slow fermentation

I just brewed a 5 gal bath of a Roasted Brown Ale, from papazian,(pg.197) I cooled the wort with an ice bath and brought the temp below 100F. I then poured the wort into my 6.5 gal carboy and shook like crazy. there was plenty of foam on top. I then pitched the yeast, English Ale (WLP002) Everything seemed to go normal, put on the rubber cap and airlock, and waited. this was saturday mid-morn. The temp in my house was around 62-65. which is a little cold. My problem is I still do not have any activity. No foam, no bubbles, no airlock movement. Went went wrong, or will it come to life???? Since sun morning i have put a sweatshirt around the carboy. thnxs

gmeyers said:

I just brewed a 5 gal bath of a Roasted Brown Ale, from papazian,(pg.197) I cooled the wort with an ice bath and brought the temp below 100F. I then poured the wort into my 6.5 gal carboy and shook like crazy. there was plenty of foam on top. I then pitched the yeast, English Ale (WLP002) Everything seemed to go normal, put on the rubber cap and airlock, and waited. this was saturday mid-morn. The temp in my house was around 62-65. which is a little cold. My problem is I still do not have any activity. No foam, no bubbles, no airlock movement. Went went wrong, or will it come to life???? Since sun morning i have put a sweatshirt around the carboy. thnxs

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You mentioned that you brought the temperature "below 100" with an ice bath, but you didn't mention what the temperature actually was. If it was still in the high 90s, you might have cooked the yeast when you added it to your fermenter. You really need to get your temp down a bit more. "Below 100" just plain sounds too hot to me.

my temp of wort was probelly around 90es. I then added it to 2 gals of cool water in my carboy, then toped off to 5 gals, with more cool water, then pitched yeast.

Sounds like your temperature was probably ok...was the yeast that you used fresh? It's rare, but if you're yeast was REALLY old it may not have been any good. Otherwise, I would guess that the ambient temperature in your house (you said it was 62-65) is the most likely culprit, or maybe you're just looking at a slow fermentation.. I would try to warm it up a bit (which you may have already done with the sweatshirt), and see how it's doing tomorrow evening. If you stll have no signs of activity (no airlock activity, no kraeusen, etc), then maybe try re-pitching another batch of yeast. Either way you should be Ok; either it will get active for you in the next day or two, or you can pitch more yeast, and hopefully that will get things rolling along.

Let us know how it turns out!

-Josh

The exp date on the yeast was in july of this summer, I have used a batch with the exp date in the same area, I really hope that the temp will bring things up to par. THe lhbs is one hour away and It would suck to drive that far for a vial of yeast.

hey there,

I know how you are feeling. Checking the carboy every hour to see if you have some kraeusen starting That's what I experienced with my first batch.

Well, the pitching temp seems to be ok since you added cold water. Do you have a stick-on thermometer on your fermenter? What is the actual temp that you read on there?

Your aeration should have been sufficient to. Did you boil the water that you used to top it off? If not, you added even more oxygen

Maybe your yeast is just bad If it hasn't started tomorrow, I suggest adding some dry yeast to salvage the batch.

Also, do some reading about starters. They are not essential for ale fermentation, but give you the peace of mind that your yeast is ok. In general, start reading a lot about fermentation. It were my problematic batches that made me research the subject of fermentation a lot. Eventually you will get an understanding of what is happening and what is essential for a good fermentation.

Kai

I once had one that didn't start until late sunday night from a Sat morning pitch.. LHBS guy thought it might have been stale yeast that just took a long time to hit critical mass.