Fermentation can take 24 to 72 hrs to show visible signs.

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This thread cracks me up. I brewed White House Honey Porter from a kit on Saturday around noon. (this is my third brew) Pitched and placed my fermentation bucket in a swamp cooler since my basement is a little warm. No activity as of 9 p.m. last night. (57 hours). Started reading this thread to convinve myself not to panic. Gave the bucket a little rock and apparently unleashed Mt Vesuvius! Air Lock immediately filled with amber-y goodness and the excess threatened to blow off the airlock (and the lid).

My advice, like many others: be patient! :mug:
 
I did a Brown Ale on Sunday Night (first brew in 20+ years), I started the Yeast as directed, and in as little as an hour I had bubbles, now at 36 Hrs, still a bubble every second to a second and a half, the fermenter was at 65* last night when I lasered it. I have about a half inch to an inch of foam on top, and the escaping gasses smell like good beer, I am so glad I picked this hobby back up!
 
Having a bit of a crisis myself right now. Brewed an IPA on Sunday. Partial boil, cooled off to about 74-75F and pitched yeast, S-04, put into swamp cooler, next morning temp was 60-62F and no signs of fermentation or any krauzen. Been pretty much the same through to this morning, wednesday. Tried warming it up a little yesterday and the fermometer on the bucket was showing 62-64F and, again, no real signs of action so this morning I turned up the electric blanket type thing wrapped around the fermenter a bit higher and warmed it up a bit more, maybe around 66F. Left it with a blanket for insulation over the top and turned off the heat. Hoping that there's some action started when I get back this evening or I'm going to consider re-pitching. :(

Really hoping that, now I've written this in this thread, when I get home tonight it's going ballistic and the fermenter temp is still around the mid 60s:rockin:
 
Ogri said:
Having a bit of a crisis myself right now. Brewed an IPA on Sunday. Partial boil, cooled off to about 74-75F and pitched yeast, S-04, put into swamp cooler, next morning temp was 60-62F and no signs of fermentation or any krauzen. Been pretty much the same through to this morning, wednesday. Tried warming it up a little yesterday and the fermometer on the bucket was showing 62-64F and, again, no real signs of action so this morning I turned up the electric blanket type thing wrapped around the fermenter a bit higher and warmed it up a bit more, maybe around 66F. Left it with a blanket for insulation over the top and turned off the heat. Hoping that there's some action started when I get back this evening or I'm going to consider re-pitching. :(

Really hoping that, now I've written this in this thread, when I get home tonight it's going ballistic and the fermenter temp is still around the mid 60s:rockin:
Click to expand...

I found a long time ago that hydrating my yeast (S-04) at the beginning of my brew session in lukewarm water, made a HUGE difference in the fermentation reaction time. Session ale or Double IPA alike, hydrating those yeast cells with clean warm water plumps them up nicely and gets them ready to tackle those sugars. Kind of like stretching a balloon before you blow it up. :p
 
BierMuncher said:
I found a long time ago that hydrating my yeast (S-04) at the beginning of my brew session in lukewarm water, made a HUGE difference in the fermentation reaction time. Session ale or Double IPA alike, hydrating those yeast cells with clean warm water plumps them up nicely and gets them ready to tackle those sugars. Kind of like stretching a balloon before you blow it up. :p
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Have always had pretty spectacular krauzen action from anywhere within 8 to 24 hours, maybe once it took about 48 before taking off like a rocket, until this. When I got home last night it had actually started getting a very light sprinkling of krauzen forming. It's still the least dynamic attenuation I've ever witnessed, so far. I've got the fermenter sitting at 64-66F right now and I'd imagine that when I get home tonight things might well be starting to rock and roll in a manner that I'm more familiar with regards krauzen. Still, 4 whole days in and I'd bet it hasn't even attenuated a 1/10th of what it should eventually. At least the temps are low so I can always raise them bit by bit.

Previously just sprinkled my dry yeast on top and then mixed in whilst aerating. Think I'll give rehydrating a shot in my next brew, either that or just go the whole hog and do a starter. I know most people use DME for their starters, but is regular cane sugar and water inadvisable to use as a starter wort??
 
Never do a starter on dry yeast. If MrMalty suggests more than 1 pack, just buy another pack. Dry yeast is packaged at its peak so making a starter with them will actually deplete their reserves.
 
After 4 days the English Brown Ale has stopped perculating, and is holding a steady pressure keeping the airlock on it's toes... I might let it sit for another week or I might transfer it into a Secondary on Sunday when I brew a Belgian Wheat, it all depends on if there's some pressure in the fermenter still. Of one thing I'm sure; I'm a lot more patient this time around than when I tried this 20 years ago... and those Beers were fantastic... I can only imagine how these are going to turn out, I fear that tmy first rewarding swallow will turn my lovely Bride into a Homebrew Widow...
 
bleme said:
Never do a starter on dry yeast. If MrMalty suggests more than 1 pack, just buy another pack. Dry yeast is packaged at its peak so making a starter with them will actually deplete their reserves.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I'll just try re-hydrating and pitch.

