Is it time to panic

Hi all first post here and I have done a lot of reading on what to do here, but I'm not at a loss.
Partial Mash brew
Category Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer
Subcategory Winter Specialty Spiced Beer
Recipe Type Partial Mash
Batch Size 5 gal.
Volume Boiled 3.5 gal.
2.00 lbs. English 2-row Pils info
0.50 lbs. English Wheat Malt info
0.50 lbs. British Crystal 55°L info
6.00 lbs. Pale Liquid info
2.00 lbs. Dry Light Extract info
1.00 lbs. Candi Sugar Clear info
0.25 lbs. Oats Flaked info
2.50 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1.00 oz. Willamette (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 15 min. info
0.50 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 2 min. info
Yeast : WYeast 1214 Belgian Abbey info

Add 0.75 ounces of grated ginger after heat is turned off. Stir and let sit for 15 - 20 minutes.

I was a bit high on the Extract 7.5#. I made a small starter 24hrs prior and I substituted the yeast for WL 530 abbey. SG was 1.110 After 48hrs I was real concerned and read up alot on what to do. I talked to a brew store for advice he advised 4 mroe vials of yeast and to Aerate with 100% o2 for a while and then see. I did all that 24hrs ago, aerated again after 8 and 16 hrs. I pulled a sample to see if the SG has dropped at all and it has not moved. I'm now 4 days in and no bubble no krausen, no signs of fermentation. I now have 100.00 into this and do not want to see it goto waste. Any and all advice is greatly apreciated.

Tailwinds.
P

MilehighBrew said:

6.00 lbs. Pale Liquid info

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My cow-orkers are always giving me pale liquid info.

What is your gravity at now? (sanitized wine thief etc...) Gravity is big because it tells you what your yeasties have done already.

What are you fermenting in? This makes a difference because when I run out of carboys/better bottles I use my old scratchless plastic ale pales. Beer always turns out good but sometimes I don't get the fun with the little do-hickey girating in my three-piece airlock because the seals on those pails can sometimes be lacking.

Stop aerating.

Give the latest additions of yeast a chance to kick in. Temp should be around 68 until obvious signs of fermentation. Let it rise naturally with ferment.

WL yeast straight from the vial is slow to start. Give it a chance. there is no way that 5 vials will not do the job. Within 48 hours this thing will be going crazy. Guaranteed.

Stop messing with it and don't even think about it for 48 more hours. Be prepared with a blow off tube.

dontman said:

Stop aerating.

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From what I've been told/read, you aerate prior to pitching yeast but not after. So this is probably good advice.

With a 1.110 wort and no starter, I'd have expected it to take 4-5 days to get going. As long as you keep aerating, the yeast will continue growing. Once they stop growing, they switch to fermenting. Something should noticeable in another 48-72 hours.

Next time you make a beer this big, I'd recommend making a smaller beer and using the cake.

Stepped ferment: Another alternative for a partial mash would be to mash the grains and add part of the extract, maybe 1/4 of it, in 3 gallons of wort. Once the wort is chugging, boil the rest of the extract in enough water to make 2 gallons, chill and add it to the fermenter. Stepped fermentations are most often used for mead, but nothing says you can't use them with PM.

Thanks for all the help, I mainly had to post to air it out to the good Karma forum gods that would make it start fermenting as soon as I posted it, And it worked. Checked this morning and it was bubbling nice and consistantly.

I did have a starter just not a very big one and next time I will do a stepped up starter with multiple SG starters and 2 vials of yeast just to make sure. This was my first HG brew and it was not supposed to get even that high so I got a bit worried.


I bought a .5 micron aeration system to aerate with and I followed their schedule for aerating that high of a SG. I will let you all know how it works out and thanks again for all the advice.

Tailwinds

PPD

MilehighBrew said:

I bought a .5 micron aeration system to aerate with and I followed their schedule for aerating that high of a SG.

Tailwinds

PPD

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Just curious what kind of schedule the system advised. I just have a 2 micron stone and O2 tank and generally just aerate immediately defore the yeast picth for 60 seconds or so. If there is a schedule from a system Mfr that advises multiple aeration for a larger beer, I'd be interested in seeing what they advise.

Your LHBS owner recommended 4 more vials?!?! What a jackass(him not you).Next time either make a huge starter or like david said pitch onto a cake.It's A LOT cheaper.

Edit: I see you made a starter.Next time you make a big beer like this check out the pitching calculator on mr. malty.com

I was thinking that 4 more vials was a bit over the top, but I was in kinda panic mode and thought that it was better than this batch going nowhere. Next batch for sure I will make sure that I make a propper starter and hopefully have a cake to pitch onto also.

I will look at the O2 aeration system I bought and post their guidance when I get home from work tonite for you Zen

Tailwinds

PPD

ok I bought a gulfstream brewing products 02 .5 micron stone and valve. On it there were many tips. 5 gal of wort SG 1.070 plus 2.5-3min and once additionally in 12-14 hours. It looks like this is recomended from Wyeast. Any how the brew is bubbling away very nicely.

Thanks again
Tailwinds
PPD

Ok so this really took off after I did all I mentioned above. Blew off the top from the bucket and clogged up my blow off tube. Anyway it was going great for a few days, but I know I lost alot of yeast out the top and into the blow off tube. I took a reading yesterday (3 weeks from boil) and the Gravity was 1.042 and there was a head on it still very cloudy and some particle movement in the tester. My main question was about the amount of yeast on the side of the bucket, can or should I scrape this off and put it back into the wort with a sterile spatula or just let it continue to work its magic? I plan on leaving this in primary for a while longer.

Tailwinds PPD and thanks for all the great help.

I would leave it. You said you noticed active floaties (yeast) in your tester, they are in your beer as well.
I would clean your blow off and lid and everything and let it sit. Take another reading in a another week. It's it's changed wait another few days. continue this until it is at FG or stops changing. Even after that you'll want to leave it or rack to secondary to age being that big.