Three times in a row No Fermentation

I started homebrewing a few months ago and I have yet to make a drinkable beer. On my first try I think i pitched the yeast while the wort was still to hot. EDIT: It was about 110F

On my second try I think I was a little overzealous about sanitation and I forgot to rinse my PBW out of the fermenter and maybe that killed the yeast. The more i read about this the more skeptical i am that this actually happened. After a week of nothing happening I repitched using bread yeast because that was all I had. The specific gravity dropped but there was no foam on the beer and there was no obvious airlock activity.
EDIT: The beer had apparently gotten infected during the first week while i tried to get more yeast. Also the yeast cake had sunk to the bottom of the fermenter. I thought ale's were supposed to brew on top. SG had dropped from 1.04 to the 1.01 that had been stated as the final gravity.

I am currently on my third try and it has been five days since the original pitching of yeast and two days since I re pitched the yeast and still no activity. I realized this time that I had never put water into my airlock. It is a two piece airlock. Will that kill the yeast altogether? It seems to me that the fermentation would go normally but the beer would come out infected. Is there something else I am doing wrong? What gives?

More EDITS: I brewed two different recipes for Irish Red Ale using dry yeast. The first came from midwest brewing. The second and third came from Northern Brewer. The fermenter stayed at a steady 68F-72F. This was at the high end of the yeast's comfortable temperature.

How much SG dropped and what was the starting point?

Not putting water in your air lock won't keep the beer from fermenting, and even then, it's tough to get an infection. Some beers are made with open fermentation. That being said, if there is sugar and yeast in the wort, and somewhat in the yeasts temperature range... there will be fermentation. Tell us some more about your process to get a good idea of whats going on because if the sugar is present and the yeast are viable and in their temperature range, you'll make beer.

Are you seeing foaming on top of the wort? What are you pitching, dry or liquid yeast? How old is the yeast? If the yeast is dry, are you rehydrating it? Are you aerating the wort before pitching? At what temperature are you fermenting?

Not putting water in the airlock won't affect the fermentation. Enough yeast pitched will, as will both the pitching and fermentation temps.

Use Star San for your sanitation; it will reduce your rinsing concerns, as it's a no-rinse sanitizer.

What temp is your wort when you pitch your yeast. I bring mine do to at least 70 degrees before I pitch my yeast.

What yeast are you pitching?

You need to make friends with a hydrometer. The airlock won't tell you enough, especially if you don't put water in it (Star-San is better). The hydrometer may tell you if fermentation has or is occurring - but you need to check at the start, before you pitch, so you have a starting point for comparison.

When in doubt, follow the directions - whose directions are you following? Not trying to be sarcastic or anything - in all seriousness, you need to follow a tried-and-true method. You don't want to be making it up as you go.

What is the recipe? Are your treating the water with sulfates?

If the specific gravity dropped, there was fermentation whether you saw airlock activity or krausen or not.

Take a quick gravity reading, and post the result, along with the original gravity reading. We can help you figure this out!

I posted a lot of edits to the OP.

I checked just now and there is whitish stuff floating in the body of the brew. Not on top like foam but down in the brew. Yeast colonies? The SG has dropped from 1.045 to under .99. So i guess that means it is fermenting. The recipe called for a final gravity of 1.01. No idea why this happened.

I am not treating the water with anything.

Sounds like you're equating airlock bubbling with fermentation. Don't ever. There are tons of times an airlock will bubble or not bubble regardless of whether the airlock bubbles or how fast it does.

So how does the 3 first tryes taste?
seems to me that they all have fermented out pretty well

Fermenting with a Carboy or plastic ale pail?

The ale pails are notorious for not sealing correctly when you put the lid on. No seal = no airlock activity.

BobTheAverage said:

I posted a lot of edits to the OP.

I checked just now and there is whitish stuff floating in the body of the brew. Not on top like foam but down in the brew. Yeast colonies? The SG has dropped from 1.045 to under .99. So i guess that means it is fermenting. The recipe called for a final gravity of 1.01. No idea why this happened.

