Help! Brewed batch last night no activity this morning!

So I brewed a batch of a Ruination Clone last night. This is my first time brewing outside of a kit. I have always had yeast activity in the middle of the night. This morning 13 hours later, there is no activity. I realize the ingredients were different. I used White Labs California Ale yeast. Pitched it around 76 deg.

It's kind of frustrating since this is my first batch outside of a kit. I thought I did everything right. And my ingredients were around $60.00 so I would hate to have to trash it!!

Give it more time. It should be alright.

My two batches have both taken 24 hours RDWHAH. Oh, and no beer should be trashed without trying to fix it.

Pitching at 76 is a shade warm. I recommend pitching at or maybe 1-2 degrees below your fermentation temperature.

How big is the batch? What was your OG? What yeast did you use? What was the manufacture date? Did you make a starter? How big was it? What are you fermenting in? What is the fermentation temperature?

Most likely it just needs more time, but if it takes too long to show visible signs, we can help you figure out why.

and while you're waiting, there are some GREAT posts in the 'sticky' section at the top of the beginner's beer brewing forum.

Welcome to HBT.

Don't worry it will go. Sometimes it can take 48 hours or even 72 (read sticky). I have a cider that is fermenting nicely now that took almost 4 days to start.

5 gallon batch. 1.080 OG . White Labs California Ale yeast (the exp. date is Jan 2010.) No starter, glass carboy. 73 degrees ferm temp

holy jesus. 1080 with no starter?

hopefully it works out...

Ok, so what is a starter exactly? I read a few stickies and no one has really explained how or why to make one. Thanks!

A starter is usually 2 OZ of dry malt with 400ml of H20. Boil for 15-20 min. cool to pitching temp and pitch your yeast. Do this 48 hours prior to brewing and it wakes your yeast and you will see quicker activity. It helps with higher gravity beers and lagers. A lot of people do it with all brews.

I think your beer will be fine worst case give it 48 hours and if no activity buy more yeast and re-pitch no need to dump.

some DME and some water.

boil

add yeast.

it basically is a small batch of unhopped beer to multiply the yeast cells.

I just found a bunch of info on starters. I tend to jump right into things. I just don't want to have to dump it. I'll leave it alone and see what happens. Definitely going to use starters from now on. My plan is to make big beers, so, from what I read the starters should be able to handle the higher OG.

Thanks everyone!

Bastido said:

I just found a bunch of info on starters. I tend to jump right into things. I just don't want to have to dump it. I'll leave it alone and see what happens. Definitely going to use starters from now on. My plan is to make big beers, so, from what I read the starters should be able to handle the higher OG.

Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

Your beer will be fine, but you'll end up with better beer in the future (and less worries about lag time!) if you do make starters.

Even Wyeast's website recommends starters for beers over 1.060. My favorite resource is mrmalty.com's pitching calculator. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

+1 to Yooper.

Mr. Malty has helped me figure out how much yeast to pitch for different brews. It also calculates dry yeast which has been extra helpful since starters aren't recommended for dry.

It will be fine. It may not attenuate perfectly, or it might. Either way, you'll be able to drink it and, most likely, enjoy it.