Fermentation never start, yeast was hot

The problem starts with my wyeast munich lager comming in the mail real hot. I live in Louisiana, and shipping was from Midwest supplies. (had the cold shipping option) order shipped monday I believe.

I immediatley put the smack pack in the fridge when it came in on Thursday. Saturday i made my first starter ever (2L). I only let 2hrs go by after smacking before I pitched it. I never should have gone past this step until it was proofed. It didnt swell much/at all and i proceeded with my starter, finished around 2:00pm Sat.
I used stirstarters.com stir plate on high speed. It stayed around 75F until i pitch around 12:00am Monday. This is not my first batch of the brew (but first to do 10gals.) and i used the same yeast from the same supplier and all. Of couse its Much hotter this month.

Absolutley no signs of fermentation and we're approaching 48hrs. The level of water in the blow-off and jug are equal. It seems absolutley no CO2 has been produced. Midwest has already shipped out a replacement, but i dont think it'll make it here any cooler.
My hydrometer broke so i dont have any actual reading.

ibrew estimated OG @ 1.063
MrMalty advised 3.67L, i pitched 2L.


During these hot months I'll probably start ordering yeast from a closer supplier.

How long can a wort sit ready to ferment (assuming i am great with sanitation)?

Any suggestions/advice?

Ive read several stickies and threads, nobodies situation matched to my satisfaction so i thought id start my own.

I also should add I'm using two 5 gal v-vessels in a keezer.
When I pitched:
One fermenter was at 72F
The other was above 80F, but not by much.
They are currently at 65F, but I intended on dropping to the recommended 55Fish once the action began.

Did your starter ferment out? Pretty easy to tell if you had yeast growth as it will turn milky and usually gets an "edge krausen" on most strains. How did you know the starter was ready to pitch?

Mako,

I had no clue rather it was ready. I went off of everything I've read in these forums.
Which pretty much states: You may never see action in the starter, you may never see krausen, starters rarely fail.
I would say it never got creamy, but neither were alot of the starter on YouTube.
The majority of what I've read says to pitch the starter between 24hr-36hrs. So this is what I went with.

eclipseti3 said:

Mako,

I had no clue rather it was ready. I went off of everything I've read in these forums.
Which pretty much states: You may never see action in the starter, you may never see krausen, starters rarely fail.
I would say it never got creamy, but neither were alot of the starter on YouTube.
The majority of what I've read says to pitch the starter between 24hr-36hrs. So this is what I went with.

Click to expand...

Couple tips. I've NEVER had a starter not get milkier in color and I've made a bunch. It's a visual cue, much like a beer fermenting in a carbony, you can see the yeast density. Second and more important point is that you can check your gravity. If it hasn't fermented out in that time, you have a problem. That all said, lagers are notoriously slow to start and you under pitched. Give it time and I'm 99% sure it will ferment. You likely had some viable yeast and it's just going to take longer and be a bit more stressed than normal. Might not fully attenuate and I'd recommend a diacytl rest to help it clean up when all is said and done. I've had beers take 3 days to show signs of fermentation and they turned out great. Did you aerate well and give it some nutrient?

Need to caveat that I use a stirplate - so my milkier look is because yeast are forced into suspension. You should see yeast at the bottom of your flask increase at a minimum. If you don't have a stirplate, good aeration of the starter and the occasional swirl will help it along.

Yeah, I did a diacytl rest with the last batch, and it turned out great. That's why I was doing twice as much.
I used a stirplate and had it on high the entire time. Since this was my first starter all I had to go on was pics. and vids.
I did use 1/4TSP of Wyeast Nutrients with 200grams DME to 2L of filtered water, boiled 15mins in sauce pan, poured into sterile flask, and
placed in ice bath unitl I pitched the yeast at 68F.

I'm almost certain that the yeast didn't survive delivery. Do you think my wort be ok for 5 days or so until I can re-pitch? Assuming no infections?

You will probably be ok with 5 days everything was sanitized and sealed so I wouldn't worry about it until you get the replacement yeast.

I had a similar experience. I pitched my first batch of yeast on a Saturday and never fermented so I didn't get my replacement until Thursday. Repitched and everything came out fine. As long as you leave it sealed and sanitized it should be ok.

Thanks, for all the replies. I will repitch when the replacement arrives and hopefully all will go well. I sure would hate to have spent my sunday washing/brewing at 100F while sick, to go to waste.

eclipseti3 said:

Thanks, for all the replies. I will repitch when the replacement arrives and hopefully all will go well. I sure would hate to have spent my sunday washing/brewing at 100F while sick, to go to waste.

Click to expand...

Eh, same thing happened to our Oktoberfest. Dead yeast was pitched, waited 7 days to pitch live yeast. All worked out fine and it's lagering at an FG of 1.013.

Mako, "Give it time and I'm 99% sure it will ferment." Good call

Wow, if finally started last night. 100F yeast and 72hrs later it actually started. Probably won't be the best, but as long as my hardwork pays of I don't give a ****.

Thanks again to everyone, I'll think about yall while I'm kickin back.