Pitch a little more? Wait a while longer?

I picked up some stuff to make a California Common, then got side-tracked and let it sit in the fridge for 5 months. (what can I say, weddings and stuff). I pitched the White Labs San Francisco Lager yeast a little warmer than I should have, but it is sitting at 65 degrees now. It's been about 16-18 hours with no visible activity.

Give it a while? Since today is a vacation day and tomorrow is back to work - grab another vial?

I don't think 18 hours is long enough to judge whether the yeast is doing it's thing, let it ride for now. You can worry in a few days when it still shows nothing AND hydro samples confirm a lack of fermentation.

I had a batch recently that never bubbled through the airlock (strange), but I could tell the inside temps were warmer than surrounding air so I let it go, turned out my lid wasn't completely closed and it was outgassing somewhere besides the airlock.

Was your yeast sitting around for 5 months? Did you make a starter?

After 5 months, your viability is definitely low...but they shouldn't be dead, unless you pitched into high temps, well above the recommended pitching temps. I'd say give it awhile and you'll probably see something...but another vial will likely jumpstart everything and may improve the beer. If you don't see anything at the 48 hour mark, definitely pitch another vial.

Look into starters. They're super easy and can be done with minimal equipment that you probably all ready have. It'll test your yeast viability, kick off fermentation faster and will allow you to use questionable yeast more effectively.

I would buy new yeast. I used Mrmalty and input 6 months guessing that the yeast was probably near a month old when bought. I used 1.047 as a guess at the OG (from Northern Brewer extract kit recipe). It suggest a 2.48 liter starter using 3 vials of that date on a stirplate.

If you do not pitch more yeast I would not be surprised if you did not see any active fermentation for several days.

I probably should have headed off to my LHBS and simply picked up some more yeast and checked out the toys and stuff. But the yeast is slowly starting to take off. I'm seeing very slow activity after moving it from a spot in the low 60's and over to a spot closer to 70 degrees. Of course the label on the vial said to start it at 70 degrees then bring it down to 60 after a good start. I guess the label is there for a reason.

Under pitched, likely have off flavours and slow fermentation. I'd pitch more yeast.

callmebruce said:

Of course the label on the vial said to start it at 70 degrees then bring it down to 60 after a good start. I guess the label is there for a reason.

Click to expand...

They try to make it idiot proof, but that's really an unattainable ideal.