Little or no fermenting. I may have ruined my beer.

Hi Folks,

This is just the second batch of beer I am brewing.

The first was a regular Heffewizen from powder extract. I just went by the directions the person in the store gave me and everything worked out great.

This time I got a little adventurous. Being a geek I wanted to try the Free Beer 3.0 recipe. link. Instead of the Maris Otter grain malt, I used a powder extract. Since the only type of Guarana I could find was in tablet form, I used 30 tabs of guarana extract instead This may have screwed things up also.

I also think my 'cool dark place' may be too warm. It's 80-90 degrees during the day.

Anyhow, it's all been in the primary for 4 days and there doesn't seem to be much fermentation going on. There don't seem to any significant bubbles coming out. There should be about an inch of yeast fermenting up top which is completely absent. So I opened the bucket and stirred it around a little. Also after reading a couple of threads here I put a wet towel and a fan around the primary.

Is there anything else I need to do in order to salvage this batch?

I don't even know what Guarana is, but I do know that 80-90 is way to warm for virtually any kind of beer. (A few Belgian ales are apparently fermented at that very warm temp.)

Looks like you need to do something--probably more than just a wet towel and a fan--if you want to be able to brew in the summer.

You'll be ok at 80 with an ale yeast, it just may create more fusel alcohol and not taste as good as it could. My apartment is set at 78° during the summer and ive had plenty of fermentation.... too much in one case

90° is a bit excessive... more than likely the yeast packet you used was a dud, or your container is not air tight and you just dont see bubbles out the air lock. Rest assured, if you put active yeast in just about any edible liquid with fermentable sugars within reasonable temperature limits... you'll see fermentation.

90° wont kill yeast as I wake them up with a 20 minute bath in 92° water.

I put my yeast into the whole mixture at im guessing about 85 degrees, is this enough to activate it, i moved it directly to a 74.5 degree room. Even though that is the room temperature does that mean its the beers temp?

Muntzster said:

I put my yeast into the whole mixture at im guessing about 85 degrees, is this enough to activate it, i moved it directly to a 74.5 degree room. Even though that is the room temperature does that mean its the beers temp?

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85 is a pretty ideal pitching temp.

During active fermentation, the wort is often several degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. An ambient temp below 70 would be desirable for most ales, IMHO. You can ferment at warmer temps, of course, but it may have an undesired effect on the flavor of your ale.

cweston said:

85 is a pretty ideal pitching temp.

During active fermentation, the wort is often several degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. An ambient temp below 70 would be desirable for most ales, IMHO. You can ferment at warmer temps, of course, but it may have an undesired effect on the flavor of your ale.

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Well i put my yeast in, then put it imediatly in the cold will this be alright?

Muntzster said:

Well i put my yeast in, then put it imediatly in the cold will this be alright?

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Yes, you'll be fine. That's not "cold" anyways.

Fatabbot said:

Yes, you'll be fine. That's not "cold" anyways.

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Alright, i can see the yeast moving on its own at the bottom, and there is the slightest ammount on top of the brew.

Sounds like possibly you didn't aerate your wort? The yeast might be slow to react if you didn't complete that step...but still...that's a nice temp for yeast to get active in.

Exo said:

Sounds like possibly you didn't aerate your wort? The yeast might be slow to react if you didn't complete that step...but still...that's a nice temp for yeast to get active in.

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How long should i have areated the wort, i left it cool for about 10 mins then stirred pretty well once it was all in, then even after adding the yeast i stirred pretty well.

I don't know exactly how guarana extract would impact the yeast. (Mutagenic for bacteria and/or yeast). It contains a lot of caffeine and just about everything I've seen recommends adding coffee in the secondary.

I'd try a really big starter before tossing the batch.