BTW, the current batch finally took off:ban:. So that took from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday evening, a little longer than 72 hours, to show even the slightest signs of progress but last night, Thursday, I got home and was treated to a full krauzen of about 3 or 4 inches deep covering the surface in the bucket. Fermometer holding steady at 64 to 66F.
 
Hah, I have to remember that before doing anything, just make sure your bung is tight! Got to the point of pitching a tad more yeast with some sugar solution only to realise that all the activity had slightly dislodged the bung and therefore the airlock wasn't bubbling...
 
So yeah, my airlock isn't bubbling. And it's been 3 1/2 days, so I used a small flashlight to check thru the airlock hole in the top and there is a krausen and it looks fairly active. So I guess when I popped in the airlock it probably came loose.:eek:
Anyway I guess I probably won't see any airlock bubbling now since I have twice pulled the airlock off to check the krausen inside. I can't transfer to secondary for another 4 or 5 days anyway.

HosenHausen Brews LLC
Bottled: Chocolate Santa, a hearty chocolate porter
Frank's Maple Porter, a dark porter
"Drink Like a Fish!"
 
Peak0db said:
I'm brewing a Scottish ale problem is fermentation started right away went great for 2 days then faltered after waiting it out for 9 days I figured I would move it to a secondary carboy still nothing . Should I try pitching yeast again to see if I can jump start fermentation any help would be appreciated ?
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This beer came out good some say it's great but I'm not part of that crowd it's good and drinkable now I'm on to a stout playing the waiting game
 
MattsFlyShop said:
I did a Brown Ale on Sunday Night (first brew in 20+ years), I started the Yeast as directed, and in as little as an hour I had bubbles, now at 36 Hrs, still a bubble every second to a second and a half, the fermenter was at 65* last night when I lasered it. I have about a half inch to an inch of foam on top, and the escaping gasses smell like good beer, I am so glad I picked this hobby back up!
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OK, so someone describe the smell/taste of an infected brew... if a Brown Ale (4 weeks post brew) at bottling time smells ok but tastes like burning rubber or even a little like iodine is that a normal thing at this stage?
 
MattsFlyShop said:
OK, so someone describe the smell/taste of an infected brew... if a Brown Ale (4 weeks post brew) at bottling time smells ok but tastes like burning rubber or even a little like iodine is that a normal thing at this stage?
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I would say, NO.

Sounds like you might have some chlorophenol type compound there.

When you say "like iodine", is it a medicinal, band-aid type flavour? The "burnt rubber" suggests acrid or sort of an astringent flavour, but does it resemble a plastic-y type of Taste?

What puzzles me is that you say that it smells fine.:confused:

My only experience of a truly infected brew, to my knowledge, was that it tasted absolutely fine but the aroma from the fermenter had a slightly moldy hint, kind of like penicillin. Have another brew that had a bit of an oil paint/thinners smell about it and tasted a mixture of sweet, bitter and slightly sour but that might have been some other cause, although both brews were going at the same time and right next to each other, right enough. I attributed the off flavours and smells to a possibly too high fermentation temp at some point in the first few days.
 
Ogri said:
I would say, NO.

Sounds like you might have some chlorophenol type compound there.

When you say "like iodine", is it a medicinal, band-aid type flavour? The "burnt rubber" suggests acrid or sort of an astringent flavour, but does it resemble a plastic-y type of Taste?

What puzzles me is that you say that it smells fine.:confused:

My only experience of a truly infected brew, to my knowledge, was that it tasted absolutely fine but the aroma from the fermenter had a slightly moldy hint, kind of like penicillin. Have another brew that had a bit of an oil paint/thinners smell about it and tasted a mixture of sweet, bitter and slightly sour but that might have been some other cause, although both brews were going at the same time and right next to each other, right enough. I attributed the off flavours and smells to a possibly too high fermentation temp at some point in the first few days.
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Yes, band aid good description... What causes that? Will it dissipate? Or is it a total loss?
 
