Hello everyone

Hello,

My first post, so I'll try keep it short. Hello to everyone out there with an interest in all things beer!

I have a problem with my first attempt to brew in about three years. Can you help?

I've successfully produced 5 gallons of wort from 6kgs of pale malt with an o.g of 1060. Did this yesterday.

I pitched my yeast starter this morning at 20 degrees (10g of dried yeast made up with 60g of dried malt extract under airlock in a milk bottle since Friday evening).

So far there's been very little action, so to speak! I'm sure my brewing technique and the yeast starter were both sound.

I was thinking of "dropping" the whole lot into another bin in order to try and get some air into it for the yeast to get going???

Your advice would be appreciated.

David

Welcome.

It seems that you got your procedures backwards. You should have made the starter first, a couple of days prior to brewing.

For now I would recommend just pouring your yeast into the wort before it gets infected.

Remember, you "start" with a "starter"...

I made the starter up on Friday and have already pitched this morning, yet it hasn't done much.

Patience, your yeast has to get accustomed to the wort it is to ferment. This may take up to a day to start.
You don't need to make a starter for dry yeast and really this do not help dry yeast as the nutrients contained within the dry yeast is rapidly used up.
Instead try rehydrating the yeast on brewday and pouring that onto the wort.
You'll still get a lag time but don't sweat it.
By tomorrow you'll have action in your wort.

Welcome to this site. A lot of good info to be found here for serious brewers as well as novices.
A great bunch of guys n gals also I might add.

FWIW I never rehydrate my dry yeast, I just pitch it onto the top of my wort and with the correct wort tempertures, never not have my beer start.

Any time I have began to worry about it starting, I would aerate and it would kick off. I have a stainless stone and a pump that I use. Its like Magic sometimes. I have had some that taken off rather quick, and some 18 to 20 hrs. But aeration helps, Shake it around a bit if it has not started yet see what that does

I think you just need to be patient. I am assuming you used a liquid yeast. You stated that you just pitched your yeast this morning. Even with a large starter I usually have about a 12hr. lag time with liquid yeast. Depending on the size of your starter and the yeast used it could take 24hrs. or longer before you see any activity.

Also, did you aerate you wort? This should have been done right after cooling it to pitchable temps.

Edit: Just noticed that you said you used dry yeast. Still just be patient!

A brew can take up to 3 days to get going.
We get question like this many many times and every one I can think of ended with "Yeah, I was worring about nothing, it's going well now"

Good luck and happy brewing.

You were correct in that leaving it and being patient has worked.

What a relief!! I've got a good yeast head on it this morning and its looking good.

Thanks for the advice fellas.