Dead yeast?

I started a batch Thursday night, I put it in the primary with OG 1.030 it now (36 hours later) has a SG of 1.010. No airlock activity, and no Krausen layer. What's the issue??

Temperature, beer, yeast strain?
Details.

JuiceyJay said:

Temperature, beer, yeast strain?
Details.

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72.4°F, mild American ale, yeast was Nottingham dry yeast rehydrated.

Your gravity dropped. Unless you can attribute that to something other than yeast, yeast did it and are therefore not dead.

Maybe fermentation went pretty fast and you missed it, maybe you have a leak (no airlock activity) and krausen never formed. Either way, I wouldn't worry much. What is the target OG and FG?

swirl it around and let it sit some more. as freisste says, the yeast ain't dead, but notty should drop it more than that. nottingham for an american ale? not the best choice, but it'll work

1.010 is an average FG, especially if you brewed an extract batch.

RmikeVT said:

1.010 is an average FG, especially if you brewed an extract batch.

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if ag, nottingham should bring that down to around 1.006. if extract, 1.010 would be ok

I've never used Nottingham yeast, but 66% apparent attenuation is pretty weak. From an OG of 1.030, it should get down to at least 1.008 (probably even lower) before it is done.

As far as no airlock activity and no krausen? Fast fermentation on a low gravity brew. Perfectly normal.

when you are talking about a low gravity beer, things need to happen in order for it to be even possible to attenuate low as you imagine....extract when used with crystal steeping grain adds dextrins which can not be broken down by the yeast and thus adds gravity...1.010 is pretty typical even though the aa is not.

If this was an all grain batch, you would probably need sub 150F for more >60 minutes in order to achieve >66% aa. it would also be heavily dependant on the grain bill. Anything adding undermentable dextrins, certain sugar chains, etc will not ferment to dryness... Could you post the recipe you used? Sounds like it is just finished fermenting.

I've only been brewing since last January. All but one of my batches has included extract, but the vast majority have attenuated below 1.010.

lumpher said:

swirl it around and let it sit some more. as freisste says, the yeast ain't dead, but notty should drop it more than that. nottingham for an american ale? not the best choice, but it'll work

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It's not exactly an American ale, it's a mix of two recipes, American two row and a few English Malts, fuggles and some American hops.

6 pounds, 2-row mild ale malt
4 ounces, chocolate malt
1--1/2 ounces, Fuggles (pellets) - boil
1/2 ounce, Fuggles (pellets) - finish
Nottingham yeast

Used 2oz of English chocolate malt and 2 oz UK coffee malt

greenman999 said:

72.4°F, mild American ale, yeast was Nottingham dry yeast rehydrated.

Click to expand...

Hate to be "that guy" but 72.4°F, (was that ambient or wort/stick on fermometer temp?) is probably a bit on the high side for Nottingham and I'd imagine the yeast will have had a right old feeding frenzy for the initial 40 something hours. I hope you don't get them but Notty is famed for some rather rude off flavours when fermenting at the higher end of it's temp range.

Ogri said:

Hate to be "that guy" but 72.4°F, (was that ambient or wort/stick on fermometer temp?) is probably a bit on the high side for Nottingham and I'd imagine the yeast will have had a right old feeding frenzy for the initial 40 something hours. I hope you don't get them but Notty is famed for some rather rude off flavours when fermenting at the higher end of it's temp range.

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Oh...it said on the package "62.5°F-80°F for target fermentation"

greenman999 said:

Oh...it said on the package "62.5°F-80°F for target fermentation"

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Here's the blurb on the Danstar webpage for Notty;

Danstar said:

"The recommended fermentation temperature range of this strain is 14° to 21°C (57° to 70°F) with good tolerance to low fermentation temperatures (12°C/54°F) that allow this strain to be used in lager-style beer. With a relatively high alcohol tolerance, Nottingham is a great choice for creation of higher-alcohol specialty beers!"

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http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/nottingham-ale-yeast

greenman999 said:

6 pounds, 2-row mild ale malt
4 ounces, chocolate malt
1--1/2 ounces, Fuggles (pellets) - boil
1/2 ounce, Fuggles (pellets) - finish
Nottingham yeast

Used 2oz of English chocolate malt and 2 oz UK coffee malt

Click to expand...

I would say you are done fermenting...Solid grainbill but to get this sub 1.010 you are going to need to mess with the temps and length of the mashing...

Notty is a great yeast and will take this super low but again, requires enough time during the mash at the correct temperature to break down the polysaccharides into smaller chains which become fermentable...