No fermentation happening after 4 days

Hi everyone, I have another question about fermentation for the experts. I just finished my 6th batch of beer on Sunday night (It was a brewers best english brown ale) and this morning (a little over 4 day later and approaching 5) I took a reading because it did not appear to be fermenting. There has been no airlock activity which I understand can mean nothing, but the O.G. (1.046) has not changed since Sunday night and now I'm worried it has been to long to save it. I'm wondering should I re-pitch some yeast? I also noticed the temp may have been a little to low being around 59 to 61 degrees the first few days (we just got 8 inches of snow here in MO yesterday so that didn't help) and I'm currently trying to raise it up to 64 to 65 degrees. Another concern is that I tried to get creative and turn this into a coffee brown ale. The book I have suggested coarsely ground coffee being added right after the hop boiling was terminated during whirl pooling. I'm thinking the addition of the coffee and the low temp may be the culprits here but don't wanna run out and get more yeast if not necessary. Any thoughts would be helpful

Did you aerate the wort before pitching the yeast? What temp was it when you pitched? What kind of yeast? Did you rehydrate it if dry?

Perhaps the lower temps affected things, but don't worry. Try to get the temps in the low-to-mid 60's for a few days and see what happens. I'm sure the coffee didn't affect things.

I'm pretty sure I aerated it correctly. I usually just pour the chilled wort into my bucket and that seems to always work. I believe it was right at 70 degrees when I pitched. I just use the dry yeast packets that come with the kits and I always just sprinkle it in and give it a good healthy stirring. I have yet to attempt to re-hydrate the yeast but maybe I will start to do that from now on since that seems to be what everyone recommends to do with the dry stuff.

If the wort was around 70 when you pitched the yeast and then the temperature dropped too cold, the yeast just dropped and went dormant.

Raise the temp and rouse the yeast and they should get going for you. Fermentation can take up to 72 hours as it is but shocking the yeast into dormancy is my best guess.

You can use a swamp cooler set up with a small aquarium heater to warm it up or a brew belt or a ferm wrap or a warmer location. Just be sure to not swing things too far in the other direction or off flavors can become an issue.

Thanks for the advice. I have a feeling it was the temperature as well. I have yet to brew a batch when its this cold out so I'm guessing that's what made it inactive. We've had a mild winter here until this last couple weeks.

I actually then got the bucket off the floor and put it on a chair and that helped bring it up to about 64 - 66 within a few hours. From what I understand rousing is basically just a rocking back and forth in a circular motion of the bucket but I also saw a video and have read some things about using a paddle or racking cane to stir it around gently on the bottom. Do both methods work just as well? I've already roused it by rocking the bucket back and forth so will see how it goes.
Thanks again

Once you get the temp up to 64-65F it still could take a couple more days like usuaul for them to start munching away

Get that temp up there as quick as you can. 66-68 will be the yeasts happy zone. Make sure the temps are not varying one way or another too much during this stage as it can adversely impact your beer. If you don't see activity within 24 hours of the temps being higher, consider repitching some yeast.

Be cautious of sanitation as well while you are working to get things figured out. Since your yeast have not had a chance to increase their population, bacteria can take advantage of this and go after all that nice food sitting in your fermenter.

ragreen123 said:

Thanks for the advice. I have a feeling it was the temperature as well. I have yet to brew a batch when its this cold out so I'm guessing that's what made it inactive. We've had a mild winter here until this last couple weeks.

I actually then got the bucket off the floor and put it on a chair and that helped bring it up to about 64 - 66 within a few hours. From what I understand rousing is basically just a rocking back and forth in a circular motion of the bucket but I also saw a video and have read some things about using a paddle or racking cane to stir it around gently on the bottom. Do both methods work just as well? I've already roused it by rocking the bucket back and forth so will see how it goes.
Thanks again

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just swirl it to get the stuff off the bottom a bit, AFTER you've raised the temp of the beer, which will take some time even if you've raised the ambient air temp.

