I read the sticky......

but still have to ask. Why hasn't my beer started showing any signs of activity? Does it make a difference in the style and weight? Perhaps it was a bad idea to have my first homebrew be an Imperial Stout. At any rate, I pitched the yeast starter (from dry) in at 70 degrees, pours back and forth several times and used a santized wisk to aerate. Been in my closet at around 66 degrees now for 50+ hours and no bubbles. Do I need to pitch more yeast?

Are you sure you have a good seal?

No need to make a starter with dry yeast. Just rehydrate it and you're good. Much larger cell count in dry packs.

Are you using a bucket or a carboy? If a bucket, you may never see bubbles - bucket seals are notorious to leak; even a pinhole provides a path of least resistance for the CO2, which will exit there instead of the airlock.

Relax.

bubbles are not the way to judge activity. Is there any sign of krausen developing? what was your starting gravity? give it another few days and check your gravity again. If it's lower than the starting, yeasties are doing their good work. Let it be. Up to 72 hours (while a long time) is not totally unheard of.

theonlysurfnbeer said:

but still have to ask. Why hasn't my beer started showing any signs of activity? Does it make a difference in the style and weight? Perhaps it was a bad idea to have my first homebrew be an Imperial Stout. At any rate, I pitched the yeast starter (from dry) in at 70 degrees, pours back and forth several times and used a santized wisk to aerate. Been in my closet at around 66 degrees now for 50+ hours and no bubbles. Do I need to pitch more yeast?

Click to expand...

When we say 72 hours, we mean 72 hours.

sketerbuck said:

Are you sure you have a good seal?

Click to expand...

This is another

The only way to gauge to gauge fermentation is to compare a gravity reading to your OG reading. Take another hydrometer reading and compare it to your OG. Are they identical? If you've not taken a reading since pitching, you cannot say there has been no activity as there is no reliable way to come to that conclusion without a hydrometer reading.

*edited because I probably came off as a jerk with the original sarcastic post*

A couple comments to add to the above.

Fo an imperial stout using only 1 packet of dry yeast, though it should still ferment you beer, is likely under pitching. Look at a pitching rate calculator.

If you did not rehydrate the yeast as per the instructions then the percentage of viable yeast cells goes down even further and you almost definately under pitched.

Both of these can delay fermentation.

Thanks for all the great info. I am proud to report that I have a steady flow of bubbles in the airlock as of yesterday afternoon, approx 36 hours.