Fermentation can take 24 to 72 hrs to show visible signs.

ok hopefully its fine. Thanks

OG 1.055 is a big brew. the yeast is working hard eating and growing. Give the little buggers a chance. Did you make a sterter for the yeast or use dry yeast ? What temerature your brew at ?

I used Liquid Yeast. Temp is right at 68 deg. Should i take a grav reading today or just wait and hope? haha

Brentk14 said:

I used Liquid Yeast. Temp is right at 68 deg. Should i take a grav reading today or just wait and hope? haha

Click to expand...

Did you make a starter? Liquid yeast can take a while to get going if you pitched directly from the smack pack/vial. I'd wait another day, then take a gravity reading if there is still no activity.

Didnt use a starter. Definitely should have. I'll just play the waiting game.

Iordz said:

RDWHAHB!
Lag times can be as long as 3 days, try not to worry about it.

Click to expand...

Iordz, you are so 1337 right now

I haven't seen any signs after about 55 hours in the fermenter.

I used a Winter Warmer kit from Listermanns here in Cincinnati that included a dry yeast packet. If I don't see something by tonight, I think I will pick up some more yeast and pitch it again. The packet had not expired, but I'm wondering if it was a bad packet?

On a side note, this is my second batch. The first one I did was so active after 24 hours, it actually popped the lid off the bucket.....twice! I went from one extreme to another.

Fatgodzilla said:

OG 1.055 is a big brew.

Click to expand...

I beg to differ. 1.147 is a "big brew". 1.055 is a session beer.

I had similar problems when using liquid yeast for the first time.
I just poured the vile into my .1070 brew, and moved it into my 60-degree basement.

24 hours later, no activity.

I think I made 3 mistakes:
1- I should have made a starter, despite instructions on tube.
2- Higher gravity brews need more yeast regardless
3- A chilly basement is not the best place to start fermentation.

Fortunetly, by hour 30, it was cruising right along at normal speed. Though lesson learned.

nick

This may sound weird, but tell me about the bubbles you see. Usually when I brew my airlock seems like it is percolating. But with this American Amber it's just a little bit of bubbles in the airlock. Are bubbles...just bubbles or does it need to percolate?

Thanks,
popscube

popscube said:

This may sound weird, but tell me about the bubbles you see. Usually when I brew my airlock seems like it is percolating. But with this American Amber it's just a little bit of bubbles in the airlock. Are bubbles...just bubbles or does it need to percolate?

Thanks,
popscube

Click to expand...

The airlock doesn't "need" to do anything at all. All it's doing is releasing the CO2 produced by fermentation, so if you have any activity in the airlock, something is going on. If you don't have any activity in the airlock, it probably means you don't have a tight seal and the CO2 is escaping somewhere else. RDWHAHB

Ok, so a long as there is activity I'm good? I know I got a good seal, the slightest amount of pressure on the lid causes the airlock to move. I guess need was a bad term, but should there be a certain amount of activity in the airlock?

As long as everything is tight you will have airlock activity. However, if you you have something loose i.e. the lid of the bucket or the stopper not in tight you will not get airlock activity. That is why people say airlock activity is not the best way to judge if your brew is done fermenting.

Krausen is a good measure and of course hydrometer readings will remove all doubt.

Should I open my fermenter and take a reading? It's been in since Saturday, and I've had very little activity? Or should I give it the full week and then check?

something tells me you already know the answer to that. My first batch never had a single bubble come out of the airlock even though the pressure was so great the slightest push on the lid would knock the airlock. RDWHAHB

Yeah, I do....but it would have been better if you would had said, I had not a single bubble come out, and the beer was great anyway.

I'm brewing a wheat beer. It sat in the fermenter for over 27 hours with no activity. I originally used white labs hefeweizen IV yeast but repitched with muntons dry yeast last night after 27 hours of no activity. The airlock is bubbling steadily this morning, perhaps from the white labs, perhaps from the muntons, not sure.

After reading all these posts, perhaps I should have waited up to 3 days for the white labs to start working. However, not having the benfit of this knowledge beforehand, I simply repitched with the muntons dry. If the white labs was good but was truly getting geared up, what affect would both the white labs hefeweizen IV and munton dry yeast have on the final taste.

The muntons came with the kit which was an american wheat. I wanted a more hefeweizen taste so I substituted (per advice of the LHBS) white labs hefeweizen for the muntons dry. I'm thinking that while this may not be the intended taste for the kit, the final beer should still taste pretty good, despite mixing different yeasts in the fermenter. Any thoughts?

It'll be fine, no matter which yeast is actually doing the job. You might have had more hefe taste if you let the hefe yeast do its work, but it sure is hard to wait! Either way, the beer will still taste good.

YooperBrew said:

It'll be fine, no matter which yeast is actually doing the job. You might have had more hefe taste if you let the hefe yeast do its work, but it sure is hard to wait! Either way, the beer will still taste good.

