Octane IPA brew

Ok I brewed this recipe kit today. It's been in the carboy for about 5 hours now. I pitched with healthy liquid yeast and it's all sitting on the bottom. Is it just not "active" yet or did I not aerate enough?

Usually it can take allot longer than 5hrs. Was it a smack pack or the white labs tube? How long did you aerate? How did you aerate? What kind of yeast? What was the yeast pitching temp and was was the temp of the brew when you pitched it in they should have been about the same. Usually when I brew with smack packs on my 1.050~1.060 brews I usually see signs of fermentation at 8 to 12 hrs. Your probably just fine, give it some time it will probably be going in the morning.....

I have only done 5 batches and ive had fermentation take from 8-24 hours to start. Dont worry your prob fine. Have a beer.

Yeah it's fine now with a thick layer of krausen on it, although there's no yeast floating around yet. It was a Wyeast smack pack that I pitched at around 70 degrees. I aerated by sloshing the wort and then pouring it through a strainer into the carboy. I know I didn't aerate long or well enough so I was kind of worried when I didn't see activity.

I was super paranoid about my first half dozen or so batches. There was always something I could think of that meant the yeast weren't going to work, but it always came out fine.

I'm planning on dry hopping this one. I'd like to get a second glass carboy instead of the plastic bucket I currently have. Anyone know of the cheapest place to get a glass carboy?

Also, do you have to sterilize the hops somehow before tossing them into the secondary? I would think boiling would ruin them.

Thanks everyone!

My brew buddy and I have a saying that goes something like this, "If you didn't take a dump in the wort, it'll probably be okay." This saying evolved out of numerous screw-ups over our first year of brewing as newbies without a mentor. Each and everytime we thought we had knackered our latest batch it would work it's magic and come out just fine. We've had slow fermentations, small scale explosions, children removing airlocks, over carbonation and under carbonation and somehow it has all worked out fine and the beer has been drank.

Relax, let it do its thing and drink some beer while that baby bubbles.

Mikeus said:

I'm planning on dry hopping this one. I'd like to get a second glass carboy instead of the plastic bucket I currently have. Anyone know of the cheapest place to get a glass carboy?

Also, do you have to sterilize the hops somehow before tossing them into the secondary? I would think boiling would ruin them.

Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

cheapest place would prb be to keep an eye on your local craigslist and pounce when someone is selling off gear....


sterilize? nope
http://byo.com/departments/1105.html
"The truth is that hops do not provide a supportive environment for most types of bacteria. On top of that, if the hops are added to the primary fermenter after the start of fermentation, any bacteria on them will have a difficult time competing with the vigorously active yeast in the wort. If the hops are added to the secondary fermenter then the alcohol content and the low pH of the beer will suppress bacterial growth. Keeping this in mind, it’s safe to say that bacterial contaminations caused by dry hopping are extremely rare and not worth worrying over. "

Great advice, thanks!:rockin:

Seriously... skip the glass carboy and get a Better Bottle.