No krausen= No fermentation

Hey fellow brewers I just recently finished my 3 Ag batch which was a brown ale got it cooled to 70 degrees in about 15 mins which made me very happy. went ahead and pitched 2 packs of muntons dry yeast then got to reading that it should really only be used for extracts so i dehydrated a pack of Windsor and pitched that. it will be a week tomorrow and there is no signs of fermentation starting at all unless this windsor is so clean no kraussen or anything like that. help me out what should i do dump this batch or wait more? i hate to get infection in it since its just sitting in a 68 degree room which is around 65-68 really.

Have you checked the specific gravity? That's a quick way to tell if any fermentation has taken place. I've never had no krauesen (I hate spelling that word), but I suppose it's possible that fermentation took place quickly and quietly.

If you pitched three packs of yeast into a 5G batch, there's a chance that you just missed the party (that could finish a lot of things doublequick). Take the gravity (also, what was OG?). If it's hit its FG, congratulations! You've witnessed ninja-yeast.

I suppose there's an off-chance your thermometer was out by a hundred degrees and you killed your yeast, but I think you'd have noticed if the wort was still burny-hot.

wouldn't 3 packs of dry-yeast be considering over-pitching by ALOT?

like Kai said, it coulda finished up super quick, but i would be worried about some off-flavors.

also, you mentioned you the pitch temp was 70*, but what about the fermentation temp? On my last batch, my ferm temps shot up to 75* and my krausen was gone w/in a day. Only way i noticed there was some was a small ring on the bucket.

*edit* just remembered i read something about this in the new issue of BYO..

"Extreme over-pitching tends to result in the production of unused metabolic building blocks, starvation, yeast death and the subsequent release of those compounds into the beer"

i haven't taken a reading yet which i need too. i really didn't pitch 3 packs since the muntons where the 5g 1's so it was really just 2 packs.

well for fermentation was in a swamp bucket with ice packs in it so with my thermometer there it was reading around 65ish

the og was 1.048

the air lock really hasn't moved no bubbling from when i have checked it.

the reason i am a lil worried is my last batch a american wheat with notty popped the top of the fermentor and i had to replace the airlock 3 times cuz it filled with foam.

i'll take a reading and check back thanks for the super ninja quick replies.

Don't wory about not seeing any airlock activity. It's possible the lid didn't seal completely and the gas escaped there. Like the good folks above have said, take a gravity reading to see where you're at.

riored4v said:

wouldn't 3 packs of dry-yeast be considering over-pitching by ALOT?

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since the first two packets were Munton's which are only like 5-6g, this really wasn't terribly overpitched.

I suspect it fermented 'silently', and the 3rd pack of yeast was simply wasted on finished beer.

sometimes you get NO airlock and no krausen...not often, but it happens.

a hydrometer (assuming you verified its calibrated) doesn't lie.

malkore said:

since the first two packets were Munton's which are only like 5-6g, this really wasn't terribly overpitched.

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yea, i didn't realize how big the munton's packets were I've just started using dry-yeast and the packets i've used were 11g i believe, aside from some montrachet (5g).

but now that i know, i'd agree about it not really being over-pitched.

Thanks

well i just took the reading and it was 1.012 so i transfered.

thanks for words of wisdom.

i got the windsor dirt cheap it was .99 so it wasn't a big loss there. like i said i was just worried as the last batch went crazy.

i look fwd to learning alot here.

chris

Glad to hear you just 'missed' fermentation. its not common, but it does happen.

I'd say your fermentation vessel must not seal tight, since you saw no airlock activity. not a huge area of concern, but something you might wanna investigate to see if you can get a better seal.

this is the first time like this though. its bubbled away the other 7 batches.