what to do when there is no activity

Brewed a Northern kit friday night, hit the OG exactly per the directions. The activator pack was fully expanded after 4 hours and I pitched it into wort at 7o degrees. As of today, no activity in the airlock.

Tomorrow I'm going to grab some dry yeast, but this is the first beer to no take off after 24 hours. I'm a bit confused because I am finally starting to feel confident about my techniques.

Any ideas?

Oh yea, it was the mild ale kit.

I'd Wait123

I'd make sure that the lid or stopper is on tight, then I'd wait.

72 hours is my re-pitch time.

peek inside. if there is a krausen, then you have a leak and that's why there's no airlock activity.

i vote for wait too!

I went down tonight and gave the bucket a good rockin', checked the airlock and banged on the lid to make sure it is tight. My lid has a rubber seal in it, so I am thinking it is sealed. Hopefully something happen by tomorrow.

I'm going to start trying to do yeast starters in the future to get faster activity.

Me too, I vote wait. While you are waiting, check the date on the vial/pack. Then think about or research the high temps along the route from the HBS to your place. Yeast is no more happy about sitting around in a truck at 100f than we might be, in fact, they usually crump. As the others have said, check your bucket seal. Just apply a bit of pressure to the center of the lid and look for bubbles in the lock. I ain't saying your yeast is dead, but it may be a bit battered. Wait it out ........

The yeast pack was fully expanded in under 4 hours so I know the yeast was doing something before pitching. When I push on the center of the lid, the airlock does begin to move (I have the S shaped one) I like the S bend because I can tell how much pressure is in the bucket based on where the liquid is in the S and right now it is almost balanced.

I'm going to play with some starters this week before doing one for a brew.

Thanks for the input though. I'll keep you posted if I see anything tonight.

Still no activity. I made a dry yeast starter last night with 1L of water and 4 tbsp of DME. Boiled for fifteen minutes and added dry yeast. I'm waiting for that to take off before I add it to the beer bucket.

you don't need a starter with dry yeast.

are you taking gravity readings? how do you know there is no activity?

I second that.
Just pitch it.
aerate if you can.

I have read that using a malt starter with dry yeast can be a little harmfull to the yeast. During the first stage, when the yeast is "awaking," the membranec cannot control what gets through the cell walls. Maltose and any other forms of sugar can actually damage the yeast during re-hydration and may even kill them. I heard that pitching directly into wort will kill about half the initial cells. The ones that do survive get to bud and fermentation takes place as usual, however you can get a bigger cell count if you just re-hydrate the yeast in some warm water before pitching.

While I still see no sign of positive pressure in the airlock, I took a hydrometer reading and it is under 1.010. I didn't do an OG reading but I am assuming this is lower than last week.

My guess is a leaky bucket lid. I'm leaning towards primary fermentation in a carboy or Corny keg to control the seal better. With a carboy it would be easier to monitor.

My test yeast starter worked. For my next batch I'll definetely by doing a starter.

THanks for the input guys.

Guilty - leaky bucket seal
Not Guilty - activator yeast

Dry yeasts actually have more yeast cells than the activators do so a direct pitch (after rehydrating) is fine. I'd us a carboy for primary. Get a big one though like a 6.5 gallon one so you don't loose too much through the blow off tube. I like to see the trub and yeast on the bottom as well as all the little bubblies rising on the sides.

On another note...

I was told by my LHBS guy that a fully swollen activator is bad. Supposedly the yeast is starving at that point.

I would'nt be too confident in my methods if I was'nt taking an OG reading.

I did'nt do this on my first brew because it felt like I was juggling monkeys but I made sure and planned better on subsequent brews. OG is very important and I agree on the carboy thing. Well worth it in my opinion.

Good Luck
Al

malkore said:

peek inside. if there is a krausen, then you have a leak and that's why there's no airlock activity.

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when this happens and you determine that you have a leak, does that mean that you need to think about getting a new bucket and lid or should it still be safe to continue to use the fermenter that leaks ?

It'll be leaking out not in.

The CO2 will be purging out and have a positive pressure.

I guess I got my batches confused. I did do an OG on this one it was 1.032 and it is now about 1.009. This weekend I'll rack to the secondary and brew a wheat kit I have. After that I'm going to try Partial Mash brewing and buy my ingrediants by the pound instead of in a kit.

Thanks again for the input.

Wait at least 72 hours before panic. Make sure the lid on tight. Keep warm (the uprange of the recommend. Gently shake the carboy for at least twenty minutes to aerate (it can be done in stages) Assuming you didn't get a bad tube, that should be enough.

I don't think i aerated enough. Well I didn't even know I was supposed to aerate. I poured my wort in between my primary and brewing pot a few times to try to cool it quicker. I did that maybe twice. Would that be enough? Can it hurt to shake my primary just to help out the yeast?

tuckferrorists said:

I don't think i aerated enough. Well I didn't even know I was supposed to aerate. I poured my wort in between my primary and brewing pot a few times to try to cool it quicker. I did that maybe twice. Would that be enough? Can it hurt to shake my primary just to help out the yeast?

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If you're an extract brewer topping up with water, you won't need to aerate.

Sweet. Thanks so much for the reply. but just curious why extract brewing wouldn't need it if you're using yeast just like any other brew. Are you saying I didn't need to or I shouldn't?

tuckferrorists said:

Sweet. Thanks so much for the reply. but just curious why extract brewing wouldn't need it if you're using yeast just like any other brew. Are you saying I didn't need to or I shouldn't?

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top off water will have oxygen in it as long as you dont boil it

Yeah, AG requires boiling the entire fermentation volume. Boiling will drive off the oxygen, and that's why it needs to be replaced.

If you top up in extract, then the water you top up with already has that oxygen in it. Unless you top up with boiled water. Then you'll need to aerate.

well shucks.....unfortunately I boiled it. but I popped the lid to take a peek inside and there was definately some fermenting going on in there. I can't wait to secondary in my carboy so i can stare at it all day. my next batch will definitely be less stressful as I'm ordering my 6.5 primary carboy from AHB.

So would lack of aeration just slow fermentation? or would it completely affect it and i would have to do something like aerate and repitch to get it right?

You don't want to aerate once fermentation starts. If it's just slow, it'll get going. Pouring the cooled wort from the brewpot to the fermenter does aerate, especially if you were splashing it.

If fermentation has began, then you're good! Just splash more on your next batch!

well now i'm concerned. It's now been about 70 hours since I pitched and still no bubbles in the airlock. I cracked it open again it smells a little like beer but it just looks like there's head on the top. It doesn't look like vomit that has sat out in the sun for a week like i read it's supposed too. The only gross thing is what looks like the remnants of the pellet hops stuck to the side of the bucket above the head level. Is it too early to take a hydrometer reading? I wouldn't think that there could have been a leak in the lid because it was a ***** to open and the pressure in the bucket was so tight that if i pushed down slightly the airlock would shoot right up.

tuckferrorists said:

looks like there's head on the top

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Thats krausen. It's fermenting.

Is it too early to take a hydrometer reading?

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No, but I'd RDWHAHB, and wait until it's been in primary for a week.

I did it anyway cause i'm an impatient bastard. AND IT TASTED LIKE BEER. IT WAS SOOOO GOOOOOD. and it smelled like alcohol and my sg was half way to my final gravity.