Didn't want to be that newb - Please help - fermentation

A little background first. I got into this crazy habit when my wife, against her better judgment, got me a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. I made a couple barely passable Mr. Beer kit brews and a good batch of Apfelwein before I decided this was something I was going to stick with and went ahead and got a better bottle and started looking at better ingredients and kits.
Since then I've brewed a couple batches from Midwest. Hank's Hefe turned out great and I've got an Irish Red ready to taste this weekend, but if the bottling sample is any indication, it's going to be a good one also.
In an effort to branch out and try some different things, I ordered the Dogfish Head 60 min IPA clone from AHS. I got the White Labs yeast to try something new since I had used the Wyeast Activators on the Midwest batches.
On the AHS site they recommended double pitching yeast, but instead of spending the extra cash on that I figured this would be a good opportunity to make my first starter. So on Thursday night I put together 3/4 cup of DME and 3 cups of water along with the yeast.
I didn't see much activity in the starter, but reading on here, I saw that's not all that uncommon so I trusted in the process. The starter smelled OK to me although, obviously, I don't know what a bad starter would smell like.
So I brewed yesterday and pitched the whole starter figuring I didn't want to take a chance on decanting if I wasn't sure what was going on in there.
So now it's about 30 hours later and there's nothing going on in the fermenter. By this point, the Hefe and the Red were going wild. Now granted, this is a much higher gravity beer (1.062 to start) so I'm hoping that's why it's lagging so much, but at the same time I thought that's what the starter was for so it doesn't lag.
Based on the directions, I gave everything a stir today so we'll see. I do have a spare pack of Nottingham, but I don't want to resort to that if I'm freaking out over nothing.

To my main concerns:
Is it typical for bigger beers to lag longer before kicking off?
How long am I safe leaving the wort if my yeasties truly are dead and I need to repitch?

It's a pretty pricey kit, so I certainly don't want to waste it, but I also don't want to go doctoring things if it's just going to take time to get going. I haven't taken a hydro yet since I figured 1 day wouldn't show much.

Thanks

RDWHAHB. Everything will probably be fine. I've had beers take 3 days to start that turned out fantastic. You will never have a beer ferment exactly the same, no matter what the gravity, process, or ingredients. I've brewed identical batches at the exact same time that acted completely different.

Give it 72 hours. If it doesn't do anything by then, you need to pitch new yeast.

What temp are you fermenting at?

Did you take a hydrometer reading yet?

So I day isn't look enough in your mind to take a hydro reading, but it IS long enough to start a panic thread, which could have been avoided by taking said reading.

Sorry, you've already become one of "those" brewers.

#1 https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/, and by visible signs we don't necessarily mean a bubbling airlock. And last I recall, 15 hours is less than 72 hours.

It IS a sticky at the top of the beginners forum for a reason, afterall.

As already stated in the linked sticky, Fermentation often can take up to three days to start. And by visible signs they do NOT mean airlock bubbling.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything," like re-pitching, without taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on?

So wait at least 72 hours and take a grav reading if you are worried still.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

RDWHAHB. Everything will probably be fine. I've had beers take 3 days to start that turned out fantastic. You will never have a beer ferment exactly the same, no matter what the gravity, process, or ingredients. I've brewed identical batches at the exact same time that acted completely different.

Give it 72 hours. If it doesn't do anything by then, you need to pitch new yeast.

What temp are you fermenting at?

Click to expand...

I'm fermenting at ~70. It's in my basement brew room so it stays pretty steady.

And thanks for the newbie thrashing, Revvy. It's well deserved!
I've just had such good luck with my first few batches and the fermenter looked like a maelstrom within 24 hours. Now, high grav, new yeast, first try at a starter, a slow start, and it all sent me down Newbie Panic Lane.

If all is still quiet after work tomorrow I'll do a grav check.

One possibility of lag is temperature.

My first batches, years ago, I paid little attention to temp. They fermented fast, but they were closer to 78F - and although I was proud, I'm glad I don't have any to sample now.

Now I pitch and ferment at 65F or lower. And my lag time is longer. Small price to pay -

So, if this beer is cooler than your other batches, that may also account for the lag time.

@hang When you say your lag time is longer, is that based of hydro readings or watching for bubbles at the air lock? When you ferment colder, the wort can hold more CO2, so it takes longer for the airlock to bubble. So the lag may be the same, just longer percieved lag. Of course this can be confirmed with hydro readings.

They're alive!:rockin:

Much ado about nothing and sorry for the panic. Thanks for the help and reassurance. I went to check this morning, saw a krausen and a bubbling airlock.

@Hang, you make a good point. I don't have a chiller (yet) so I'm using the sink ice bath technique. For my first couple batches I didn't have much ice and did my best to get it down to 80 and went with it. This time, I planned ahead and made some extra ice. So I got the temp down faster and into the 70's before I pitched.

Related to my panic attack, what are some tips for knowing that a starter is behaving as it should? I followed the threads on here and used a 1L bottle and some sanitized foil over the top. I didn't see any bubbling, krausen, etc., but read on here that that's fairly normal for a starter. So my question is, how do you know that the yeast are viable? I got some balloons for next time and figured that way I would at least know CO2 is being generated as a check, but are there other ways to know that everything is happy in there?

SpacemanSpiff said:

They're alive!:rockin:

Much ado about nothing and sorry for the panic. Thanks for the help and reassurance. I went to check this morning, saw a krausen and a bubbling airlock.

@Hang, you make a good point. I don't have a chiller (yet) so I'm using the sink ice bath technique. For my first couple batches I didn't have much ice and did my best to get it down to 80 and went with it. This time, I planned ahead and made some extra ice. So I got the temp down faster and into the 70's before I pitched.

Related to my panic attack, what are some tips for knowing that a starter is behaving as it should? I followed the threads on here and used a 1L bottle and some sanitized foil over the top. I didn't see any bubbling, krausen, etc., but read on here that that's fairly normal for a starter. So my question is, how do you know that the yeast are viable? I got some balloons for next time and figured that way I would at least know CO2 is being generated as a check, but are there other ways to know that everything is happy in there?

Click to expand...

Told you so.

In regars to starters I've answered it here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/how-know-yeast-viable-starter-192595/#post2237181