Longest lag before activity

I brewed a mild yesterday, 1.048 and oxygenated well using pure o2. Pitched one vial (no starter) of whitelabs WLP013 London ale. Pitched at 72, ferm now at 70. It has been 18 hours and no sign of activity. I don't recall experiencing such a lag before.

I had a kolsch I boiled and pitched a Wyeast 2575 and never saw one single bubble in my air lock. I left in my fermenter at 64 degrees for a month just to be doing it. I pulled it out and tested the gravity and it had fallen from 1.049 to 1.016. I left it for another week and got the FG down to 1.014. So, that's five full weeks of fermenting and the air lock never saw any action. I've been lagering this one for about a month now and it's almost ready for kegging.

The only difference in my story and yours is that I did pitch mine with a starter. I don't know if that made the difference or not, but I always pitch with a starter.

You did have a krausen, didn't you? I couldn't imagine a kolsch without a krausen.

Update: I do nowhave a few yeast colonies and the blow-off hose is showing positive pressure. Holding at 70F.

Hi there,

I'm having the same problem. I pitched WLP013 (with starter) in my low gravity batch (1.039SG) and more than 24hs latter I can't see any activity on the blow off tube.
I've never faced such a long lagtime before, I'm a bit worried about it. How should I proceed? How your batch turned out?

thanks.

The longest I have had was somewhere over 12 hours. It was not going at 12 hours when I had to leave the house. 9 hours later it was at full tilt. Most start within 6 hours.

Hi there,

just an up date.
I opened my fermentation bucket in order to decide to pitch another yeast or not.
I saw krausen formation on the walls
I collected a sample to check in my refractometer and the wlp013 already "consumed" 4 brix :rockin:

I guess the wlp013 is just doing it's job discreetly this time.

cheers!

duckredbeard said:

I brewed a mild yesterday, 1.048 and oxygenated well using pure o2. Pitched one vial (no starter) of whitelabs WLP013 London ale. Pitched at 72, ferm now at 70. It has been 18 hours and no sign of activity. I don't recall experiencing such a lag before.

Click to expand...

Check this thread. I had never had such a long lag-time prior to this.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/sluggish-yeast-question-425899/