12 Hour Lag Time Normal?

Hello all! I just brewed my first batch today with my wife. We made an American Hefe using an unhopped wheat extract. Everything seemed fine until about 10 hours after closing the fementation lid and adding the airlock. We have yet to see any signs of activity.

We used a Wyeast 1010 smack pack. Approximately 13 hours before pitching the yeast I "smacked the pack", and saw signs of bag expansion within a few hours. The bag was left at room tempurature through the night and had additional expansion in the morning.

It has been nearly 12 hours and no signs of fermentation in the airlock, and no noticeable foam at the top of the fermentor. Is a 12 hour lag time normal? I read in John Palmer's book to wait it out but after doing some searching I have yet to find an answer?

What would be a reasonable time to wait, and if no activity in that time period is seen should we pitch another yeast?

keep waiting.
it'll be fine, i bet.

Thanks Lou. Did a little further digging and found some answers in another thread. Just a little antsy since most of the literature I've read seemed to indicate some activity within the first 12 hours. Fingers crossed!

the only time i used an activator pack without making a starter first it took over
24 hours for activity in the air lock - beer still turned out fine
i made a starter the next time(about 2 litres worth) and had bubbles in under 2 hours.

Even with a smak-pak you should make a starter. If you start early enough you can double/triple the amount of yeast in the pak.

If you pitch your yeast during kreusen your batch will start fermenting within a couple of hours.

Sounds like you're being too impatient. That's normal.

Me, I just lay back and have another HB! ...I know it's going to happen.

Thanks for all the input. Its bubblin' away now! Next time I will use a starter as it appears the way to go. Thanks again.

The first brew I made took almost 24hr's to fire up. So long as it's bubbling away now, your good to go

You know what is advertised on some of these smack packs is that you dont need a starter. However as you are seeing you still get this long lag time. I never used to use a starter till I joined this group. Everyone said... use a starter... use a starter... so I tried one..... dumped the starter in and the thing took off inside 2 hours!

So all in all, there is more in the smack packs then in the vials but when you make a starter you still get more yeast and a quicker lag time. So what does that mean for this brew...absolutly nothing.... when I did not make a starter some of mine took 24 to 48 hours to start. Meant absolutly nothing in the end. So like HB99 said, crack open another brew

I don't use smack packs anymore partly because the LHBS doesn't carry them; they only have pitchable vials. I alway had at least a 36 hour lag time with smack packs if I didn't use a starter. With the vials it's never more than 24, and even that's a long time.

Well, I use Wyeast with a starter and I get short lag times with good aeration. Even with vials you should make a starter.
You should have a pack of dry yeast as a back up also.

White Labs packaging says it should be working within 5 to 15 hours. So 12 is not horrible.
The only time that I don't use a starter is when I make a three gallon batch of low gravity beer (under 1.040 or so).