Trouble Fermenting

Over the weekend I brewed two beers, one was a clone of magic hat number 9 and the other was stone ipa. Earlier this week I had to travel on business but was expecting to have tons of deliciously smelling farts bing produced. Unfortunately, I returned home to nothing, no krausen and no bubbles.

I am hoping someone can tell me this is normal or hat the American ale yeast that I used generally takes longer to start fermenting. Is the beer ruined? Is there anyway to reverse this mishap?

Can you tell us more on your process? What temp were the vessels in? Need a bit more info.

Can you tell us the CURRENT gravities?

Maybe you just missed the fermentation?

+1 on checking your gravity.

Okay got back from work and the gravity for the stone is 1.085 and the start gravity calls for 1.078, so it's not far off.

The magic hat called for an original gravity of 1.53 and mine is at 1.52. Could it be that the wort was to hot before I added the yeast. My thermometer was telling me 110 when I added it. Does this sound like the cause?

If it's been several days and you're still seeing OG-type numbers then you have had zero fermentation. 110 is on the upper end of the range for where you should rehydrate your yeast but I wouldn't ever pitch at that temperature.

I'm no expert but my best advice is to re-pitch ASAP. I am, admittedly, about 5 homebrews in tonight so I'm either at my very best or very worst in judgement.

If you could pull a small sample out however you measured your gravity -- is the wort funky or sour at all?

I have never been in this situation, so I might be completely talking out my arse here, but if it is still sweet and not funky, I would be tempted to re-boil it for just 10 minutes or so, chill to somewhere in the 80's, and then pour about 3 packets of dry yeast in each one.

110 seems way high for pitching. I try to get down to the 70s before pitching.

If it does not smell off or taste off toss some fresh yeast in ASAP and let it do its thing.

110 will kill quite a few yeast strains. You seem to still be at OG with no activity, and you have a huge red flag in your proceedure - get some new yeast and hope for the best.

Okay, I re-pitched both beers and am seeing activity in the IPA. I am hoping to see some krausen in the magic hat clone soon. Since it has such a low gravity should I expect to see a krausen form?

1.052 is not low gravity. I brew some bitters around 1.035. At aany rate, I've never had an ale not have krausen regardless of gravity.

I added the second round of yeast at 5 hours ago. In your experience, when should I expect to see a krausen?

cbpatter said:

I added the second round of yeast at 5 hours ago. In your experience, when should I expect to see a krausen?

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All depends on the amount and type of yeast you pitched, yeast viability, how well you aerated the wort, and your fermenter/wort temp.

Any time from now to two days????

Lots of variables.........

Pez.

Cool. Thanks, will let you know how it goes.

Good news, After the re-pitch it is fermenting very nicely. Both look great and are farting up a storm.

Thanks for the help.

So my beers have been fermenting very nicely for 6 days now. I am concerned however, the magic hat clone seems to have gunk on the top of the krausen, it looks like it could be the hops residue but cannot be positive. Should I be concerned about this gunk? Or is this a result of the Irish moss that the recipe calls for? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sounds like a plain old fermentation to me. Fermentations are ugly and no two look the same, even with the same recipe. I'm guessing you're fine though a pic would help.

cbpatter said:

So my beers have been fermenting very nicely for 6 days now. I am concerned however, the magic hat clone seems to have gunk on the top of the krausen, it looks like it could be the hops residue but cannot be positive. Should I be concerned about this gunk? Or is this a result of the Irish moss that the recipe calls for? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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Dont worry too much about that. All manner of strange things can be seen floating in/on your beer while fermenting. Could be yeast clumps from using Irish Moss, could be hops particles, could be random krausen stuff... Chances are it is completely normal.

It's been a few weeks now and my magic hat clone is about ready to bottle. However, the stone clone is giving a gravity reading of 1.029 and its final gravity calls for 1.017 (OG 1.078). I would like to get it switched over to my secondary but don't know if I should give it a few more days and try to get it down closer to 1.017 or just go ahead and switch it? The beer smells almost like apple cider to me, so I don't think the batch is bad but want to know if it's okay to move and hope the gravity drops Whalen the secondary. Thought?

Since your OG was at 1.085 I wouldn't expect it to drop all the way to 1.017. Personally I'd rack it to the secondary and see if a little action kicks back up. If it stays at 1.029 you should be ok to bottle.