Lazy yeast

Jeramiah · 11-08-2006, 02:22 AM

Hi all,
I just started my first beer this weekend, I have been doing wine for a while but thought I'd try something new. Its been three days and I would have expected to see more yeast activity by now. I used an all grain recipe where I boiled about five lbs of various grains for an hour and a half, added hops about a half hour into the process, pitched the yeast when it cooled and set the carboy aside. I'm guessing the problem lies somewhere in my preparation rather than unmotivated yeast.

Is it possible I should have boiled the grain for longer to convert more starch to sugars? I'm using mostly pale malt with a little bit of chocolate and caramel malt, and Cooper's brand yeast.

My other thought is that I let the yeast sit for too long before pitching (5 gallons of hot water takes a surprising long time to cool down to 105F). The yeast was started in a cup of warm water with some sugar added and sat in a dark room temperature environment for 2-3 hours before it got pitched.

Thanks for any advice,
-Jeramiah

**Yuri_Rage** · 11-08-2006, 02:34 AM

Welcome to the forum! The good news is that you're brewing!

But I'll break the bad news...you probably didn't get much starch conversion by boiling your grain. Enzymes convert starches to sugars in the 118-165 degree F range, and most enzyme action ceases by 168-170. So you kinda skipped right by starch conversion and went straight to tannin extraction (bitter flavors from the grain hulls) by boiling.

In general, don't boil grains. Instead, mash them at 155-ish degrees, then sparge (rinse the grain to get as much sugar as possible) with about 170 degree water. Read John Palmer's Book "How to Brew" and/or Charlie Papazian's "Joy of Homebrewing" to get more information about the techniques involved.

Additionally, you pitched your yeast at a bit of a high temperature. 70-80 degrees for an ale yeast would be more appropriate. Your yeast isn't lazy, it's just shocked and doesn't have much to chew on.

Most importantly, don't give up! Good luck, and happy brewing!

EDIT: chillHayze...I've just been spending WAYYYYY too much time here lately.

chillHayze · 11-08-2006, 02:36 AM

If you did indeed boil the grains and water for an hour then you will do yourself a favor to dump the batch. Boiling the grains for any period of time extracts massive tannins (which taste nasty). In my first batch I boiled a few oz. of grain and the beer tasted tannin-ey. I'd imagine with pounds and pounds boiled it would be undrinkable. Also, little to no starches were converted. That happens at temps 140-160 roughly. Above that temp - the enzymes die. So there was almost no sugar in your beer to start with.
We do this a lot, but I'm gonna point you to www.howtobrew.com and leave it at that.
Good luck.

EDIT: Yuri you ninja! Not only a faster answer, but with better formatting. A shame o'er my house!

boo boo · 11-08-2006, 10:07 AM

Give the man an "A" for guts in trying to brew a AG brew for his first try.

A+

Now do a bit of reading and try again.

Welcome to this board.

Jeramiah · 11-08-2006, 05:35 PM

Thanks everybody for the input, that would explain the lack of activity in the carboy. I'll have to read over the process again and try it a second time with a thermometer and a lot less heat the next free weekend I have. Thankfully theres a store in town that keeps a good stock of brewing supplies on hand, so getting the material to start a new batch won't be a problem.
-Jeramiah

parasonic · 11-09-2006, 12:56 AM

Watch your temperatures. When you're mashing for the first time, you aren't done until the mash tastes candy sweet. Not potato-like, unless you are going for a starchy beer. If your temperatures go too high and destroy your enzymes, add some more malt, as that contains more alpha and beta amylase and will save the mash. Also, when you get that thing going, be sure to aereate it! That might mean shaking the carboy a bit or at least letting the cooled wort splash around as you're draining the boil kettle.

**Baron von BeeGee** · 11-09-2006, 01:04 AM

One other caveat...you may want to try an established recipe, as well. 5# of grains would be a really weak beer even with good conversion and efficiency. I would doubly recommend chillyHayze's link as required reading and perhaps even suggest you consider an extract + grains recipe next which will give you a good foundation for advancing on to all-grain brews.