Does a High Gravity mean slow start to fermentation?

I decided to use a dry yeast for the IPA, and have no activity 12 hours in.

No its not High Gravity beers that cause slow starts; its impatience. The more impatient you are the slower the start.

high gravity = increased saucyness

Hmmm, I wonder if this sticky might have an answer to your question?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-start-43635/

Or the oft repeated question, How do you know fermentation hasn't started?

Are you going by bubbles in the airlock?

Don't...

Remember, you should never use a cheap chinese plastic airlock as a "fermentation Gauge," it's not...It's an airlock, nothing more, a VALVE to release excess CO2, to keep from blowing the lid off the fermentor...If it's not bubbling that just means that there's not enough CO2 to climb out of the airlock, or the CO2 is just forming a nice cushion on top of the beer like it's supposed to, or the airlock is askew, or it is leaking out the cheap rubber grommet, or you have a leak in the bucket seal...all those are fine...if CO2 is getting out then nothing's getting in....

Over half of my beers have had no airlock activity...

The only gauge of fermentaion is your hydrometer. And it's too soon to worry about it. Wait til 72 hours after pitching and take a reading....I foy have any decrease in gravity then yes it is fermenting.

This is a good blog to read....http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Think_evaluation_before_action/

Apparently I jinx myself by starting this thread. I came home from work today and found my stopper blown clear off my carboy. Luckily i had some towels around it to protect it from the light, these same towels saved me from a terrible mess. I gotta learn to relax with this whole fermentation thing.

Thanx for the direction

Red

High gravity can indeed make it harder for yeast to rehydrate. Its a good reason to always hydrate your dry yeast, even on an avg. gravity brew.

RedOctober said:

I came home from work today and found my stopper blown clear off my carboy.

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Sounds like you should try using a blow off tube on your carboy.

Go do Defiant Brewery in PR at 8 pm this Wednesday. Look for ESB Dave. He will tell you anything you need to know.


P.S. Bring home brew.

The IPA I made last month didn't start fermenting until 3 days later (or at least my bubbler was not bubbling).

Ben25 said:

Go do Defiant Brewery in PR at 8 pm this Wednesday. Look for ESB Dave. He will tell you anything you need to know.


P.S. Bring home brew.

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Ben, I would love to come to Defiant Brewery. It has been my intention to get there for a few weeks now, but I have to run several meetings at work early in the morning on Thursdays and I know that if I get an opportunity to drink tasty beer I'll never make it to work on time. lol. I do have an assistant but she's out with an illness, but rest assured as soon as I can make it there, I will!

And thanks for the invite!

Christian said:

Sounds like you should try using a blow off tube on your carboy.

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I did think about a blowoff, but I had what looked like 1 to 1.5 of carboy space left and figured it would be enough. It wasnt, lesson learned.

In addition to what Revvy posted, permit me to add something.

Lag time is not necessarily dependent on the gravity of the wort. It is dependent on the amount of yeast pitched. If you experience significant lag time, it's primarily because you didn't pitch enough yeast. Use the Mr Malty calculator to determine how much yeast you should pitch.

Bob