Every time I pitch I give myself something to worry about. This time 17 hour lag

I made a simple 5 gal American Pale Ale.
9.75 lbs 2 row
1 lb Crystal 40
1 lb Munich

Mashed 154F a little more than 60 min
Batch sparged 168F (let it sit about 10 min)
Boiled a little over 60 min

Added (per recipe) at 60 min 8 oz Malto Dextrin

Magnum and Calypso hops

OG 1.065

1 pkg us-05(dated 01/2013) Rehydrated and tempered to within 15F
Pitched at 65/64F temp is now at 67/68F
17 hours after pitching......nothing. Gravity hasn't changed one point.

Guess all I can do is wait.

Rule number one is that you aren't allowed to worry.

Unless your indoor temp is 67-68 degrees or higher where the beer is fermenting then the rise in temp is an indicator of activity.

I don't take Gravity readings but if I did, I wouldn't take one before 3 weeks of fermenting.

My carboy is in a tub with a wet towel wrapped around it. I forced the temperature higher on purpose by turning the fan that I had blowing on it off.

I don't normally take a gravity reading after 17 hours but I also don't let visual activity in my airlock determine if any activity is occouring. So I figured i would take grav reading to see if anything was happening

By my estimates, it looks like you slightly underpitched. For OG of 1.065, you need about 12.5-13.5 g (depending on the calculator you use). This may not seem like much of a difference from the 11.5 g pack, but I did the same thing on a recent brew and it took 24 h to start. For a reduced lag time with that OG, I would use 1.5 packs.

sjbeerman said:

By my estimates, it looks like you slightly underpitched. For OG of 1.065, you need about 12.5-13.5 g (depending on the calculator you use). This may not seem like much of a difference from the 11.5 g pack, but I did the same thing on a recent brew and it took 24 h to start. For a reduced lag time with that OG, I would use 1.5 packs.

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Hmm....interesting. I could pitch another pack now. Do you think that would help?

I don't start worrying about the performance of my saccaromyces friends until after about 4 days . . . . . . . . . . Then again, The only time I've had a problem (When I grossly underpitched 20 gallons) I discovered a wonderful strain of wild sour yeast in my cellar, so I don't ever worry at all about my yeast any more, if something doesn't perform I simply add the batch to the ever present oude bruin keg in the cellar.

jetmac said:

Hmm....interesting. I could pitch another pack now. Do you think that would help?

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I wouldn't do anything about it now. For mine, I was worried about the long lag time because I typically use liquid yeast with lag times of 12 h or less. For the dry yeast that took 24 h or so, the beer came out fine with good attenuation. I would just let it be for now... You should be fine...

Ahhhh...activity.

Is your Rehydration method spot on? half the yeast in the pack can die if the methodology is not done correctly... so says Jamil.

I normally see activity within 12 hours Dry Yeast