, so in general I'll say that (most) LHBSs can't for the most part compete price-wise with on line vendors, and many of them are wetting the bed regarding the one chance they have to add value, i.e. personalized, expert advice. Why else would anyone use them for most of their purchases? Out of some altruistic intention to support the brick and mortar guy, regardless of the quality of service?

I guess I should also add that I know there are some great LHBSs. I've been to some of them, but in my experience they are the exception.

 

Keep it up! This is a great hobby, and you will learn tons from these threads. In my personal experience as a relative noob (15+ brews), I quickly learned many strengths (consistently crushed grains, for one) and limitations of my LHBS.

 

At what point are folks around here willing to shift blame to someone else for not understanding that most things don't live above a certain temperature? My base understanding of biology really isn't that far beyond the A I received in 10th grade.
Let's stop blaming LHBS employees for customers not performing due diligence.
There are definitely a lot of sub-par LHBS employees out there, but personally, everything bad that's happened to one of my brews was on me.

 

I dunno. Newbies rely on what supposed experts tell them. So if the LHBS wants happy, returning customers, they need to get their shit right. But I would agree that there's a shared responsibility. If I worked at a LHBS, I would also tell every newbie to read "How to Brew." Which happens to contain good dry yeast rehydration instructions.