Slow Roeselare start

I brewed a Flanders Red on Sunday and pitched a packet of Roeselare directly into the primary (no starter, as recommended in online forums). I smacked the package the night before and it seemed to swell slightly, but not as much as other packages I have used in the past.

I'm a little concerned because my local homebrew shop didn't have the strain, so I had to order it. When it came the icepack had completely melted and the package was hot (I live in FL).

Anyway, it is now 3 days after pitching and I see no visible activity in the airlock. There appears to be mold and possibly yeast chunks starting to form on the top of the brew though.

What, if anything, should I do?

I have it in a converted chest freezer dialed in at 67 degrees.

sounds like it's starting to show signs of fermentation. your yeast may have taken a heat beating but there were probably lots of viable cells and they took a while to build up their ranks.

Any chance of a bad infection (as opposed to a good infection from the bacteria included in the Roeselare)? Everything I know about brewing in the past has been about pitching plenty of yeast, using starters, etc., all with the goal of getting the fermentation active fast and early to avoid infections.

if your wort went into a sanitized fermentor and the fermentor was sealed after pitching the yeast i would not worry about an infection (outside of the one you introduced). is it in a bucket or carboy? if it's a bucket make sure the lid is on tight.

eastoak said:

if your wort went into a sanitized fermentor and the fermentor was sealed after pitching the yeast i would not worry about an infection (outside of the one you introduced). is it in a bucket or carboy? if it's a bucket make sure the lid is on tight.

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I pitched from a pouch and had full fermentation within 24 hours. Pitched at 70F.

Well, the good news is that on the morning of day 4 I swirled the carboy a bit and by that evening fermentation was fully active. I guess this stuff just takes a while to take off sometimes...

The Roselare Blend and other bacteria don't behave like regular brewers yeast. Expect this to take MUCH longer than you are accustomed to!

The overall viability of the yeast portion of the blend was probably a little lower because it got hot during shipping, and it may have needed a little more time to get going. My friend and I have a batch of belgian golden with the roselare in it, and it was slow for the initial ferment, and several months for any of the bugs to be evident in the taste.

I read that bringing the secondary fermentation temperature to 80 degrees will increase the (good) bacteria growth to achieve noticeable sour flavors in as little as 8 weeks. Has anyone experienced similar results? I've seen references to folks allowing it to sit for a year or more without great results, but I wonder if they kept it below 70?

OFTL said:

I read that bringing the secondary fermentation temperature to 80 degrees will increase the (good) bacteria growth to achieve noticeable sour flavors in as little as 8 weeks. Has anyone experienced similar results? I've seen references to folks allowing it to sit for a year or more without great results, but I wonder if they kept it below 70?

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as far as i know there are no shortcuts to a good flanders red. it's probably true that folks have waited a yr on a red without great results but doing the opposite might not be the answer either. no harm in trying though.