No fermentation yet... 78 hours and counting

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StretchBrew

StretchBrew

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I'm sitting 78 at hours with no air lock activity. Now I know that is not the be all end all sign of fermentation, but still it's a pretty good indicator. I know that I have a good seal on the bucket because when I lightly press on lid the airlock moves. On to the nitty-gritty ...

I used Windsor for this brew (long story, had a smack pack and it didn't inflate properly, emergency run to the LHBS for the dry yeast) The temps are sitting around 69-71 degrees ambient air temps with the fermenter sitting in a swamp cooler. My two questions are as follows:

1) how much longer do I wait before I crack open the fermenter, take a hydro reading and repitching yeast if the SG is the same? (I know the thread is saying it could take 72 hours, but I'm just looking for opinions/reassurance)

2) I would have liked to use an Irish Ale yeast (i'm brewing an irish red) with this brew, but with the bad yeast and lack of time to wait for a liquid yeast from the LHBS to warm up properly, I grabbed the dry yeast ... Could (or should) I buy a vial of WLP004 Irish red and repitch that? What kind of weird flavors would I get if any from mixing Windsor & WLP004?
 
Well if the first yeast didn't take, then repitch and relax. If the smack pack didn't inflate it didn't work, if the dry yeast hasn't given any sign of fermentation, krausen, activity or anything else, then it didn't take. Repitch and don't worry that much.
 
Try one or both of the following before pitching more yeast:

* swirl or stir the wort (with something sanitized)
* remove from swamp cooler for a few hours to bring temp up slightly (then return to swamp cooler)

I ran into a similar problem this past week, did both things and within a day fermentation started up, slowly, returned to swamp cooler and I had very active fermentation for 3 days.
 
Are you using ice in the swamp cooler bucket? If so, the wort may be too cool. It's unlikely that both the smack pack and the dry yeast are not viable. Do you still have the smack pack and has it inflated yet? If so, you could go ahead and pitch that too. You should be able to hear it fizz when you shake it up and put it up to your ear. The fizzing is unmistakable. I think the ferment will get going by tomorrow morning if it's not too cold.
 
I am using ice in the swamp cooler ... I removed the fermenter from the swamp cooler before I left for work today. The air temps are at 68, so it'll be ok til i get home. Smack pack didn't inflate, but I also doubt the dry yeast isn't viable ... I probably messed something up rushing around last minute pitching it friday. I (thought) I properly rehydrated it, but who knows.

I'm thinking of stopping by the LHBS after work and getting the white labs irish ale yeast and pitching it tonight. I was just worried about the windsor + irish red yeast goofing with the flavors if the windsor isn't dead and kicks off when i pitch the liquid yeast. Any Thoughts on that?
 
My thoughts:

A) There really is fermentation going on, and you just arent seeing big visible signs. You re-pitch with Irish yeast, and it has minimal flavor impact. Irish ale yeast is pretty clean and shouldn't do anything funny.

B) There really is NO fermentation going on (maybe you rehydrated your yeast in 140 degree water or something?) and you need to get yeast into that wort before bacteria and other junk takes hold and ruins your batch.

Either way it wont hurt to pitch Irish ale yeast into the wort. The real concern here is what you did to your dry yeast, and why you didnt pitch the smack pack. How did you rehydrate? Next time, pitch the smack pack anyway...they dont always inflate but are almost always still viable.
 
WLP004 likes it to be 65-68 F. Not much of a temperature variance. I would see what the wort temp is, may be your only issue. I am currently fighting a non starting starter with wlp004.
 
flexxy86 said:
I am using ice in the swamp cooler ... I removed the fermenter from the swamp cooler before I left for work today. The air temps are at 68, so it'll be ok til i get home. Smack pack didn't inflate, but I also doubt the dry yeast isn't viable ... I probably messed something up rushing around last minute pitching it friday. I (thought) I properly rehydrated it, but who knows.

I'm thinking of stopping by the LHBS after work and getting the white labs irish ale yeast and pitching it tonight. I was just worried about the windsor + irish red yeast goofing with the flavors if the windsor isn't dead and kicks off when i pitch the liquid yeast. Any Thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

I would not worry about the Windsor + Irish mix causing problems. They are close enough that most of us couldn't tell the difference.

I predict that the ferment will be rockin' by the time you get home from work. Might even go volcanic.
 
flexxy86 said:
I'm sitting 78 at hours with no air lock activity. Now I know that is not the be all end all sign of fermentation, but still it's a pretty good indicator. I know that I have a good seal on the bucket because when I lightly press on lid the airlock moves. On to the nitty-gritty ...
Click to expand...

It's NOT a good indicator. Take a grav reading and know for sure......

If it were a good indicator we wouldn't have 10+ thousands threads like this where the op actially took a reading and went "My bad, I guess I shouldn't rely on the airlock afterall, because my gravity is lower...."
 
flexxy86 said:
I'm sitting 78 at hours with no air lock activity. Now I know that is not the be all end all sign of fermentation, but still it's a pretty good indicator. I know that I have a good seal on the bucket because when I lightly press on lid the airlock moves. On to the nitty-gritty ...

Yes, the air lock can be used to guage the yeast activity. Nothing to be ashamed of at all. I've been doing it for years. Some of the dogma preached here can be rather goofy at times IMO. There's nothing wrong with eyeballing the airlock to get an idea of what's going on. Probably something on the order of 99% of home brewers do it.
Click to expand...
 
Strat > I don't know why I didn't just pitch the smack pack & hope for the best o_O That probably would have made the most sense ... rookie mistake I suppose. The water for rehydrating the yeast wasn't that hot ... So I'm probably just being a dork and worrying about nothing.

Revvy > I know, I know ... It's not a good indicator, I've been lurking around long enough to know that, but hey ... it's 1st first sign at a possible problem and it's really the only visible indicator of anything going on, albeit non-reliable one.

Catt > I'm hoping your right ('cept for the volcanic part ... I don't feel like cleaning up a mess! hah!)

I'll be checking my SG and posting an update when I get home for sure!
 
Well when I got home today the airlock was bubbling. slowly, maybe 2-4 bubbles a minute but still its going none the less. I guess i might have had the swamp cooler too cold. Hopefully if it was too cold to let the yeast to they're thing, it was too cold to let bacteria get going too!!
I might throw it back in there tomorrow morning with only 1 or 2 one liter bottles of frozen water in it. the temp in the basement is 71 right now, so its a little high. I have the liquid irish ale yeast, but i'll leave it in the fridge and use it later. Thanks for all the help guys!! I always seek solace in all your words of wisdom. Let hope the beer comes out ok :cross:
 
Excellent! I would put it back in the swamp cooler immediately. Put a thermometer in that tub of water to get some general idea of the temp. I fear that if you let it warm much more, it may get out of control and go volcanic. Unless, of course, that air lock is playing a trick on you. That can happen, ya know.
 
I made a Black American Ale over the weekend and still didnt have any activity as of this morning. Fortunately, there is a HBS near my office, so I bought some yeast (among other supplies) at lunch time.

Still no activity when I got home, so I checked the hydrometer and repitched. I dont ever want to see a beer go bad, but especially so since this is the most expensive beer I've brewed to date. Now, I shall RDWHAHB and dream of how great this next beer will be!
 
On another note I wouldn't really rely on the smack pack as an indicator of viability, my smack packs rarely inflate. A starter is a much better method. Maybe you had good yeast in the first place :)
 

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