merkaba

Recipes 

I has been at least 36 hours since I pitched yeast and there is no fermentation going on. I just used White Labs liquid yeast and did not make a starter. I had the yeast shipped from CA to CO. took 3 days. The yeast bottle felt slightly cool when it arrived but was not really that cold. So I'm wondering if the yeast died before I got it.

Wait longer or repitch now ?
Thanks

EdWort

Recipes 

I used a while labs Kolsch yeast and it took 27 hours to get active bubbling.

Are you using a carboy or a bucket? What was the temp of the wort when you pitched?

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EdWort



Haus Pale Ale, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Robust Porter, Oktoberfest Ale, Wounded Knee IPA, Rye IPA, BCB IPA, Kolsch, Apfelwein

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EdWort

Recipes 

I used a while labs Kolsch yeast and it took 27 hours to get active bubbling.

Are you using a carboy or a bucket? What was the temp of the wort when you pitched?

__________________
Cheers,

EdWort



Haus Pale Ale, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Robust Porter, Oktoberfest Ale, Wounded Knee IPA, Rye IPA, BCB IPA, Kolsch, Apfelwein

Follow me on Twitter

merkaba

Recipes 

I'm using a carboy and the wort was about 78* when I pitched.

Evan!

Recipes 

I've had crap luck w/ liquid yeasts. Give it another day, and if nothing happens, repitch with rehydrated dry yeast.

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dougjones31

Recipes 

It usually takes 24 hrs for my fermentation to get going using White Labs yeast with no starter.

If you are using a glass carboy, simply look at the sides of the carboy near the very bottom, if you see what looks to be a dusting of yeast settling on the side, then it will take off soon. Just leave it alone. If not, then you need to repitch. In 12 years, I have only had 1 bad batch of liquid yeast.

merkaba

Recipes 

After 48 hours it still looked completely dead. I bought some dry yeast from a local shop and 5 hours later its fermenting good. It sounds rare to get a bad batch of white labs liquid yeast, but I have no idea what else it could have been. temps were OK when I pitched, etc. It just never took off.
I'll be keeping some dry yeast in the fridge as back up from now on.

Mykel Obvious

Recipes 

Evan!,
Have you been making starters and properly aerating you wort before pitching the yeast?? I've been using White Labs yeast for 13 years now and I've never had a batch fail to ferment... I HAVE had a batch take 3 days to reach full fermentation because I didn't make a starter and didn't aerate my wort fully... it was also the worst beer I've ever made... Banana flavors do not belong in a Robust Porter IMO... they were so strong the roast malt flavors couldn't be tasted till the beer aged about 4 months!!!

I started making 2 L starters using a magnetic stirrer and running my filtered air pump for a minimum of 30 minutes before pitching and my lag times are down to less than 1 hour on average, 2 hours for high OG batches (1.085 and up)...

merkaba,
It is possible you got a vial of yeast that was cooked in shipping (during the warmer months I get an ice pack added to the shipment, just to be safe)... but most likely the beer would have started in the next 24 hours anyway... that is NOT the best scenario as you can guess, but it would still be beer... the biggest problem with under-pitching (a vial instead of a starter) is that yeast make more esters when low pitching rates are used, they also make more esters when they are under-oxygenated and when they are fermented at higher temperatures... so you can imagine that a single vial pitched into low oxygen wort and fermented at 78 F can REALLY pump out some flavors... just FYI

I'd look into making starters and trying to get as much O2 in your wort as possible to help make your beer the best that it can be!!

HTH,

mikey

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Sean

Recipes 

I have had success with both liquid and dry yeasts. With the liquid you must make a starter. With dry yeast a starter is not needed, simply make a slurry and pitch, 2 - 4 hours later, bubbles. I'm not sure what the benefits of liq yeast are. It would seem one would be more apt to infect a liq yeast with the procedure involved. In addition the price difference is considerable.

Denny's Evil Concoctions

Recipes 

When using wyeast's big smack packs I don't even bother with a starter.

That said, how was it shipped? I just got my shipment that was sent in the mail (Canada) and the final destination ended up being our "superbox's" parcel slot in 30 degree heast for 3 hours. Smack pack wasn't warm yet but close call. It was sitting on the gel pack. Another hour and it probably would have been toast.

What was the expiry on the smack pack? The above smackpack was mishipped. Someone sent me 3538 instead of 3638. 3538 besides being a very differant yeast is also a discontinued yeast and the packaged date was july of 05! (Yes, they will be mailing me the corect yeast soon and normally they ship new yeast, that was from their discount stock).

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