Fermentation didnt start after 72

just hit 72 hours no activity, this is the first time this has ever happened ive done about 14 batches of beer.

Im going to my LHBS to buy another pack of the same yeast(danstar Windsor) to pitch.

any tips? should i re aerate the wort?

Check the SG first. If the SG is changed at all, do not aerate. I'd recommend rehydrating according to the package directions, after checking the SG.

wort had a gravity drop re-pitched some windsor today.. hopefully things turn around or this will be my last austin home brew order

fatguy-littlecoat said:

wort had a gravity drop re-pitched some windsor today.. hopefully things turn around or this will be my last austin home brew order

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What? Why pitch more yeast if they're already doing the work? I don't understand.

fatguy-littlecoat said:

wort had a gravity drop re-pitched some windsor today.. hopefully things turn around or this will be my last austin home brew order

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Last order. Why? Because you never did things right?

Chances are you did something yourself to cause a brew not to start or either that you are not familiar with the signs of fermentation.

For instance... did you pitch your yeast right? Did you pitch into optimum temperture wort, aerate and rehydrate your yeast? Are you using a bucket for primary that don't seal tight and you can't see the fermentation?

If your gravity was lower than OG, then you had some fermentation. Did you also have your wort in a place with normal fermentation tempertures, or was the place you had the fermenter colder? Colder temps will cause a yeast to flocc out before fermentation finishes.
A lot of things influence a brew, and most things can be controlled by the brewer.

Cheers and good luck.

boo boo said:

Last order. Why? Because you never did things right?

Chances are you did something yourself to cause a brew not to start or either that you are not familiar with the signs of fermentation.

For instance... did you pitch your yeast right? Did you pitch into optimum temperture wort, aerate and rehydrate your yeast? Are you using a bucket for primary that don't seal tight and you can't see the fermentation?

If your gravity was lower than OG, then you had some fermentation. Did you also have your wort in a place with normal fermentation tempertures, or was the place you had the fermenter colder? Colder temps will cause a yeast to flocc out before fermentation finishes.
A lot of things influence a brew, and most things can be controlled by the brewer.

Cheers and good luck.

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well actually I should rephrase. the ingredients were awesome, i should stick to getting my yeast locally. who knows what temp changes happened during shipping.

my normal procedure is to rehydrate the yeast in a cup of luke warm water for 20 minutes before i pitch. i put my carboy in my milk crate then dump my water and wort in and shake the hell out of it for 5 minutes then pitch the yeast. The wort was 68 when i pitched it. My ferment temp has been at 66 degrees +- I use a swamp coller with ice bottles. Windsor has a temp range of 64-70.

im going to let this play out see what happens. worst case i dump the batch.

I doubt you'll have a dumper. Windsor can be a little slow when you have an all-malt beer. Also, it has a relatively low apparent attenuation, so don't be surprised if the FG is a bit on the high side.

So you're saying you had a drop in gravity, and then you added more yeast?

Why did you add more if fermentation was happenning? There was no need to, a drop in gravity, is the only ACTIVITY that counts.

Not airlock if that's what you meant.

Revvy said:

So you're saying you had a drop in gravity, and then you added more yeast?

Why did you add more if fermentation was happenning? There was no need to, a drop in gravity, is the only ACTIVITY that counts.

Not airlock if that's what you meant.

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Absolutely! That's what I'm talking about.

Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with ordering yeast from ahs especially dry yeasts like windsor.

The OG was 1052, the reading I got after 72hours was roughly 10509. I felt since there were no visual signs of any type of a Krausen(glass carboy), and the gravity was so close to the original reading, It was ok to repitch. After the repitch It started bubbling about 15 hours later.

philrose said:

Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with ordering yeast from ahs especially dry yeasts like windsor.

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really?

from the Danstar Website:

All active dried yeast should be stored dry and below 8°C. The packaging should remain intact.

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I notice in my LHBS they keep the dried yeast in a cooler, but the kits they have boxed up have dried yeast in them outside of the cooler and ive done plent of them and never had a problem???

it could be the original yeast was actually fermenting or it maybe when i rehydrated the original yeast i killed it!

the cell count on dry yeast packages is so large (130+ billion cells) that even without optimal storage, chances are you'll be fine. Many HBS's keep dry yeast at room temp. Not saying its perfect, but it will be ok. Relative to liquid yeast, its pretty resilient stuff.

If you're really worried about that one $.99 ice pack would do the job.

philrose said:

the cell count on dry yeast packages is so large (130+ billion cells) that even without optimal storage, chances are you'll be fine. Many HBS's keep dry yeast at room temp. Not saying its perfect, but it will be ok. Relative to liquid yeast, its pretty resilient stuff.

If you're really worried about that one $.99 ice pack would do the job.

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i just ordered two more mini-mash kits from ahs im not worried.. i think i just got impatient/paranoid after the 72 hour mark. Ive done plenty of other kits from my lhbs which had the dry yeast stored in the kits out on the shelves @ room temp with no problems. i hope that extra packet of yeast that i pitched doesn't give me some off flavors.

There's a similar situation with the same yeast here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/98-hours-counting-no-fermentation-143895/

AHS seems to stand behind their product, so if you have any problems maybe you should try contacting them.