MattsFlyShop said:
Yes, band aid good description... What causes that? Will it dissipate? Or is it a total loss?
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Haven't experienced it myself but from what I understand it's caused by chlorine, or chloramine in your water. Chlorine can be dissipated from the water relatively easily by merely leaving the batch of water in an open container for a few hours but chloramine doesn't cooperate so easily. I think you need to boil your water for quite a while to get rid of it. It can supposedly leave a band aid/plastic-y flavour in your beer from seemingly insignificant quantities, maybe even as little as that left over in starsan solution or in priming sugar solution. The off flavour increases in intensity with time. The simple solution to getting rid of chloramine in your water is to use Campden tablets. Maybe someone else on here can tell you the exact dilution ratio of campden pill to water you'll need.:mug:
 
Thank you. Wow, I used Alhambra bottled water, never thought my water would cause that, I've brewed 2 more batches the same way, too.
Would a residue of iodine cause this too?
 
Ogri said:
Haven't experienced it myself but from what I understand it's caused by chlorine, or chloramine in your water. Chlorine can be dissipated from the water relatively easily by merely leaving the batch of water in an open container for a few hours but chloramine doesn't cooperate so easily. I think you need to boil your water for quite a while to get rid of it. It can supposedly leave a band aid/plastic-y flavour in your beer from seemingly insignificant quantities, maybe even as little as that left over in starsan solution or in priming sugar solution. The off flavour increases in intensity with time. The simple solution to getting rid of chloramine in your water is to use Campden tablets. Maybe someone else on here can tell you the exact dilution ratio of campden pill to water you'll need.:mug:
Click to expand...

I suppose even Alhambra treats their water with chlorine, the Sierra clone is next in line... I hope this isn't a trend.
 
Are you using the bottled water to make up your priming sugar solution??

When you say you use iodine (iodophor??), are you diluting that with tap, or bottled, water?
 
Ogri said:
Are you using the bottled water to make up your priming sugar solution??

When you say you use iodine (iodophor??), are you diluting that with tap, or bottled, water?
Click to expand...

Tap water for sterilization , bottled for priming
 
MattsFlyShop said:
Tap water for sterilization , bottled for priming
Click to expand...

There's a possibility that your tap water might be contributing the chloramine then, but could it be that your dilution of iodine, (or is it iodophor you are using??), is too strong?? the present batch can't be helped but try a more diluted mix for your sanitizer and/or mixing your sanitizer with bottled, purified, or at least boiled tap water and see if that makes a difference.

Here's hoping your other batches don't harbor the same off flavours:mug:
 
Thank you my friend, that's a good start. I'll have an idea what condition the Sierra Clone is in this weekend.
 
In all of this lengthy discussion of slow fermentation, no one seems to have mentioned oxygenation. I usually don't bother with this, but often worry about it in retrospect. Has anyone experimented with this and determined whether it makes a difference?
 
Blitzen said:
In all of this lengthy discussion of slow fermentation, no one seems to have mentioned oxygenation. I usually don't bother with this, but often worry about it in retrospect. Has anyone experimented with this and determined whether it makes a difference?
Click to expand...

Aeration or oxygenation makes a big difference in the rate at which your yeast reproduce and process sugars initially--their aerobic processes are much more efficient than anaerobic. If you don't aerate your wort you'll end up with fewer yeast, which will have to work harder (individually) in order to consume the same amount of yeast. A potential fix is to pitch a larger quantity of yeast initially, so that they don't have to reproduce as much in order to reach a healthy population level. However, I think most people's solution is just to aerate--that is, to shake the carboy, splash the wort, etc., until enough oxygen is dissolved in solution. I think the general experience is that this works well enough for most beers, although with higher OG beers additional aeration through means of a pump and filter may be beneficial. And finally, for those who want to be sure their yeast has enough oxygen in solution, you can always get compressed O2 and a wand, and reach very high levels of oxygen saturation in just a few seconds. IME, this is really only necessary if you're making extremely big beers, and even then starting with a large enough starter is probably much more important. I've made beers with over 1.1 OG and have had no problems with finishing fermentation, using large starters and my aquarium pump/stone filter.
 
jerrodm said:
Aeration or oxygenation makes a big difference in the rate at which your yeast reproduce and process sugars initially--their aerobic processes are much more efficient than anaerobic. If you don't aerate your wort you'll end up with fewer yeast, which will have to work harder (individually) in order to consume the same amount of yeast. A potential fix is to pitch a larger quantity of yeast initially, so that they don't have to reproduce as much in order to reach a healthy population level. However, I think most people's solution is just to aerate--that is, to shake the carboy, splash the wort, etc., until enough oxygen is dissolved in solution. I think the general experience is that this works well enough for most beers, although with higher OG beers additional aeration through means of a pump and filter may be beneficial. And finally, for those who want to be sure their yeast has enough oxygen in solution, you can always get compressed O2 and a wand, and reach very high levels of oxygen saturation in just a few seconds. IME, this is really only necessary if you're making extremely big beers, and even then starting with a large enough starter is probably much more important. I've made beers with over 1.1 OG and have had no problems with finishing fermentation, using large starters and my aquarium pump/stone filter.
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Let me first stipulate that I'm a Mr Beer brewer so YMMV... but before I pitch, I stir the wort with a big spoon until I get a nice foam at least 2 inches high. I've been a dry-yeast-so-far kind of guy so I'll pitch my yeast and give it 3-5 minutes until most of it is sunk/sinking. Then give it another vigorous stir until I get that lovely foam again, then seal 'er up.

