BobTheAverage
Well-Known Member
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.
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.