48 hours, no bubbling, no foaming.

This is my fourth batch, and all my others violently fermented within 24 hours, some just a few hours.
This batch I used a yeast that i had to mix in water and then dump it in the wort.
Is it dead? It looks dead. Can I just put more yeast in? Am I running a risk? I have scowered this site and cant find the answer. Granted, I have only been here for a day and a half. I am worried I might ruin my whole batch. Please help.
Thanks!
J

I'd pitch again. What do you got to lose?

WAIT!!!, you are using a new yeast. many times your yeast can take 72 hours to even start. Also won't always bubble either. Only way you can tell is take a gravity reading in a week.

Wait.

The only true sign of fermentation activity is to take a gravity reading.

What strain yeast did you use? How did you store it? Is there an expiration date?

If you used reasonably fresh yeast, then just be patient.

climateboy said:

Wait.

The only true sign of fermentation activity is to take a gravity reading.

What strain yeast did you use? How did you store it? Is there an expiration date?

If you used reasonably fresh yeast, then just be patient.

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^^^ This.

It is nottingham yeast. I had to activate it in water. It said warm water, but I am pretty sure it was hot water. Could that have killed the yeast?
I purchased the yeast from my lhbs from their cooler. It appeared fresh, and I dont remember seeing an exp date.
I have a bad feeling. Still no action at all.
I did not take a gravity reading at the start(the first time I have not).
The OG was supposed to be 1.054, I just took a reading after 2.5 days and the reading was 1.050.
I think I killed the yeast with hot water. My question is:
What is the negative in pitching more yeast? I dont plan to do it right this second, I just think its a good question and I cant find the answer to it anywhere.

How hot was the water (approximately), and how long did you leave it in there?

It is possible to overpitch, although I don't think two packets of dry yeast is enough to do it. Overpitching can result in a blander flavor profile. More details (and there are many many threads here about this) here.

It was pretty hot. A little steamy, so i let it sit for a few mins and then stirred in the yeast.
Once I had stirred the yeast into the water, i immediately put it into the wort.
I had never done yeast this way. I had always just added the yeast straight from the packet to the wort.
But, this yeast had these directions on the back:
"Add yeast to warm water(85-95 f) before pitching". That was it. It didnt say to wait, or to make sure it wasnt too warm. Ugh.
Seeing those directions, I believed I had done it correctly. Now as the days tick by and my fermentor looks like a quiet, lonely pond at night, I feel as though I must have fudged.

Just pitch the entire sachet of Notty on the beer. Don't bother to rehydrate. You are more at risk for off flavors than any negative consequences from over pitching.

There are those who say it's ok for yeast to take up to 72 hours. This is the exception, especially with a 1.050 gravity beer.

I think you greatly hindered or killed your yeast with hot water. repitch asap.

Thanks. I pitched more yeast last night at 11pm. Its now the next day at 5pm and it is eerily quiet in there. I know that everyone says to give it 48 hours, but i swear that my 4 previous batches were fermenting within hours of the pitch. Something is not right. I dont get it.

Unless the water you rehydrated in was well over 100 degrees the chances of killing the yeast were slim. Pitching the warm yeast into the cold wort may have also shocked the yeast as well, hence the slow start and now the fact that you already re-pitched and still have no activity leads me to believe that you just need to be patient, yes some yeast do take up to 72 hours to get going. I'm sure by this time tomorrow you will be posting back that everything is bubbling away nicely now so relax and have a beer and find something more entertaining to do

I think I have been in your shoes before. You have done all you can at this point. So take the advise of duboman and go have a beer, relax and repeat.

In my recent experience with doing the same recipe (mind you I tweaked it a tad along the way to perfect it) I have gotten an explosive reaction requiring a blow off tube clipped to a small steel pan of water because the foam and crud came up so high but this didn't happen with my recent third batch. All showed signs of activist around day 2 at about 30-40 hour mark. The first two at the 4-5 day mark had hit there End Gravity but my current batch is still 3 points off.

What this has taught me is that using the same methods with an almost identical recipe can still give you different results with your fermentation timeline.

As far as warm water go, I have never risked messing up my yeast by doing anything short of bringing my vial (liquid) to room temp 3-4 hours prior to pitch and shaking it good to mix the sludge up into a easy to pour liquid and pitch, no starter... ever. I like simplicity and this has never steered me wrong. I am sure my fermentation would kick off sooner if I did a starter but its just easier and I don't have to worry about making a mistake on an extra step.

Update: woke up this moaning to the glorious bubble of my airlock, and a nice thick froth.
thank you all for you advice. I will let everyone know how this turns out.

Jragon said:

Update: woke up this moaning to the glorious bubble of my airlock, and a nice thick froth.
thank you all for you advice. I will let everyone know how this turns out.

Click to expand...

I love fermentation and all, but moaning about it seems a bit much.

Hugh_Jass said:

Just pitch the entire sachet of Notty on the beer. Don't bother to rehydrate.

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The yeast companies will do everything to make sure their best product is available to the consumer. I rehydrate per the directions and would recommend doing the same.

Hugh_Jass said:

I think you greatly hindered or killed your yeast with hot water. repitch asap.

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+1

OP: I've used Notty on 3 or 4 different batches and have had bubbling in my airlock within 8 hours each time. If your water was steaming it was probably too hot. The directions say to sprinkle the yeast on the surface. It also explicity states not to stir the yeast for 15 minutes. According to Palmer's How to Brew it has to do with the cell wall chemistry. That's beyond me though.

http://www.danstaryeast.com/sites/default/files/nottingham_datasheet.pdf

Lol. Its a typo. I didn't mean moaning. I think you knew that, and you have a good sense of humor. It was supposed to be morning.

Thanks all!

I know this thread was from years ago! But now I find myself in a similar situation. And I’ve got some questions
I know you said you “pitched more yeast” but what exactly does that mean? Did you just get another packet of dry yeast and throw it into your stagnant must? I’m wondering if I should just throw some more yeast into my carboy since it isn’t bubbling but I keep finding complicated ways of doing this (yeast starters) which probably got me in this situation in the first place. (I also wasn’t accurate with water temps when acclimating yeast)

Nyxsmead said:

I know this thread was from years ago! But now I find myself in a similar situation. And I’ve got some questions
I know you said you “pitched more yeast” but what exactly does that mean? Did you just get another packet of dry yeast and throw it into your stagnant must? I’m wondering if I should just throw some more yeast into my carboy since it isn’t bubbling but I keep finding complicated ways of doing this (yeast starters) which probably got me in this situation in the first place. (I also wasn’t accurate with water temps when acclimating yeast)

Click to expand...

I see that you created a new thread for this, which is the right thing to do (especially because you're making cyser not beer). I answered in that thread -- wondering if you used cider with preservatives in it.