59 degrees does not seem like a low enough temp to put the yeast to sleep. The fact that the gravity hasn't changed at all is odd. After raising the temp, and rousing (heavily swirling) the yeast, if you don't see activity, re-aerate and pitch a fresh, hydrated yeast.

So I believe the yeast has finally started to kick into action as of this morning. I got the temp of the beer up to 66-68 by putting a small space heater in my brew room and that seems to keep the beer at a stable 68 degrees and it has held at that temperature all day so far without me needing to interfere anymore.

I noticed slight airlock activity this morning (about a bubble every 30 - 40 seconds) and roused it this morning and just a minute ago and that got it bubbling every 5 - 10 seconds so it appears it may be ok without having to re-pitch. Before I did the rousing this afternoon it was bubbling about once a minute on its own and then much more vigorously after the rousing.

I guess I have yet to encounter this problem but then again have yet to brew a batch when it is this cold out and the temperature has yet to be an issue, but now I know better.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and hopefully the batch turns out good. I'll have to let you all know how it turns out since this was my first batch of six I tried to experiment with and add some coffee for a little extra flavoring.

Took a reading this morning when I transferred the brew to the secondary. S.G. dropped to 1.014! and brew currently sits at 4.2 ABV! Smelled amazing too, almost like a Belgian ale thanks to the chocolatey coffee I added I'm guessing . Hoping to get a lil more out of it in the secondary and push it up to 5, but either way glad to see it had done its job thus far. Thank you everyone for helping me save my 6th batch of beer! I would have been sad to see this one not work out

It's probably not going much lower, being that it's a kit with extract. If you can't cold-crash, I'd leave it in secondary for a few weeks, then bottle. Not sure you needed to secondary at all, though, FYI.

Yea I was wondering how low it could go since I've never tried rousing it in the secondary but I imagine it won't be getting too much lower. I pretty much just do secondary for clarity and aroma purposes (as my instructions tend to recommend) because after the primary there's always so much krausen and other matter that I don't really want in my bottles. Thanks though for the tip

ragreen123 said:

...a little over 4 day later and approaching 5) I took a reading because it did not appear to be fermenting. There has been no airlock activity which I understand can mean nothing, but the O.G. (1.046) has not changed since Sunday night and now I'm worried it has been to long to save it. I'm wondering should I re-pitch some yeast?

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I am in the same situation, except for in the first 2 days the carboy was about 2-3 degrees above room temp, about 76-78 degrees. Is this too warm? I just can't get my basement any cooler without shutting of the dehumidifiers. Might be time to get a hot air exchanger.

My question ends the same, though. Rack and repitch?

Thanks, all!

UncleLankyFrank said:

I am in the same situation, except for in the first 2 days the carboy was about 2-3 degrees above room temp, about 76-78 degrees. Is this too warm? I just can't get my basement any cooler without shutting of the dehumidifiers. Might be time to get a hot air exchanger.

My question ends the same, though. Rack and repitch?

Thanks, all!

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76-78 is definitely too warm (hot) unless you're doing a Saison. You need to get it down into the 66-68 range and keep it there. Remember the yeast activity will also generate some heat and raise the temp.
What yeast did you use?

govner1 said:

76-78 is definitely too warm (hot) unless you're doing a Saison. You need to get it down into the 66-68 range and keep it there. Remember the yeast activity will also generate some heat and raise the temp.
What yeast did you use?

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I wondered if that were the case. This summer has been so that my dehumidifiers run all day, producing about 3 gallons of water. (Hey... I should be saving that for PBW soaks) The big problem is they heat up the basement something fierce.

I'll see what I can do. Guess it's time to invest in some temperature control.

I used Muntons dry yeast, pitched in a starter of 2/3 cup golden malt extract in 16 oz water, boiled and cooled. The starter was quite frothy and almost popped the cellophane off the jar.