gicts

Recipes 

Thank you both. I have noticed with any wine and this beer kit the difference between the kit instructions to put the dry yeast in, and the instructions on the yeast packet which says to rehydrate the yeast. Some wine yeasts call for the water to be around 100 degrees to rehydrate so I guess I should not have been too worried. Thanks for giving me a little more confidence, I hope it starts soon.

malkore

Recipes 

beer kit instructions aren't always the best. I typically rehydrate all my yeast. As long as its done sanitary and at the right temp, it can only help.

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Malkore
On tap: Camelot Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet

Primary -
Secondary - Vanilla mead

Gal in 2009: 27
Gal in 2010: 34
Gal in 2011: 13
Gal in 2012: ~

bearclaw

Recipes 

I had a similar problem with my first batch. Sometimes with extract kits if you use the yeast that was provided, (taped to the top of the can) its not always the best or the freshest. After 24 hours the airlock wasn't bubbling and I took a look inside my plastic carboy and noticed there was no krausen on top of the wort. I ended up going to my homebrew store and picking up another pack of yeast that they keep properly refrigerated. make sure you rehydrate it in warm water for about 10 mins then pitch it. That ended up fixing my problem right up and fermentation started about 10-12 hours after.

I was doing an irish stout too btw heh

Best of luck.

Nurmey

Recipes 

+1 on both points malkore made.
Kit instructions are usually very generic and vague. Mostly geared to making beer quickly rather than good.
Rehydrating your yeast can speed things up a lot. It also helps make more and healthier yeast.

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jaymacdf

Recipes 

just an opposing viewpoint on the white labs criticism. i brewed the belgian strong ale from northern brewer the other day. the wyeast smack pack did not activate. i ran to my local homebrew store and picked up the white labs vial of pitchable yeast and bang, fermentation started 10 hours after i re-aerated my wort and pitched the yeast.

thought i should share my positive experience with the first and only time i used white labs.

jaymacdf

Recipes 

ps-

anyone ever used the trub as their yeast starter for their next batch. i have heard of much success (going light to darker) with this process. have not tried it but think i might in the future.

i hear adding your wort and water to an emptied (minus trub) fermenter will cause a rapid fermentation. any thoughts?

oysterhead

Recipes 

my first post...this forum is great.

if yeast are re-pitched, do you stir the yeast into the wort (just like the first pitch)?

or do you just sprinkle the yeast on top of the wort?

i'm worried i may have not aerated the wort enough for my yeast, but then again i don't want to induce an infection.

thanks!

Orfy

Recipes 

You should be able to sprinkle over the top. There should be enough CO2 at the top of a de-oxygenated wort to start.

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oysterhead

Recipes 

i have tons of bubbles now.

took about 30 hours.

temp in the room varies between 65 and 68.

Vorsicht709

Recipes 

I pitched a slap pack of american ale wyeast 23 hours ago into my batch of boston ale and there is no activity, I knew liquid yeast had a long lag time, but is this long normal. My thermometer in the room reads about 71 degrees