Fermenting concern

I brewed a batch of northern brewer nut brown 3 days ago. I have it in a plastic fermentation bucket in my closet. The closet is a steady 72 degrees and no fermentation yet. Should I be concerned? Should I move it to a cooler location ? How cool should I go ? My basement is an average at mid 50's. I live in NY north of the city. a

mtrogers14 said:

I brewed a batch of northern brewer nut brown 3 days ago. I have it in a plastic fermentation bucket in my closet. The closet is a steady 72 degrees and no fermentation yet. Should I be concerned? Should I move it to a cooler location ? How cool should I go ? My basement is an average at mid 50's. I live in NY north of the city. a

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Ideally you want to keep your fermenters between 60 and 65. The fermentation process adds heat to the beer, so keeping the bucket in a colder room reduces the chance of off flavors... esters (fruity aromas and flavors) are more prevalent at higher temps.

Its not unheard of to have little to no action in the airlock for a few days. What type of yeast was used? What was the batch date? It could be you under pitched or the yeasties were not fresh... if you don't get anything in a day or so, repitch another batch of yeast. If your nut brown had a high original gravity consider a starter.

I live in Northwest NJ. Nows a good time to consider a lager in the garage

NBs Nut Brown has an estimated OG of 1.044. If you pitched 1 pack of yeast you can expect a temperature rise of approximately 5°. If your wort is at 72° now you will most likely get off flavors or fusel alcohols which could make the beer undrinkable. A cooler location would be advisable. This suggestion may be a safety hazard, but what is the temperature near the top of your basement steps?

Are you sure it is not fermenting? If it is really not fermenting after 3 days, then something is not right. Aside from opening and looking for krausen, you can shine a bright LED light down through the top of the lid and look for a krausen shadow.

The temp is OK, a few degrees cooler might be slightly better. NB shows Nottingham Dry or Wyeast 1945 liquid for this. Optimum temperature for the Nottingham is 68-70, 66-74 for the Wyeast 1945. As flars wrote, temperature rises some during fermentation. My LHBS sells adhesive thermometer strips to stick on the side of the bucket. It gives an indication of the temperature and temperature rise.

I have learned from the info here to keep your temps in the mid 60's not high 60's,,,or you will have a mess once fermentation takes off

PackerfaninSanDiego said:

I have learned from the info here to keep your temps in the mid 60's not high 60's,,,or you will have a mess once fermentation takes off

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Yep. It depends on the yeast and on the OG.

Ok so I have moved the pail all around my house and finally found (I think) a good place that hovers in the mid 60's. Now how long do I wait until I re pitch ? Is this all for nothing ? Has it been too long since my brew date (1/21) ? Do I have to pitch the same exact yeast as the first time ? Basically I'm lost as I've never had this happen before. What do I do ????

Well.....I was waiting to hear how you verified that it did not ferment. A hydrometer reading is the best way, but evidence of krausen is also a good way. Bubbling air locks can be deceiving sometimes.

As you may or may not know already, the entire vigorous ferment phase can be over with in 24-48 hours.

No krausen, and it didn't bubble once in the airlock. I didn't take a reading but I'm pretty sure I don't need too. I think I can safely say it hasn't fermented yet.

Nope! You can't. Not without visually seeing no Krausen and a hydro reading. Bubbling means absolutely nothing. Could be a leak at the lid or grommet or airlock. Get your hydrometer sanitized and take a reading. See what your gravity reading shows and go from there. I put a short video up a little while back where I split a 10 gallon batch into 2-6.5 gallon fermentors with one having everything sealed up and one with out a good seal so the CO2 snuck out elsewhere. One bubbled away and the other never bubbled at all. Both went exactly the same through fermentation and are still exactly the same as far as hydro reading. BUBBLES MEANS NOTHING! Take a hydro reading.

OK - it would seem that the yeast was dead from the start.

As far as sitting for a week, it would depend on how sanitary everything was.

If sanitary, then bacteria may not have had a chance to start. I'd give it a go with new yeast.

You don't necessarily need to pitch the exact same yeast. S-05 or Nottingham will work on this.

Ok so I'll pitch some more yeast and see if that works. Do I need to re aerate before I pitch again ?

It won't hurt. But the S-05 and Notty dry are generally insensitive to aeration.

Thanks for all the help but it was all a false alarm. I took a gravity reading before I pitched more yeast and it turns out that it did ferment after all.

Just remember for the future, checking the gravity via hydrometer will tell you far more about how your beer is or isn't progressing than everyone on this forum combined.