Click to expand...

Excellent...........

I dropped in the primary Sunday afternoon, started bubbling, then quit, I know you guys have told me not to worry, on one hand I am not on the other I do not want my first batch to taste like sock-water. I am holding stead-fast, but when should I become concerned ie. yank the lid off, take hydro readings, add yeast freak out, dial 911 or the unthinkable... down the drain

whats the best way to aerate and how much oxygen does it need? with an activator of liquid yeast whats the best way to do a starter? i have a flask and airlock. it came with malt. i dont have a stir plate and whats the best way to keep it at 72* f.? and if i do a starter how long after activity begins do i pitch it? thanks for the guidance

I made an impromptu batch of APA. I had no starter, but I pitched 2 vials of wlp 01. I always make starters, and this was a bad idea when I did it. It has been 12 hours and no ferm yet. Can I pitch a pack of nottingham still? Should have used it last night.

2 vials (assuming they weren't at or near expiry) is enough yeast without a starter. 12 hours is too soon to worry however, give it another day or two before you pitch more yeast.

What temperature do you have it at? Did you oxygenate in some fashion? Both of those factors will affect the lag time.

the exp was Feb 3rd. I am a little worried. I did aerate with pump and stone for an hour (no oxygen yet). BTW it is a 5 gal batch.

I think you'll be fine, as I mentioned 12 hours is way too soon to worry. Give it a couple more days.

Frankie says - Relax (DWHAHB).

Alright... I was determined not to post the cliche beginner's question, but this is batch 2 and the same things appear to be going on. Here's the scoop:

Batch one was a pale ale. I started it last friday and it bubbled away and fermented down to the desired specific gravity by Wednesday. I had been concerned because it only appeared to ferment for about a day and a half, then the bubbles decreased to one every minute or so, but I left it until it had attained the 1.007 gravity. I racked into the carboy, and it has basically been sitting there doing absolutely nothing; it doesn't even bubble. It has brown little floaties in it. I figured there was a good chance that this brew was not going to go well, so I started batch 2. There was, however, a good layer of gray sediment at the bottom of the bucket, and now there is a small layer of the same at the bottom of the carboy leading me to believe the yeast did a fair amount of reproducing.

Batch 2 is a Sam Adams clone. I brewed the wort on Friday night. I made a yeast slurry out of packeted yeast with 85 degree water and let it sit for 20 minutes. I pitched the yeast into the wort which was at about 80 degrees in the fermenter. I think the seal on my bucket might be non-functional, but basically it has not shown any exterior signs of fermentation so I took a peek yesterday (after about 24 hours) and it appeared to have a nice foamy head on it; I assumed it might cause the airlock to bubble after a little pressure had built or something. Today, the whole head of foam is gone and I again just have little brown floaties.

So the concern is: am I consistently doing something wrong to cause incomplete fermentation? I don't want to waste $30 on another batch of ingredients just to mess it up. I sanitize with iodophor then rinse with my chlorinated tap water b/c it's too cold/humid for the equipment to air dry in any reasonable amount of time.
But both batches, if they really fermented at all, appear to have fermented within about 1 1/2 days of cooking. I stored them both in a bedroom closet that is pretty steadily at 68-70 degrees.

I'd love to DWHAHB but like some kind of mother I can't help but be concerned that my babies are sick.

Well I just measured the SG of the 2nd batch, which had started at 1.038 when I first brewed and is now at 1.018 so I suppose it is working, but what's the deal with these brown clumpy floaty things?

It sounds like everything is going exactly as it should. Those brown clumpy floaties are yeasts that are globbed up together. Even though the majority of fermentation is finished, they are still working to clean up off flavors in your beer. As you can see, some remain in suspension for a while, but some drop out and fall to the bottom. The ones that remain in suspension the longest are the ones that will eventually carbonate your beer.

the hardest part of brewing is waiting. But your patience with be rewarded! I promise.

Hey guys,

I just made my first batch ever last night. I used a True Brew Brown Ale kit, but eventually when I feel much more comfortable I'd like to move beyond the kits.

I followed the instructions exactly. Once I poured the wort into my primary, it said to wait until the temperature is below 90 (even though I've read other numbers elsewhere). I waited until 80. The gravity was 1.042, and the kit said it should be between 1.042 and 1.044 (I believe, doing this from memory).

I poured the yeast directly from the packet into the mixture, because that's what it said to do. I've been trying to read other posts about my problem, and in those posts I've read that it's helpful to "wake up" the yeast instead of just pouring it directly. I'll do this next time, but I did not this time. I then waited 10 minutes and gently stirred in the yeast.

