Mourning my Loss

It seems my latest IPA, brewed Sunday afternoon, has failed to begin fermentation. I'm not sure what happened really... bad yeast I suppose. I pitched a tube of White Labs California Ale, but then nothing happened. After 24 hours, I made a starter with some of the same strain I harvested from a Cream Ale. It got going OK, and I pitched that in after about 48 hours. It's been almost 3 days now, and nothing is happening. It's in a bucket, and it's now been opened twice. No bubbles, no activity. I've raised the temperature to around 68-70, too.

So, when is it time to say goodbye? When should I dump this into the sink?

Have you seen any krauzen, or a ring around the bucket indicating the krauzen had been there?

Don't give up yet, give it a little more time. I've had slow starters before.

What they said. Also, take a SG reading and see if it has dropped at all from the OG reading.

it sounds like you pitched it too cold, when you say you "raised it to 68/70f" what was it before? I always pitch at least 68f. (some people pitch as high as 80-85f) You said you tried pichting an actively fermenting starter into it and still nothing?
thats bites the big one!

I pitched initially around 80F.

No sign of any krausen ever being there. Perfectly flat, no foam/residue anything on our around the surface.

Second pitching was active, but not as active as I would have liked. (It was a desperation move )

It was about 64 in my house, so I raised that up a bit, and moved it closer to my kegerator to try to get some of the heat from the back of it to warm the fermenter.

...and I've shaken the snot out of it twice a day since Sunday.

Also, I've had some that took anywhere from 24-36 hours to get a good start. This one is approaching 72.

I'll take a gravity reading tonight, but I'd be suprised if it had dropped any past the 1.068 OG.

oh i see, you ment you raised the ambient temp. to 68. It sounds like you did everything you were supposed to do right, and the yeast was the problem. Going againts the advice of my hbs i always, repeat ALWAYS make a starter, it seems odd that you did make a starter after the initial yeast no-go, so that is weird it didnt ferment the second time at least.
they say that hope is the last thing to die, so i guess just cross your fingers and wait a few days...ive had this happen once where i had to pour out 5 g. down the drain, and it sucked, but i think its worst to have to find out a month from now after waiting and then bottling that your beer is bad,(its alot easier to dump 5 g. than 50 12 ouncers) so i would just bite the bullet and start over(your talking 4 days now, thats alot of time for bacteria to get a strong hold and beat up whatever yeast decides to start working)

One thing to consider is boiling it again (10 min should be ok) in order to kill any bacteria that may have started growing in there and start over with pitching yeast from a starter or using dry yeast. The boiling, however, may ruin your hop profile and you may have to add some flavor and aroma hops.

Kai

Hmmm.... that's not a bad idea Kai...
I could get another tube of yeast and an ounce of Cascades to dry-hop, and just reboil. Seems like it could work!

Oh yes, as far as yeast starters, I'm sold. I have sworn an oath never to even begin brewing until I have a yeast starter going.

I've always had good results with White Labs. Make sure to check the expiration date, I think it's only good for about 4 months. Also, keep it in the fridge, then room temp just before pitching. If it gets warm in storage it could kill the yeast, or if pitched in wort that's too hot. If you re-boil to kill the kooties, then pitch healthy yeast I'm sure you'll be fine.

Also, at my LHBS they will replace bad yeast. Might be worth checking for you.

In a followup, Asheville Brewers sent me a pack of dry yeast for free, since the first one obviously didn't start working. However, before it arrived, it started fermenting! It was about two days after I repitched some starter I made from some previously harvested yeast. The thing has been bubbling like mad all weekend.

Whew...

Bobbyc:

I used the same yeast a couple of weeks ago for the first time on my IPA, I normally use Munton's which begins fermenting within about 12 hours. My beer was right at 70* when I pitched it. It took a good 36 hours to get rolling. Once it did, it fermented very nicely. I noticed that with this yeast the fermentation process seemed to take an extra 2-3 days longer before it started to settle.
Glad to hear you didn't have to pour it down the drain. Way to stick it out!

Cheers
Sean

Glad to hear the good news.