need a little hepl.....AGAIN

I brewed a Kolsch Saturday....I started my morning at 7am and went ahead and smacked my smack pack of Kolsch yeast. I did a lot of things that day and didnt get through with brewing till 9pm....by this time(I made sure the smack pack pocket had busted earlier) the pack was still the same size as 7 am....I went ahead and pitched it anyway...I put the ferment. in my chest freezer and set the regulator to 60-62 putting the beer at about 63-64 (good Kolsch temp)..It is now Tues. and still no airlock action. Should I wait it out or pitch more yeast....what kind of yeast can I use instead of Kolsch yeast( I have an oreder coming in Fri ..Notingham and Muntons dry) PLEASE give me a little advise sO I can use this weekend to do my brewathon with a clear head!!!!:cross:

The last smack pack I did didn't burst the nutrient packet even though I hit it pretty hard. First advice; relax, man! Is this a bucket or carboy? If it's a bucket, crack the lid and see if there's krausen on top of the wort.

Its a bucket...and no there is no Krausen...

Have you taken a gravity reading to see if it's changed?

yes....seems to be very little if any change..

I also brewed a Kolsch recently and the smack pack didn't swell very much after 2 days. I made a starter and even it took a day to start. I pitched at 65F and fermentation took off within 24 hours.

I would think if you knocked the temp up a bit in the freezer it might get things going...but I don't know.

Think I sould pitch more yeast...if so I dont have anymore Kolsch style yeast(no LHBS in the area)...will dry muntons work????

EdWort...Bobby M any suggestions???

MSbrewer said:

Think I sould pitch more yeast...if so I dont have anymore Kolsch style yeast(no LHBS in the area)...will dry muntons work????

Click to expand...

Muntons will give you a very different beer from a Kolsch...but it will give you beer...which is something you may not have at the moment.

I have had beers take 3 days to start fermenting before and everything turned out fine. I was terrified the whole time, but everything was fine. So, I would be tempted to bump the temp up a little and give it another day.

what you need to do is take it outside to the nearest fruit orchard, put some cheesecloth over the opening and let it take in the wild yeast from the air. That should get it fermenting.....

Would love too except not much round here but cotton, corn, and soybeans

well pretty much any dry yeast will make it beer, as to it fitting your style, not so much. You should always keep a packet of dry yeast around for situations like this. Even if you don't get exactly what you wanted the stuff will be drinkable and not bad.

I did have to throw some fermentis T58 into an english bitter the other day because I forgot to buy the correct yeast when I was at the lhbs.

I say give it a few more days. Patience is a virtue when it comes to brewing...

Out of curiosity, how old was the smack pack? They suggest letting it sit post-smack for 24 hours for every month that the thing is old before you pitch. I pitched a smack pack that was 2 months old, and it took a day and a half before starting to outgas.

Plus, with the yeast attenuation calculator someone posted, it turns out a 2 month old smack pack only has about 54% yeast survival rate or something surprising like that.

After running the numbers and pitching liquid yeast a couple times, I'm going to make starters 100% of the time from now on if I use liquid yeast.

Thank god the not-so-LHBS has absurdly fresh yeast. I picked up the fixings for a fat tire clone and the yeast smack pack was less than a week old!

leave it or pitch more yeast. i personally would just pitch some dry ale yeast and make a kolsch then next time around.

I thank you guys for the info.....I brought the temp up in my lagering fridge to 70F and when I got home from work, well I GOT SOME ACTION.....I know you experienced guys might get a little tired of us (noobs-semi noobs) asking all these questions, but I really appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way..Just opened a BIG package from AHB......3 more extract recipes...Think I might switch to all grain next mont..that is if the wife doesnt kill me first!!