Just Another "My Beer isn't Fermenting" Thread

Alright, so I brewed my first batch of beer this past Wednesday. AHS American IPA I, 5 gallon batch. Rehydrated my Danstar BRY-97 Yeast per instructions and pitched into wort at ~80°F. And then I waited, and waited. I saw very little action in my air lock (3-piece filled with vodka, 6.5 gallon glass carboy), and I saw absolutely no krausen. Yesterday (Day 4) I saw some very small bubbles on the surface of the beer, but at the same time, what little activity I had been seeing in the airlock completely stopped. This is still the case today (Day 5), so I went ahead and took a hydrometer reading. Exactly the same as when I brewed up my batch 5 days prior (~1.057). I do not have any spare yeast, so I went ahead and ordered some online to arrive Wednesday (Safeale S-04). I know...I have read the countless threads just like this one on here over the past few days, and I have tried not to panic, but after 5 days and no activity and a hydrometer reading I feel like I need to repitch more yeast. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

You are doing exactly right. You checked with a hydrometer and will be pitching more yeast.

I guess it's possible that, if you grabbed the packet straight out of the cold fridge and placed it into 105 degree water to rehydrate, it might have messed it up somehow. Just guessing on that one.

I do believe that your wort was about 15 degrees too warm at pitching, but that should not have caused fermentation to fail.

I'd be inclined to repitch as well under these circumstances.

Pitching your yeast at too high a temp can stall out the fermentation. I'd consider re-pitching at this point, and do so at a much lower temp (70 degrees).

Well I have two days to wait for new yeast to arrive. In the meantime I am trying to move the fermenter to a warmer room. It has been at a very stable 64°F (air temp, not wort temp), which is at the low end of the suggested fermentation range for this type of yeast. New location should be closer to 70°F. Thinking of maybe agitating fermenter to resuspend yeast but worried about oxidation. Might as well try something over the next 48 hours.