I am still brewing all extract. I've got 10 or so under my belt and all turned out great. I did a pale the other day I have been tweaking. Very simple pale ale I've brewed before. I pitched 1 vial of wl001 at room temp to my 68 or so degree wort. O.G. 1.042. It might be worth noting this is the first time I fermented this beer in my chest freezer with temp set at 66. Also my first time fermenting in carboy. I forgot to take the yeast out of fridge until about 20 min prior to pitching. I warmed up in my hands. It has been exactly 48 hrs and S.G 1.042, no activity at all.Taste like pure wort. Not sure what to do. I know I'm suppose to wait but I have never had one do this. They all take right off at about 10-12 hrs.
I know not to panic but...
- Thread starter mhobs126
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Give it another day or so and if it's still showing no signs of activity, go buy a packet of US-05 and sprinkle that in there.
And I will add that you are underpitching...not TOO badly, but still. However US-05 is the same strain as WLP001, and the dry 11.5g packets contain way more viable yeast cells than your brand-new White Labs vial, which has roughly 100 billion cells on the manufacture date. Typically an 11.5g packet will have roughly twice as many viable cells as the vial/smack pack; more than enough to happily ferment 5 gallons of 1.042 wort. I've got nothing against White Labs...in fact I think they are awesome, and the huge pile of empty vials in my growing collection will attest to that. But I don't use WLP001 unless someone gives me the vial to use, because I think the dry packets are easier to deal with, smaller, store more easily, are more stable, and most of all contain much larger quantities of yeast. Oh, yeah and they tend to be cheaper than the vials, too.
And I will add that you are underpitching...not TOO badly, but still. However US-05 is the same strain as WLP001, and the dry 11.5g packets contain way more viable yeast cells than your brand-new White Labs vial, which has roughly 100 billion cells on the manufacture date. Typically an 11.5g packet will have roughly twice as many viable cells as the vial/smack pack; more than enough to happily ferment 5 gallons of 1.042 wort. I've got nothing against White Labs...in fact I think they are awesome, and the huge pile of empty vials in my growing collection will attest to that. But I don't use WLP001 unless someone gives me the vial to use, because I think the dry packets are easier to deal with, smaller, store more easily, are more stable, and most of all contain much larger quantities of yeast. Oh, yeah and they tend to be cheaper than the vials, too.
Things can take up to 72 hours to begin active fermentation and if you under pitched, which you did and also did not aerate well then that's why lag time is so long. Be patient and it should take off for you and if you plan on continuing to use liquid yeast learn how to make starters!