I am not treating the water with anything.

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Beer cannot ferment under .990. So, either you got a stray infection or your hydrometer is faulty. How's your sanitation?

Yooper said:

Beer cannot ferment under .990. So, either you got a stray infection or your hydrometer is faulty. How's your sanitation?

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Also, what temp was the sample at when the gravity was measured?

Just today I had A similar problem, Or atleast in the fermintation part

I brewed 3 batches last week, All similar. And 2 of them are popping away just fine, and then theres one with NO acivity, the water is just level. So I added some exra yaest and wait it out another day. So today I thought about adding more yeast, so I stured it allitle (vigirous like strangling). And I found A needle sized hole in the airlock, Just about the exact same size as A golden retriever puppy with needle teeth So now the batch of super yeast rhubarb tangalow is popping away like crazy


Could be the airlock Was for me

OP, have you tasted any of these batches?

Seems like you are assuming they are no good based on airlock activity and or how the beer looks in the carboy.

The temperature is usually around 70F.

I did not taste the first batch but there was never any change in the hydrometer reading. So I knew there was no fermentation.

I tasted the second batch but it had gone sour because I let it sit for a week while I looked for more yeast.

I just tasted the third batch it tastes warm flat and hoppy but not sour. I guess that is how it is supposed to taste. Also the white stuff floating just below the surface is gone. It is a opaque plastic bucket not a carboy so I can't tell if it sunk to the bottom or not.

I was kinda expected some sign of life other than some weird things floating in the brew. Is it usual to have no sign of life other than hydrometer dropping?

If your descriptions accurate and complete, there has to be something you're doing that's killing the yeast. The only two things I can think of that will do that is temps over~110 degress and too much residual cleaning/sanitizing chemical residue. That explains your first two failures.

How long after pitching did you see the floating things in the brew? If it was more than two days or so, you may have just missed the Kraisen and everything's good. If not, you still have an over-sanitation issue from what I can see.

The SG was taken at around 70F. However the SG has continued to drop. It is off the marked scale of the hydrometer but it appears to be somewhere between .98 and .97. This seems very odd. Will the yeast continue to work and clean up flavors with this much alcohol?

I first saw the white stuff floating on Thursday. It is gone now.

Didn't taste the first try but the hydrometer never moved.
Second try sat for a week before repitch and when I finally tasted it, it was undrinkably sour.
Just tasted the third batch. It is warm flat and overly-hoppy but not sour. It tastes pretty much like a beer should if you leave it in the open. So I guess I just wait for another week or two before I bottle.

I guess the beer did ferment. A few unanswered questions remain.

Is there any possibility that an infection gave my beer such a low specific gravity but didn't turn it sour?

How common are faulty hydrometers? It is new and they don't really seem like there are that many things that could go wrong with one. Besides it reads water at 1.001 at 70F which it should.

If the specific gravity is as low as it the hydrometer says will my yeast continue to do their work?

BobTheAverage said:

The SG was taken at around 70F. However the SG has continued to drop. It is off the marked scale of the hydrometer but it appears to be somewhere between .98 and .97. This seems very odd. Will the yeast continue to work and clean up flavors with this much alcohol?

I first saw the white stuff floating on Thursday. It is gone now.

Didn't taste the first try but the hydrometer never moved.
Second try sat for a week before repitch and when I finally tasted it, it was undrinkably sour.
Just tasted the third batch. It is warm flat and overly-hoppy but not sour. It tastes pretty much like a beer should if you leave it in the open. So I guess I just wait for another week or two before I bottle.

I guess the beer did ferment. A few unanswered questions remain.

Is there any possibility that an infection gave my beer such a low specific gravity but didn't turn it sour?

How common are faulty hydrometers? It is new and they don't really seem like there are that many things that could go wrong with one. Besides it reads water at 1.001 at 70F which it should.

If the specific gravity is as low as it the hydrometer says will my yeast continue to do their work?