If I were doing big batches, I'd probably get my hands on a nice stir stick for the cordless drill, sanitize it and go to town until I get a nice vortex going so all the wort gets a breath of fresh air.
 
Mike, stirring probably works fine, although I personally try to limit the number of things I stick in my beer one it's no longer boiling, in order to minimize the risk of infection.

(Insert clever joke here about not sticking things in various places to reduce the risk of infection.)

If you do stir, just make sure your spoon is sanitized, and whatever you do don't use a wooden spoon! They're impossible to clean and sanitize adequately, IMO. You're probably fine.
 
jerrodm said:
Mike, stirring probably works fine, although I personally try to limit the number of things I stick in my beer one it's no longer boiling, in order to minimize the risk of infection.

(Insert clever joke here about not sticking things in various places to reduce the risk of infection.)

If you do stir, just make sure your spoon is sanitized, and whatever you do don't use a wooden spoon! They're impossible to clean and sanitize adequately, IMO. You're probably fine.
Click to expand...

Agreed Jerrod, but I use the same spoon that I just got done using stirring up the wort on the stove. I have a tall glass that I keep full of sanitizer and I soak the spoon when I'm not using it.
 
Ogri said:
I would say, NO.

Sounds like you might have some chlorophenol type compound there.

When you say "like iodine", is it a medicinal, band-aid type flavour? The "burnt rubber" suggests acrid or sort of an astringent flavour, but does it resemble a plastic-y type of Taste?

What puzzles me is that you say that it smells fine.:confused:

My only experience of a truly infected brew, to my knowledge, was that it tasted absolutely fine but the aroma from the fermenter had a slightly moldy hint, kind of like penicillin. Have another brew that had a bit of an oil paint/thinners smell about it and tasted a mixture of sweet, bitter and slightly sour but that might have been some other cause, although both brews were going at the same time and right next to each other, right enough. I attributed the off flavours and smells to a possibly too high fermentation temp at some point in the first few days.
Click to expand...

Update:
I brought a bottle of this Brown Ale to my friend Tom at The Reno Homebrewer... He knew what went wrong as soon as he opened it. Apparently some wild yeast made it into the brew, causing the awful flavor...
 
The most common problem I've read about, and experienced myself, is not having an airtight seal, seal it up and you're good to go!
 
Evening all I just brewed my first batch of an 90 minute clone Monday evening and did a starte for the first time using White Labs WLP001. When I made my starter I did it in a 1000ML flask with 4oz of DME and it really went agressive crazy; had a couple of over flows. I did this 24 hours prior to brewing and the starter had showed little to no activity on brew night. I did my normal brewing and cooled the wort before adding to the carboy and pitching my starter into it. I noticed activity quickly, but it hasn't seemed as agressive as I would have thought a beer that should finish with gravity of 1.019-1.031. I do see activity in the airlock, but like I said doesn't seem to be what I would expect so I wonder if there is a possibility if something went a miss or there are other steps I should take here. Any and all advice is more than welcome.
 
Just curious as to fermenting temepratures.. I did a Stout recently and I was told 15c...it worked fine since its December in Canada and my brew station is in an unheated room in the basement at (16c). I just did two new brews, an Irish Cream Red and a Honey Lager...both are sitting there quietly doing nothing...i'm wondering if 16c isn't ideal for those?
 
My calculator says that 16C is something like 61F, which is a little low for some types of yeast. I've no idea what the appropriate temp range is for the cooper's stuff, but if you're not getting much activity I'd say temp could theoretically be a reason. You could try to warm it up a few degrees, but I wouldn't go much above 67F or 68F (something like 19-20C). Or, you could pitch a yeast that's comfortable working at that temp--while 16C is below the "optimal" temp range for most ale yeasts, I regularly ferment that low with several strains and don't have any problems. I especially recommend White Labs WLP007 at that temp, I always ferment with that at 60-62F with no problems whatsoever. For the lager, you'll need a lager strain, which you'll actually want to ferment significantly lower than the temp it's currently at--read the wiki entry on lagering, but you'll probably need to be able to get your fermenter down to around 45F to 50F, depending on the beer and the yeast strain.

Hope that's helpful.
 
Ok, thx, i've taken both pails out of my cold room and placed them in a room at a constant 68f or 20c...we'll see what that does.
 

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