This is only my second batch that I have done, so I'm still very new to home brewing. My question- I brewed a smoked Porter 4 days ago and there has been little to no activity in the airlock, I tired to stir the yeast back into suspension yesterday and still no activity. Do I need to pitch more yeast or let it sit for a little while? If I do need to pitch more yeast, so I need to rack it off of the original yeast cake?
beer not fermenting
- Thread starter WillKing
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CityOChampBrew
Well-Known Member
so repitch if you feel like wasting money, if you have a yeast cake at the bottom and you didn't originally pitch on to one then there has been activity
CityOChampBrew
Well-Known Member
if you want to waste money go for it..
what did you start with yeastwise... a package of dry? a vial of wet?
and you see more than what you pitched at the bottom of the fermenter??
what did you start with yeastwise... a package of dry? a vial of wet?
and you see more than what you pitched at the bottom of the fermenter??
gcdowd
Well-Known Member
If this is an extract batch, post the recipe and we can calculate the OG
If you have the new hydrometer now, you can take a reading. If it is close to your expected OG then you didn't get any fermentation. If it is close to, or considerably lower than, your expected FG then you got fermentation.
No need to pitch any more yeast until you know whether you had fermentation and there is no way to really know that without a hydrometer. You could also pop open the lid and look for a nice krausen - this would indicate that everything was fine (though can't tell you how far along you are)
What are you fermenting in? Is it a PVC bucket, or glass carboy? The reason I ask this is because I'm fermenting in a bucket for my first time, and honestly I don't know how people do it as you can't see inside to get a better feel for what's going on. I have a batch of imperial nut brow ale in the ale pale, and it only bubbled in the air lock for 24 hours then stopped dead. After doing a bit of research I have come to discover that many of the ale pale style of fermenters don't hold the gas well, and leak from the rim seal making it look like fermentation has stalled, however this is most likely not the case as fermentation is still underway, it's just that the gas is escaping from the lid. I haven't peaked inside the bucket yet, but will wait a couple weeks just to insure that fermentation is complete. I will never ferment in a bucket again due to this....glass carbons only for me.
There is no danger in opening the lid and looking inside. I do it ALL the time. In fact, I begin all my fermentations with the lid just placed gently on top of the bucket - I don't lock it down. I let it go 3 days or so like this so I can keep an eye on things easily - it is very reassuring to actually see the krausen. Once a few days have passed and I am sure everything is proceeding well, I lock the lid down and let it go for another couple of weeks.
I tend to peek inside a couple times the first couple weeks to make sure there is some action going on as I have only used buckets. I refuse to spend the money on carboys and kill my back lifting them.
Buckets IMO work juuuust fine.
JLem said:
Thanks, that's good advice, I do own 1 ale pale, so if all goes well I may use it again as a fermenter in the future, but originally it was purchased only for sanitizer bucket. I have 2, 6.5 gal glass carbons, and one 5 gal glass carboy so I will ferment in them as much as possible. I do like to see the krausen and airlock activity, as it is reassuring in this way, especially noobs.
Assuming this was an extract batch, your actual OG should have been pretty much right in this range. So, you can now take a hydrometer reading and see where things stand relative to a reasonably known OG.
I don't think it is possible for a tightly seated lid on a plastic fermentor to leak around the O-ring, Period. Even for a lid placed gently on the top of a bucket the airlock poses a static fluid resistance of about 0.06 psi while the weight of the lid alone would require about 0.20 psi to move enough to vent the pressure. So, because higher pressure gasses seek lower pressure areas through the path of least resistance it should never leak from under the lid. This assumes that the o-ring isn't damaged, the o-ring is fixed to the lid correctly and the lid is not warped in any way. Now if your krausen takes up the head space that's a totally different story...
As far as re-pitching, I wouldn't either... I agree to wait until your hydrometer arrives then test the gravity against the estimated Og. No bubbles doesn't always mean no magic. In the future, with dry yeast, I would try making a starter with DME. Wait to see bubbles and a krausen forming on that, then pitch. I can help you determine if you could have a problem before brewing and save money. If you have to trash something it will be the yeast and not the entire kit.
ThreeSheetsBrewing
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What temp is it at?
Is it possibly to cold?
Is it really warm and it fermented really quick?
Can you give it a taste?
Is it really sweet?
Any alcohol taste?
Sadly these are only mediocre ways to know what's happening. A hydro reading will tell you what is going on in there. Buy a few the next time you get supplies, so you'll have a back up or two.
Is it possibly to cold?
Is it really warm and it fermented really quick?
Can you give it a taste?
Is it really sweet?
Any alcohol taste?
Sadly these are only mediocre ways to know what's happening. A hydro reading will tell you what is going on in there. Buy a few the next time you get supplies, so you'll have a back up or two.
two2many said:I don't think it is possible for a tightly seated lid on a plastic fermentor to leak around the O-ring, Period. Even for a lid placed gently on the top of a bucket the airlock poses a static fluid resistance of about 0.06 psi while the weight of the lid alone would require about 0.20 psi to move enough to vent the pressure. So, because higher pressure gasses seek lower pressure areas through the path of least resistance it should never leak from under the lid. This assumes that the o-ring isn't damaged, the o-ring is fixed to the lid correctly and the lid is not warped in any way. Now if your krausen takes up the head space that's a totally different story...
As far as re-pitching, I wouldn't either... I agree to wait until your hydrometer arrives then test the gravity against the estimated Og. No bubbles doesn't always mean no magic. In the future, with dry yeast, I would try making a starter with DME. Wait to see bubbles and a krausen forming on that, then pitch. I can help you determine if you could have a problem before brewing and save money. If you have to trash something it will be the yeast and not the entire kit.
Actually it could be possible, as the brewers best ale pale does not come with a gasket to seal tightly, I assumed there was one but when I looked the lid did not have one, plus I read a couple other threads out here that describe the same issue. Many ale pales don't have gaskets.
