Should I re-pitch yeast?

I did one one AHS's Gold Seal California Common Ale kits. AHS describes the Gold Seal kits as: "The Gold Seal line has been designed with the beginner in mind: they are economical and easy to make. Each kit includes our special Gold Seal Add Pack that helps to ensure a successful fermentation as well as an appropriate dry yeast for easy pitching."

I'm coming up on 48 hours and there is absolutely no sign of fermentation. Its currently sitting in a 6 1/2 gallon carboy. I know this is such a common question, but I don't want subpar beer. I followed the instructions to the letter, execpt when rehydrating my yeast. The water was about 70 degrees instead of the recommended 80 degrees. I aerated the hell out of the wort before and after adding my yeast. Following AHS's instructions, I even shook the carboy again with no sign of fermentation after 24 hours. The other thing that I thought as weird was that even though AHS described this as an ale, it came with lager yeast. Could that have anything to do with my problem?

The only solution I can think of is to add more yeast. Please help!

What kind of lager yeast is it? Even though it is a lager yeast, California Common beer (also called steam beer) is a beer made with lager yeast at all temperatures, so you should be ok using it.

What was the sg when you made the kit? And what it is now? Maybe it did ferment without you noticing. That happened to me once- I saw NO signs of fermentation, but when I checked the gravity, the beer was done! I don't know if that's what happened to you (it doesn't really sound like it!) but it's worth a try to check and see if anything at all started.

The yeast is called Superior Lager. I just took a reading and Fermentation has definitely not started. Its still at 1.044, which is the same as my first reading. The recipe states that it should be approximately 1.045, so I'm ok there.

Hmm. That's was I was afraid of! Darn!

Well, do you have more dry yeast at home? Or a LHBS close by to grab some? I guess by tomorrow morning if it doesn't get started that it's time to pitch some more yeast. That lager yeast you have would be a good one, but if you can't get more, a clean fermenting dry yeast like Nottingham would be fine.

I'd give it another 24 hours (I have had up to 72 hour lag times), if there is still no activity, I would re-pitch. It seems highly unlikely to me that your yeast is dead since it was dry yeast and I do not think the 10 degree difference in re-hydrating temp would make a difference (I don't even re-hydrate my dry yeast anymore).

What temp is your carboy sitting at now? Even though lager yeast is meant to ferment colder (when lagering, not when making a steam beer), colder temps will cause it to work more slowly.

Right now the carboy is at about 68 degrees.

How did you aerate your wort? I'm thinking your slow lag time may be due to a lack of oxygen. Not a big deal and not something you can fix now; it just leads to longer than average lags. This happened to me quite a bit when I was starting out.

I aerated by shaking the hell out of the carboy for a few minutes before and after the yeast was pitched. I am not working with any type of aeration kit.

I still think it'll be ok. It should get going by tomorrow. As long as it's got an airlock on it, you're ok to wait it out a bit more.