This was about 15 hours ago. I've seen no activity in my airlock. I opened the lid, and it looks pretty much the same as it did last night. Room temperature is approximately 60 degrees. Does this indicate dead yeast? Is there any way I can tell for sure what the problem is? Maybe I just haven't waited long enough, but it says I should see bubbles within 24 hours and I don't see any activity at all.

I hope my first batch isn't ruined. That would be disheartening.

Try not to worry about it! It should be fine. It's true that occasionally you get a bad package of yeast, but you should wait 3 days or so to worry about it!

This thread has alot of info on yeast: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=43635

Wait at least another 36 hours before you start to freak out...

Nope, not dead yeast. Fermentation can take a couple days to happen and you don't want to rely on airlock activity to judge fermentation, use your hydrometer for that. I'm sure everything is fine. Conrgrats on the first batch.

Thanks for the responses guys.

I saw a couple other posts regarding fermenting time, including the one linked above. One of the posts had the same question as me, but he had waited 3 or 4 days and was told it was most likely ruined. I was just hoping to be proactive and avoid such a scenario.

Even after 3 days I'd let it go a full week and go by hydrometer readings and not the naked eye. I've had beers that for whatever reason barely blipped the airlock the whole time, but finished fine...I figured they did they activity while I was asleep.

Sometimes just giving the fermentor a shake can rouse the yeasties. I've wondered about dry pitching yeast (I usually rehydrate) sometimes I wonder if the yeasties sometimes get water logged and sink to the bottom of the fermentor before they have a chance to start dancing.

I was worried about the fact that there was no activity after 3 days on my apfelwein. Yesterday I needed to get something out of the closet where I keep my carboys, and not wanting to knock it over while rummaging around, I moved it for a bit, then put it back. Evidently that was enough to kickstart fermentation, and it's been bubbling like crazy ever since.

Tourney3p0 said:

Thanks for the responses guys.

I saw a couple other posts regarding fermenting time, including the one linked above. One of the posts had the same question as me, but he had waited 3 or 4 days and was told it was most likely ruined. I was just hoping to be proactive and avoid such a scenario.

Click to expand...

I would disagree that most likely it was ruined after 3 days. Even if the yeasts was dead you could still pitch new yeast after 3 days and get beer that is just fine. It does increase the chance of an infection but it is still not likely.
I say give it 3 days. I've had beer that has taken nearly that long to start. However it is not going to hurt it to rehydrate some more yeast and add that to the fermenter if this would ease your mind.
In the future, rehydrating the yeast before pitching will shorten the lag time and 15 hours is much too short to tell if something is wrong.

Craig

Tourney3p0 said:

... Room temperature is approximately 60 degrees. ...

Click to expand...

That's a bit chilly for most strains of ale yeast. If you can bump it up to ~67oF-70oF you'll probably see more vigourous fermentation. Also, did you aerate the wort well? Makes a big difference. Yeast needs oxygen.

I'll give it a couple days to see what happens.

There are many ideas in this thread that I've read about in the other threads but the kit I bought didn't mention at all. I figured they were more for other brewing styles and if I needed them then the instructions would have told me to do so.

Thanks for not treating me too much like a newbie. I'm going to read some more advanced material on the subject and not rely on the kit instructions. Hopefully before too long I'll be buying individual ingredients and putting them together myself.

Have you had a chance to look at howtobrew.com? I really like that online book, and learned so much from it that I bought the "real" book of the same name. That will really explain (in layman's terms) what to expect, and what's happening in your brew. I really like that he tells you WHY to do certain things, but not so over the top technical that I can't understand it!

I just made my first AG brew on Mon and still haven't seen any activity in the airlock. I poured it into the primary at around 4:00 PM on Monday afternoon.

I went out today and looked and it looked like the water inside my airlock was being suck into the fermentor.

Has anyone seen or heard of this before?

I have ordered more yeast in case it's the yeast but unfortunately it's going to be 2-3 days before I get it, is that going to be a problem?

Being only my second batch and given the amount of time that I spend reading on this forum. I think i am starting to get this brewing thing figured out. I brewed my second batch last night and pitched my yeast at like 1030 I was worried at lunch today because it was not bubbling yet. It was the first liquid yeast vile that i had used, which i liked because it was handy, as opposed to all the measuring and preparing of dry yeast (less sanitation). I then read this forum and it really calmed me about the whole thing. I am really anal about sanitation so i know or at least hope that is never an issue. But i did what you all said i waited and it was bubbling at 600 today. I am really glad that i didn't have to do anything with it. This brewing thing is easier than you think once you do your homework. My only problem is i keep forgetting to take hydrometer readings HUH!!! I had it out lastnight and was going to take one before i seal it up and i friggin forgot. Oh well, I am doing a honey wheat that i want to turn out good, so i am planning on leaving it in the primary for 3 weeks and then bottle, just because I am not going to secondary... It should be good by then.

So these guys on here know what they are talking about. JUST WAIT.....