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Are you sure your hydro was calibrated at 70 and not 60? Mine has correction values for temps over 60

Look for a crack on the hyd. A small, almost invisible leak will cause your hyd to sink too much and give you bad readings that may disappear or change over time as the leak drys out.

Look very carefully, they can be really sneaky.

Edit: Wow, you brewed this on 5/4 and saw nothing but floaties on 5/5? I've never seen a fermentation rise and fall that quick. It could happen, I just haven't seen it. Now I'm really confused.

I noticed you said your one batch tasted flat. How flat? Completely?

There is usually a tiny bit of carbonation after fermentation, at least, in my experience.

That's why carb calculators ask for the beer temperature when determining how much priming sugar to add. The calculators take into account how much co2 is already dissolved in the beer, then determine how much sugar is needed to produce the amount of co2 required.

If the beer is completely flat, chances are, it didn't ferment. Especially not overnight.

Read how to brew by John Palmer and read post learn from this site first. Im glad i spent months in this forum researching before brewing even though i made a few annoying errors the first brews were not even dumpable.Just not as good after another few then a dozen...

o4_srt said:

I noticed you said your one batch tasted flat. How flat? Completely?

There is usually a tiny bit of carbonation after fermentation, at least, in my experience.

That's why carb calculators ask for the beer temperature when determining how much priming sugar to add. The calculators take into account how much co2 is already dissolved in the beer, then determine how much sugar is needed to produce the amount of co2 required.

If the beer is completely flat, chances are, it didn't ferment. Especially not overnight.

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The beer tastes like beer that has been left in a bottle too long. I guess its not completely flat.

Ravenshead said:

Look for a crack on the hyd. A small, almost invisible leak will cause your hyd to sink too much and give you bad readings that may disappear or change over time as the leak drys out.

Look very carefully, they can be really sneaky.

Edit: Wow, you brewed this on 5/4 and saw nothing but floaties on 5/5? I've never seen a fermentation rise and fall that quick. It could happen, I just haven't seen it. Now I'm really confused.

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After pulling the hydrometer out of my beer i saw beer down in the bottom of the hydrometer. Guess this shoots down the REALLY high alcohol beer thing.

I pitched the first yeast on 5/1 and then didn't open it up until 5/4 when I repitched. I may not have noticed the floaties of 5/4. My brewer is in a dimly lit closet. I guess that I missed the foam entirely.

Also I used a pan of boiling water to sanitize my hydrometer because I had already dumped my sanitizer. I guess this was a bad idea because the the heat must have cracked it.

jonmohno said:

Read how to brew by John Palmer and read post learn from this site first. Im glad i spent months in this forum researching before brewing even though i made a few annoying errors the first brews were not even dumpable.Just not as good after another few then a dozen...

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That is very good advice and it is where I am getting most of my guidance from. I guess the "no fermentation" was a little bit of hyperbole in the title of the thread.

You very easily could have missed the full fury of the ferment over three days. That, plus the broken hydrometer tells me you probably have a good beer working.

Get a new hydrometer and don't boil it.

Also, many will advise you to keep a spare around the house, they break easily.

Any idea where I can pick a hydrometer up locally. My nearest LHBS is 300 miles away.

Thanks for all the help from everyone. I really do appreciate it even if it was mostly to calm my worried mind.

BobTheAverage said:

Any idea where I can pick a hydrometer up locally. My nearest LHBS is 300 miles away.

Thanks for all the help from everyone. I really do appreciate it even if it was mostly to calm my worried mind.

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Morebeer.com has a deal going for free shipping on orders of $39 and up. If you also wanna get started ordering ingredients for that next batch, that may be the way to go.

joetothemo said:

Morebeer.com has a deal going for free shipping on orders of $39 and up. If you also wanna get started ordering ingredients for that next batch, that may be the way to go.

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Yeah well I already have the ingredients for my next batch so that doesn't do me a lot of good. I have "repaired" my hydrometer and it will work for a while I hope.

I struggled a lot with yeast when I first started too. I had to double pitch my first batch and switch yeast on my second.

I'd suggest you start doing starters. I haven't had a single problem since i switched to starters.