first brew tuesday.....

no action as of yet?....time to worry or rdwhahb
edit: noticed the sticky sorry



dave

I am just starting out as well, but from what I know so far as long as you pitched the yeast at a reasonable temp 70-90 degrees and never above 120 you should wait a bit longer before you worry. Plus, you cannot always rely on the airlock to tell you that fermentation has started or finished as I recently read on this forum that plenty of people have missed fermentation from a leaky airlock.

Did you take an original gravity reading with a hydrometer? That is your best friend when it comes to judging fermentation completion.

dpt222 said:

I am just starting out as well, but from what I know so far as long as you pitched the yeast at a reasonable temp 70-90 degrees and never above 120 you should wait a bit longer before you worry. Plus, you cannot always rely on the airlock to tell you that fermentation has started or finished as I recently read on this forum that plenty of people have missed fermentation from a leaky airlock.
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You should pitch yeast between 65 and 75, better yet closer to 70. Anything higher is bad for the yeast and will give you 'off' flavors in your beer. Up over 100F is way too hot.

Regarding the lag time, give it some time (RDWDAHB). If it's been a real long time, then maybe consider taking some action. Also, make sure your fermenter (a bucket I assume) is sealed air-tight (if not, you won't see bubbles), or possibly your fermentation went so quickly you missed the active bubbling.

Most likely it's ok. Check the gravity in a day or two to see if it has fermented. Let us know how it turns out.

thanks for the advice....
initial gravity was off by a few points and i pitched at about 78 degrees .. so i guess i will wait and see


dave

You should pitch yeast between 65 and 75, better yet closer to 70. Anything higher is bad for the yeast and will give you 'off' flavors in your beer. Up over 100F is way too hot.

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Will just pitching yeast at about 90, as long as it's kept at normal temp during fermentation (e.g. 60-75 for top-fermenters), create off flavors? Instructions for my True Brew kit said to pitch below 90, but I know that Papazian says to pitch between 68-78.

From what I've read, they say the higher temp causes an 'orgy' of fermentation, and it's this wild time that creates some esters and phenols. Your beer will be drinkable, but it may have some off flavors. I'd just chalk it up to experience. I'm surprised the kit said to pitch that high, considering it would take 5 gals at 90F a little while to get down to room temp.

I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Let us know how it turns out.

it also takes 90F beer a long time to drop down to 70F. 5 gallons has a lot of thermal insulation due to its mass and density.
add to that the fact that fermentation produces some heat, it can really cause issues.

but you won't know til the beer is done, and even then some esters and phenols will mellow with aging.

i've seen kits that suggest rehydrating the yeast at up to 90F, then pitching into cooler wort.